Unions

In the news today is a potential strike by UPS employees. I am for private unions and opposed to public unions. Private unions did the hard work in the late 1880’s and early 1900’s. My dad who was born in 1900 was a teamster for his entire working life. These unions brought the many benefits we enjoy today, things like safer working conditions, elimination of child labor and shorter work weeks. Public unions just started after WW II and have not provided the same benefits to the general population and I will use the MPLS school district to illustrate my point. There are about 3500 teachers and about 3200 staff and some of the staff belongs to the union so there are about 4000 union members. Data shows that to be elected to the school board you need between 55000 and 60000 votes. The teachers union can select someone they feel is pro-teacher and they can elect that person. They and their spouses vote along with the parents and then they have coffee parties, knock on doors and donate funds. Over the past 20 years no teacher endorsed candidate has lost. Now they sit down across the table to negotiate with this elected official with the inference that we elected you and we can re-elect you. The official tells the teachers that the city is short on funds so there won’t be much of a raise but what they can do is increase legacy benefits, things like pensions and insurance after retirement. This is the pattern followed by city, county and state employees and most of these areas now have pension benefits that they cannot afford to pay. While there are problems around the country the most serious are in states that are strongly democratic and have good union leadership, States like New York, Illinois and California. These union negotiators did nothing wrong and were very successful but now many states are unable to meet their commitments. My sister is a retired school teacher in Illinois and she is in particular jeopardy since Illinois teachers opted out of social security and must rely heavily on their pensions. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois taxpayers realize the state is buried in debt.Illinois’ worst-in-the-nation pension systems alone owe at least $130 billion, but now comes a new warning about the high cost of simply managing that debt.In her latest fiscal report, Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka warns that Illinois will see billion dollar payments in interest on the state’s exploding debt.These people are concerned about interest on their debt when interest rates are at historic lows. When interest rates rise the problem will worsen. I am not alone in the belief that Public sector unions are not a good idea. “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” This is a quote from George Meany former president of the AFL-CIO. Here is a quote from FDR. "... Meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the government. All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations ... The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for ... officials ... to bind the employer ... The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives . In private unions the employer is negotiating with private money from stockholders but in public unions the money comes from the taxpayers.