Wisconsin unions

About 4 years ago the State of Wisconsin passed a law saying that union members do not have to pay union dues. Since that time 50% of the teachers and 70% of state union members have stopped paying dues. Some unions are lowering the fees but that does not seem to be working. The American Federation of Teachers, which organized in the college system, saw a 50 percent decline. The 70,000-person membership in the state employees union has fallen by 70 percent. It appears that many members do not feel they were getting their money’s worth. While I have always been a backer of private unions, I do not feel that public unions should be allowed. Here is something I wrote sometime back. While I have long recognized the contribution that unions make to our society, I have always opposed public unions. My opposition is based on the simple fact that public employees have a bloc of voters that can determine elections. Whether it be the teachers electing school board members, county workers electing county commissioners, city workers electing city council members or state workers electing state representatives. In all cases they end up sitting across the negotiating table with the people they helped to elect. In addition government unions are negotiating with tax payer money and it is always easier to spend somebody else money. An example of this conflict is playing out in the news today with the controversy surrounding the Grand Jury verdict in the New York Police case. The district attorney knows he needs the police unions backing to first get elected and second to efficiently carry out his duties. Because of this conflict it is very rare that a police officer will be indicted by a Grand Jury. In spite of the fact that there was the very damming evidence of the video tape, the verdict was still not to indict.