Again, Reid-Pelosi Plan to Expand Government Employee Forced Unionism

On September 4, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Excerpt from NRTW President Mark Mix Op-Ed in the Washington Times (to read the full version, click here):

Today, Big Government, not the private sector, is Big Labor’s bread and butter. That’s why union officials push relentlessly for higher taxes and bigger government and seem completely unconcerned that the policies they advocate will slash overall private-sector job growth in future years.

Just three decades ago, less than a third of all employees subject to “exclusive” union bargaining worked for the government. Earlier this year, the U.S. Labor Department reported that for the first time ever, a majority of unionized workers across America are now government employees.

The outsized power and privileges of government union bosses clearly are a major force behind the unsustainable growth of government payrolls. According to data furnished by respected labor economists Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson, nonunion government employment nationwide actually fell by 2 percent, but Big Labor-controlled government employment grew by nearly 4 percent from 2007 to 2009.

Incredibly, nearly all Democrats and many Republicans on Capitol Hill appear eager to make matters even worse by rubber-stamping legislation (H.R. 413 and S. 3194) that would federally grant public-safety union officials monopoly bargaining privileges over state and local public employees nationwide. (more…)

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Posted in: Economic Development in RTW States, Exclusive Representation, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Legislation, Obama Administration, Op-Ed, Organizing, Police Fire Monopoly Bargaining, Police Firefighters EMTs, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employees
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Washington Post: Police Fire Federal Forced Unionism “A Bad Idea”

On June 16, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Even Washington Post editors oppose forcing police officers and fire fighters into labor unions:

Congress should let states handle their own labor relations

ALL ACROSS America, state and local governments are struggling with recession-induced budget crises as revenue has plummeted and demand for services has remained high. But the issue is not only cyclical. Many public employees have been promised pay, pensions and health benefits that tax bases cannot sustain even in good times. As a result, voters and political leaders of both parties are rethinking the costs and benefits of public-sector unionism.

Except in Congress, it seems. Senate Majority Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is pushing to federalize labor relations between state and local governments and some public-sector unions. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act would require all states to give police and fire unions “adequate” collective bargaining rights — as determined by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. States deemed “inadequate” could wind up in federal court. Long sought by public-safety unions, the bill is supported not only by Mr. Reid but also by Republicans, including the soon-to-retire Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.). It has a good chance of passing if the Senate can fit it on its busy calendar.

What this bill would do is impose a permanent, one-size-fits-all federal solution in an area — public-sector labor relations — that has traditionally been left to the states, and where state flexibility is probably more necessary than ever. The imposition on Virginia would be dramatic, of course, but even union-friendly Maryland, which lets each county decide whether and how to bargain with its employees, might find itself in costly, time-consuming contention with the feds. Farther afield, Colorado’s “fire protection districts,” special units of government dedicated to providing that service, would face costly collective bargaining even where firefighters and management are working harmoniously without it.

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Posted in: Police Fire Monopoly Bargaining, Police Firefighters EMTs
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Government Union Monopoly — the New Tammany Hall

On October 5, 2009, By Post

Fred Siegal and Dan DiSalvo’s intense look at government unions is in the new issue of the Weekly Standard and it is worth a read.  

The authors point out that the grand bargain between the taxpayers and public workers has been violated.  That bargain was an implicit agreement that public sector workers received less pay than their private sector counterparts in return for better benefits and greater job security. No longer.  The authors note “Public sector wages have more than caught up, while the differential between public and private sector benefits has increased so much that public sector work, particularly for the unskilled, is greatly coveted.”

In short, government union bosses have used their power and monopoly bargaining privilege to break the backs of towns, cities, counties, states and the taxpayers.

In the states and cities where government workers’ unions are strong, they have formed alliances with nonprofit advocacy groups such as ACORN and foundations committed to greater government involvement in the economy and society. The Manhattan Institute’s Steven Malanga argues that this constellation of forces is in effect a new Tammany Hall. It is, says Seymour Lachman, a former New York state senator who now heads a center for government reform at Wagner College, “the ward heeler system of Boss Tweed’s Tammany Hall wrapped in some kind of progressive disguise.” The old Tammany, however, was subject to electoral defeats. The new Tammanies have proved self-perpetuating. In California, Governor Schwarzenegger’s ill-organized effort to roll back public sector union power in 2005 led to the muscleman’s first defeat, then his political evisceration, and now the Golden State’s fiscal humiliation. New York City and State are on a similar course. Across the country the new political machine has mostly been aligned with the Democratic party. Some individual unions, however, such as California’s prison guards and New York’s hospital workers, have been protected and advanced by Republicans. Still others play a pragmatic balance-of-power game, forging short-lived marriages of convenience with either political party.

Public sector unions are beginning to strike out on their own, too. If the recent primary elections in New York are any indication, it is only a matter of time before, using the vehicle of the Working Families party (WFP), they take control of New York City government. New York allows third parties on the ballot, and the Working Families party–organized in 1998 as an alliance between labor unions and ACORN–cross-endorses allies in the Democratic party. Yet the WFP is thriving while New York’s Democrats atrophy. In last week’s New York City primaries, WFP candidates for city council won easily, as did the party’s candidates for the city’s second and third highest offices: comptroller and public advocate. Those are the best platforms from which to make a run for mayor of New York City when Bloomberg finally gives up his throne.

Public sector unions bring to the fore what James Madison called “the violence of faction” and its threat to the “permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” This can’t be blamed on the unions; they’re advancing their members’ interests. The fault lies with politicians, particularly those governors and mayors who have been willing to sabotage the public interest to smooth the path to their own reelections.

In the absence of tough-minded reform leaders who will take on the public sector unions, the fiscal future of states and localities is bleak.

And if that isn’t bad enough, Congress is working to expand union boss power over municipal and state employees by federal mandate! 

Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire is the lead cheerleader for an expansion of this federal scheme to impose forced union representation on police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians across the United States.  Gregg’s senate bill S. 1611 is pending in the Senate  (link to fact sheet here)

Contact Senator Gregg at (202) 224-3324 or use his online contact form linked here.

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Posted in: New Hampshire, Police Fire Monopoly Bargaining, Police Firefighters EMTs, Public Employees
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Pandering to Big Labor

On June 12, 2009, By Post

Projo quote of the day:

“This was a big mistake by the Obama administration,” said Cochran. “In 77 years, never has not one federal official attended the mayors’ annual meeting.”

 

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Posted in: Economics, Forced-Dues for Politics, Obama Administration, Public Employees
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