Reaction to the recall election in Wisconsin will be reverberating for a while.
For the record, my roots are on both sides of the controversy. My father was a union organizer in the 1930s. I worked in corporate public relations on the management side of a half-dozen strikes.
Unions can check stupid managers and keep people like office-building janitors from being exploited. Unions win more than half of certification elections and companies whose employees vote for a union – in a fair, secret-ballot election — usually deserve what they get.
The larger impact is that the threat of unionization gives smart businesses an incentive to treat employees well. Whether WalMart has a union is irrelevant (except to union bosses) so long as WalMart continues to give its employees a better deal than the union offers.
Collective bargaining works when there’s a balance of power and a level playing field. Workers are at a disadvantage when management holds all the cards, and they lose jobs when unions have enough power to make a business uncompetitive (as in the steel and automotive industries).
The market forces that balance labor and management in private business do not exist in the public sector. Collective bargaining for government employees is a stacked deck: Unions contribute to the politicians who negotiate their contracts and usually control both sides of the bargaining table.
State and local governments have no competition, cannot go out of business and are unwilling to take a strike. Government officials are under pressure to preserve labor peace by giving in to the unions… and besides, it’s not their money.
For many years public employees were not well paid but were guaranteed job security instead. The “right” to collective bargaining for government employees was considered redundant and did not emerge until the late 1950s. It’s worth noting that federal employees do not have the same “right” to bargain for pay and benefits. You don’t see downtrodden employees from the GSA picketing the Capitol.
Paying teachers and firefighters a little more sounded fair enough. But now government employees, on average, get higher pay and dramatically better benefits than private-sector workers. Years of exponentially unsustainable pensions and benefits have brought some states to the debt levels of Greece: forcing them to cut public services to support lavish pensions for youthful retirees. Taxpayers were bound to push back sooner or later.
Pushing back is difficult because public employee unions are a self-perpetuating political engine. Revenue from union dues purchases political influence to create jobs and privileges for government employees, all at taxpayer expense. Government, in effect, has become its own special interest that dominates the political landscape.
It may be no accident that much of the 2009 federal stimulus went to “create and save” local and state government jobs. A percentage of the borrowed billions went for union dues and was contributed to the politicians who voted for the stimulus. Sweet!
Ultimately, the donnybrook in Wisconsin was about regime change and not workers’ rights. The existential threat was that union membership for public employees became voluntary instead of mandatory. Dues collection dropped sharply and that hit union bosses and their pet politicians in their pocketbooks. Wonder how many public employees who chanted outside the state capitol last year have quietly stopped paying their union dues?
At the same time the people of Wisconsin were retaining their governor, two California cities overwhelmingly voted to reduce pensions for city employees because skyrocketing pension costs were forcing cuts in services.
In the weeks to come we will hear a lot about the woeful plight of government workers in Wisconsin. Taking something away from people, however privileged, is a legitimate cause for anger — especially if their leaders tell them they have a constitutional right to all those perks. There will be a lot of emotional hyperbole because picket-line theater is what unions do and they’re good at it. I found it challenging to be a management spokesman during strikes because unions have all those great songs about solidarity.
If it’s any consolation, these unfortunates will still be paid more than their private-sector counterparts. They will contribute more to their pensions but not as much as their neighbors who work for private business. Government workers will still be mostly fireproof, though some agencies may hold them accountable for performance. (Oh, the injustice!) Most important, they still have jobs because the new reforms have enabled local governments and school districts to avoid layoffs. They also may have more money in their pockets because they no longer have to pay union dues and their property taxes aren’t going up. Armageddon it’s not.
The union explanation of the Wisconsin recall is that Republican money won the election, which implies that voters had nothing to do with it. Including, I suppose, the 37% of union members who voted for Gov. Walker.
In election-night TV coverage, one of the union supporters wailed that Gov. Walker’s victory is the end of democracy. It looks to me like democracy is working just fine.
Democracy in Wisconsin
Reaction to the recall election in Wisconsin will be reverberating for a while.
For the record, my roots are on both sides of the controversy. My father was a union organizer in the 1930s. I worked in corporate public relations on the management side of a half-dozen strikes.
Unions can check stupid managers and keep people like office-building janitors from being exploited. Unions win more than half of certification elections and companies whose employees vote for a union – in a fair, secret-ballot election — usually deserve what they get.
The larger impact is that the threat of unionization gives smart businesses an incentive to treat employees well. Whether WalMart has a union is irrelevant (except to union bosses) so long as WalMart continues to give its employees a better deal than the union offers.
Collective bargaining works when there’s a balance of power and a level playing field. Workers are at a disadvantage when management holds all the cards, and they lose jobs when unions have enough power to make a business uncompetitive (as in the steel and automotive industries).
The market forces that balance labor and management in private business do not exist in the public sector. Collective bargaining for government employees is a stacked deck: Unions contribute to the politicians who negotiate their contracts and usually control both sides of the bargaining table.
State and local governments have no competition, cannot go out of business and are unwilling to take a strike. Government officials are under pressure to preserve labor peace by giving in to the unions… and besides, it’s not their money.
For many years public employees were not well paid but were guaranteed job security instead. The “right” to collective bargaining for government employees was considered redundant and did not emerge until the late 1950s. It’s worth noting that federal employees do not have the same “right” to bargain for pay and benefits. You don’t see downtrodden employees from the GSA picketing the Capitol.
Paying teachers and firefighters a little more sounded fair enough. But now government employees, on average, get higher pay and dramatically better benefits than private-sector workers. Years of exponentially unsustainable pensions and benefits have brought some states to the debt levels of Greece: forcing them to cut public services to support lavish pensions for youthful retirees. Taxpayers were bound to push back sooner or later.
Pushing back is difficult because public employee unions are a self-perpetuating political engine. Revenue from union dues purchases political influence to create jobs and privileges for government employees, all at taxpayer expense. Government, in effect, has become its own special interest that dominates the political landscape.
It may be no accident that much of the 2009 federal stimulus went to “create and save” local and state government jobs. A percentage of the borrowed billions went for union dues and was contributed to the politicians who voted for the stimulus. Sweet!
Ultimately, the donnybrook in Wisconsin was about regime change and not workers’ rights. The existential threat was that union membership for public employees became voluntary instead of mandatory. Dues collection dropped sharply and that hit union bosses and their pet politicians in their pocketbooks. Wonder how many public employees who chanted outside the state capitol last year have quietly stopped paying their union dues?
At the same time the people of Wisconsin were retaining their governor, two California cities overwhelmingly voted to reduce pensions for city employees because skyrocketing pension costs were forcing cuts in services.
In the weeks to come we will hear a lot about the woeful plight of government workers in Wisconsin. Taking something away from people, however privileged, is a legitimate cause for anger — especially if their leaders tell them they have a constitutional right to all those perks. There will be a lot of emotional hyperbole because picket-line theater is what unions do and they’re good at it. I found it challenging to be a management spokesman during strikes because unions have all those great songs about solidarity.
If it’s any consolation, these unfortunates will still be paid more than their private-sector counterparts. They will contribute more to their pensions but not as much as their neighbors who work for private business. Government workers will still be mostly fireproof, though some agencies may hold them accountable for performance. (Oh, the injustice!) Most important, they still have jobs because the new reforms have enabled local governments and school districts to avoid layoffs. They also may have more money in their pockets because they no longer have to pay union dues and their property taxes aren’t going up. Armageddon it’s not.
The union explanation of the Wisconsin recall is that Republican money won the election, which implies that voters had nothing to do with it. Including, I suppose, the 37% of union members who voted for Gov. Walker.
In election-night TV coverage, one of the union supporters wailed that Gov. Walker’s victory is the end of democracy. It looks to me like democracy is working just fine.
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