Mar 032011
Dr. Susan Berry puts the Wisconsin row into perspective:
… the table has turned and public sector unions, many of whose members can retire at the ripe old age of 55, with six-figure pensions, are now the “big businesses” of the old sweat shops, while taxpayers are the new “Norma Raes.”
The issue is not over the existence of public unions but their ability to exploit:
[Governor Walker] has not told public unions that they cannot exist, but he has said that they can no longer have dominion over taxpayers, and parents who want the best education for their children.
Nothing new about having elected city, state, local and federal government officials exploit the system with huge salaries and retirement benefits for themselves. The issue is not unions. The issue is the bargainers. In private unions, management and unions are sharing a specific pool of money generated by the product or service that they both respectably generate. Public unions have only an elected official to bargain with. That official does not share the profit or loss in the service that the public union employee performs. Therefore the official is only vested in getting reelected and acts accordingly.