This has been a difficult year for government workers across the country, who are fighting uphill battles to hang on to their pensions and stable salaries — and it’s not over yet.
From California to Pennsylvania, workers are facing efforts to sharply curtail the job security and benefits they have enjoyed for years, perks long viewed as compensation for the sometimes lower salaries in the public sector.
Now, the perks that came with being a firefighter or a teacher have become a target, not only for conservative lawmakers but for Democrats under pressure to make deep cuts in government budgets.
Experts note a marked loss of public support for government workers and their powerful unions, a sentiment shared by conservative activists eager to weaken organized labor. And never have they been more confident than this week, when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, R, fended off a recall attempt orchestrated largely by unions outraged at his efforts to end collective bargaining for most public employees and teachers.
“We absolutely intend to use this going forward,” said Brendan Steinhauser, spokesman for FreedomWorks, a tea party organization that has been working to undercut public employee unions’ power through state legislatures. The group views the failed attempt to unseat Walker as a powerful motivator for other Republican governors.
The message, Steinhauser said, is: “Be bold, be a leader, be a conservative and you’ll be rewarded.”
Wisconsin is one of several places where public employees have become targets this year. In California, San Diego and San Jose residents voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to cut pension benefits for city workers. The votes followed dramatic steps to curb union power in Indiana and Louisiana, and efforts by some in Congress to freeze salaries and whittle away benefits for federal workers.
Lawmakers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are considering legislation that would weaken teachers unions. And some conservatives plan to push Republican leaders in Michigan, where lawmakers have had limited success curbing union power, to redouble their efforts after Walker’s victory next door.
Public workers have also borne much of the brunt of job cutting in recent years. Since June 2008, state and local governments have shed more than 500,000 jobs. And while the private sector has experienced some recovery, public-sector job losses continue to mount.
Karen McDonough, who has worked in the city of San Jose’s environmental services department for two decades, said before Tuesday’s vote she tried to change voters’ minds by telling them her version of the story: that she is a hard-working senior employee who had gone years without a pay raise.
“The response I got the most was ‘I don’t get a pension. Why should you?’ ” McDonough said in an interview Thursday. “I tried to explain to them that [the pension] is part of our total compensation, that we don’t get stock options and bonuses. We’re just different. That is not something they’re interested in hearing anymore.”
Public employee unions, which became the heart of the labor movement with the decline of manufacturing unions, have lost the public relations battle, experts say. Once viewed as middle-class stalwarts who labor for the common good, government workers now are often seen as unwilling to make the same sacrifices as their counterparts in the private sector.
“I think that it’s the fault of the unions themselves for failing to recognize they are out of step with the public sympathies,” said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Massachusetts. “There is a perception that, through their political influence, they are getting a special deal. They’re doing well while others are not.”
Union officials contend that the public is not aware of the sacrifices government employees have made. Federal workers’ pay rates, for example, have been frozen for the past two years — although raises for individuals still are allowed for promotions and some other reasons — and most new employees hired starting next year will contribute a greater proportion of their salary to retirement benefits.
On the state level, they say, public employees are being attacked and scapegoated by organized labor’s political foes. Some union officials agree that they are partly to blame for the unfriendly atmosphere — that over the years, as the percentage of Americans belonging to unions has declined, they have not done enough to convey the important role unions play in the community. But they also note that in many of the battles they’ve fought and lost, including the one in Wisconsin, they were vastly outspent by their opponents.
“It’s clearly going to have some impact when you have the relentless attacks like we’ve seen,” said Steve Smith, a spokesman for the California Labor Federation. “But at the end of the day these are firefighters, teachers, police officers, neighbors, local heroes.”
In San Diego and San Jose, voters overwhelmingly supported measures to reduce pension plans for city employees. In San Jose, with the Democratic mayor’s support, 70 percent of voters backed the plan. Proponents said the measures would bring their pensions in line with earners in private industry.
That tide has swept the country, led by Republican governors. This year, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill establishing Indiana as the nation’s 23rd “right to work” state, which prevents unions from charging nonunion members mandatory dues. In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed through a series of bills targeting teacher tenure and salaries. The next battle may unfold in Michigan, where union backers are vowing to enshrine collective-bargaining rights in the state constitution.
Some Democratic leaders also have been butting heads with their public employee unions. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called for a suspension of the automatic cost-of-living increases granted to retirees, and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is seeking to cut the pensions of current state workers.
In Pennsylvania, advocates of school vouchers are fighting a pitched battle with teachers unions. The conservative activists behind the push say it is a two-pronged effort to bring about a policy change while delivering a blow to the unions.
The Tea Party engages in hypocritical self centered policies!
While claiming a constitutional foundation of liberty they engage in taking away the rights of citezens to activly engage in collective bargaining representation, for their own self centered dodging of their tax obligation.
You don’t see anyof them waving banners saying dont plow my road (I’ll take care of it)!
It’s all ” plow my rd for free” !
Tight wad free riders everyone of them!
Agreed. Welcome to the new republiKan brand of socializt slavery. Those with the most will dictate what THEY will pay for any service. Just be happy you have ANY job! Enjoy your bread and gruel peasants.
Hate to burst your bubble, but California is a solid blue state – look at what happened in San Jose and San Diego. It was the voters in San Jose and San Diego that carried the day not the Tea Party. And are you aware of the fact that private unions in New York are supporting Governor Cuomo’s fight against public unions?
This issue is an economic issue and voters of all political persuasions are coming to terms with the fact that the generous benefits granted to public employees are unsustainable and need to be reined in.
Thats right folks, you are under attack by the whealthiest men in America and they have their militia of voters mezmorised by Millions of Dollars of subliminal messages bombarding them daily!
When the attack stops and you come to your senses you will see that you will STILL be paying to take out your trash and instead of thru Taxes employing people in your community it will be another monthly bill paying double for the newly franchised
( Wal- Trash}
Perhaps you didn’t read the story. It isn’t the Tea Party doing this. It is government run by Republicans, Democrats backed up by the vast majority of voters.
I hate to tell ya but your comment is rather (Cheesy)!
Have a good day !
Huh!
{The conservative activists behind the push say it is a two-pronged effort to bring about a policy change while delivering a blow to the unions. }
The rights of public employees are whatever the taxpaying voters say they are. Noone is taking away ‘constitutional’ rights. Remember that public employees are just exactly that….employees of the public. Therefore, the employee doesn’t get to demand what he wants like a kid throwing a tantrum. He takes what is offered or finds another job.
So the “taxpayer” gets to throw the Tantrum!
LOL
These people are trying to make a living just like you.
Lighten up, you would think that they hold a gun to the Taxpayers head or something.
You do know what the term “”Agreement”” means don’t you!
Here is another one to look up, “Negotiate”
I’m a retired public employee and union member. I know what I’m talking about.
_____
So Am I!
Someone needs to help you see just what happened to those folk’s who started asking question’s about the Penguin’s little beach club, and his sudden ‘tree farm’, that got hauled into public questioning. You really think their still on the job after having to answer a lot of questions that, at a minimum, got the Penguin’s finance’s put under a microscope ?
And it’s not just politician’s either. ALL PUBLIC EMPLOYEE’S are subject to the Garrity Ruling in which they MUST ANSWER ANY QUESTION PUT TO THEM under penalty of losing their job for refusing to answer on the grounds of insubordination. So much for their 4th, 5th and 6th Amendment Right’s ! Garrity provides only that the public employee ask for a lawyer, a collective barginning agent representative (such as a Shop Steward of Official) or some acting in that capacity pending such representation arriving before making a statement. The only actual protection Garrity provides is that any statement the public employee (Note; Contracted worker’s to the State DO NOT GET THIS !) makes CAN NOT, BY LAW, be used against them in any criminal proceeding. It does however provide that the statement may be used against the employee in any administrative proceeding. But Garrity does offer one step that is unique, that being that any statement made may be later amended WITHOUT THE EMPLOYEE BEING SUBJECT TO A PERJURY OR FALSE STATEMENT CHARGE, EITHER CRIMINALLY OR ADMINSTRATIVELY . There have been a great many public employee’s ‘bum hustled’ into giving a statement regarding something that occured, and gotten fired because of that statement, that was later used against them simply because the employee wasn’t afforded the RIGHT to amend their statement to include added fact’s and circumstance’s that weren’t made a part of the original record at the outset. You, sir, sound like a ‘bum hustler’. And we all know where they come from and what they feed off of.
Public employee’s, you folk’s and your Local Shop Official’s, Business Agent’s and Counsel’s need to be sure that your people know what they can, and can not, be required to do in the event they get involved in something that they’ve seen turn into something ‘stupid’ just so the Foreman or ‘Super’ can CYA when the DOL Accident Investigation start’s. Once done, it’s almost impossibe to un-do. An educated Worker is a safe, and smarter, Worker. And is far less likely to get into trouble as well.
Just so you’ll know Mike, I am a retired public employee, and was a career long union member. I now work in the private sector and am a small business owner. I’ve been on both sides of this issue and I stand by my statements. But thanks for your reply.
_____
Dlbrt, while you may need some coffee, quickly from the looks of your spelling, you are 100 % dead on target. The supposed Tea Party Revolt against the Government worker’s nonsense is going to do nothing more than cause a more rapid loss of government services when the Gov’t itself starts out-sourcing these same jobs to the private sector. Private sector outsourcing ALWAYS results in an immediate, short term, savings but ALWAYS winds up costing a whole lot more when the private sector starts ‘jacking up’ the contract’s price’s at every turn when they realize they have no one to compete against. In short, once Gov’t job outsourcing start’s, the private sector feels that they have a monopoly and start raiding the Gov’t pocketbook on the basis of ‘ If we don’t do it. who are you going to get to do it ? So go screw off and let us get back to stealing.’ . How many Gov’t service vendor’s have been caught, red-handed , stealing from the Gov’t that is supposed to be looking out for our interest’s ? Here in Maine it would be VERY interesting to see just what the State Auditor has found regarding State service vendor’s over the last 2 year’s.
Is there a need to reform government, at all level’s, to get the, as most aptly described phrase put’s it ‘Bang for the buck’ ? Sure is. And the one’s to listen to are the very workers that the Tea Party and the GOP OUTSOURCING CONTRACTOR’S, who stand to be let loose with the Gov’t checkbook, and no one held accountable, are so violently trying to replace, if not outright fire, on the old whining cry of ‘You’re fat, lazy and you don’t know what you’re doing so who needs you’. Folk’s, some of you need to seriously sit down and actually read, and see where, this type of nonsense winds up and think about the impact this type of ‘My way or the highway’ thinking is going to lead. It is also time for you to actually think, not react, to just what your elected official’s have been doing regarding this type of reform. Have any of them actually sat down and worked with the union’s to find better, cheaper, and maybe unconventional, means of getting these same jobs done more efficiently ? That I’ve seen, to date, not many, if any. The usually heard ‘Well, that’s the way we’ve always done it so why change’ speech is running, if the tank’s not already dry, outta’ gas.
And this constant public worker bashing isin’t going to make reform any easier, much less likely, when all it does is make the public’s position on needed reform’s, that we all agree are needed, almost impossible to discuss, much less actually make it happen and monitor. The much pointed out need to re-build Maine’s bridge’s and roadway’s is a prime example of the opportunity for this reform and use of private sector contracting, under a State Construction Program, is the best example of the type reform that’s needed. But what Gov’t can actually make this type of program work when the very people that we, as taxpayer’s, need to get the job done are being thrashed, openly and publicly, to within an inch of their lives just because someone, who has a personal, and economic, agenda that DOES NOT include the public’s best interest, wants to raid the public checkbook for personal gain ? Reform, yes. But know the true cost before you sign on that dotted line ! The pocket that get’s picked may be closer to you than you think…………..
Why not let the private sector enjoy some of the union benifits for a change.
And that’s what collective barginning provides for. Negotiation for benefit’s thru a unified labor position. A bit over the top, I’ll admit, but it does make the point. And that point is exactly what the GOP and TP’rs DO NOT WANT HAPPENING. God forbid that the private sector ever finds out just what kind of real crap, not this politically inspired made-up-from-thin-air fantasy stuff , that all Government worker’s have to go thru on a daily basis.
It’s a common working condition, to the point of daily idiocy, and THE main reason that public sector union’s have been founded, that Government worker’s are constantly threatened with a ‘suspension’ when we catch a Supervisor or Manager, with their financial ‘hand’s in the ’till’, when they are also the Contract Awarding Official who signs off on the Contract, when Gov’t employee’s are subjected to ‘maximum supervision’ because we found a way to get the job done better than the Foreman or ‘Super’ did it 20 years ago that they ‘just don’t like’, or worse, the Government worker finds out that a State Official is ‘dirty’ and gets fired simply because they did what they, as both a State employee, and a taxpaying citizen who also VOTE’S, stood up and said ‘Oh, hell no !’ when they are asked about their knowledge later in front of a House or State Senate Committee or in open Court.
But what really burn’s my butt, and should do the same to your’s, is the fact that our Elected Official’s, AT ALL LEVEL’S, simply ASS-U-ME that everything they are told is as it is told to them. Being elected means that these Official’s are supposed to be looking out, in the field and not hiding in Augusta, for the voter’s and citizen’s, not a bunch of self-serving (and clearly intended to) bureaucrat’s who are doing everything they can to CYA when thing’s don’t go right. Such is life folk’s so get over it ! It’s high time that the State Government stop abusing the very resource, their own people, they need to accomplish the State or Local Government’s publicly mandated goal. Talk to these worker’s and quit screaming and bad mouthing them simply for doing what the rest of us are trying to do as well, namely raising our familes and being citizen’s. Who know’s, you just might learn something that you didn’t know before……………..
Sit down and check out the Republican website as to the background of these Representatives. Almost everyone has a buisness and now idle time to run it from Augusta!
I am sure that they would rather have services provided for the citizens from their “club house” constituency
One of my favorites was a Republican Representative from Lisbon who owned a guide buisness who introduced legislation to Raffle off Moose Hunting Permits to guides only!
Dilly, don’t you just love it when they step on their own ‘too-too’ in the closet and say ‘Okay, who stepped on my foot ?’ in the dark ? Bring’s a whole new meaing to ‘coming out of the closet’ doesn’t it ?
Sorry about the spelling I have a braille keyboard and my fingers slip sometimes
Like the rest of us, use what you got the best way you can and make the best of the opportunity’s that present themselves. HOOYAH !
“It’s clearly going to have some impact when you have the relentless attacks like we’ve seen,” said Steve Smith, a spokesman for the California Labor Federation.
Relentless attacks? Did you see what your radical friends in Wisconsin did over the past year? The “attacks” you have endured are but a tickle fight by comparision.
The taxpayer is finally seeing the numbers (thank you, new media!) and they are acting appropriately to make some overdue adjustments. Public employees, thanks to the public unions that channel campaign contributions, voluteers, and turn-out to only those politicians who will lay down in collective bargaining talks, are paid better and receive lavish benefits in comparision to the median taxpayer. It is time to right this ship.
It is called Fairness!
Aw, the numbers as supplied by Bruce Poliquin and Maine Heritage, real reputable sources.
This article by Carol Hill says it all:
Modern law, coupled with modern communication and an abundance of lawyers, have rendered labor unions obsolete. We are no longer in danger of having seven-year-olds work 12-hour shifts in unsafe sweatshops for pennies a day. That said, I have no objection to private sector unions as long as membership and employer participation are entirely voluntary. However, public sector unions, or government employee unions, should never have been allowed to exist in the first place.
There is a world of difference between the governing and private sectors of our society, and hence a world of difference between the effects of government and private sector unions, and it is that difference that makes government unions not only impractical, but incompatible with governments deliberately designed to protect the legitimate rights and legal equality of all citizens.
While Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that some organization of government employees was “logical” since they shared the same desires for adequate pay, reasonable working conditions, (etc.) as other workers, even FDR saw the distinction between public and private sector workforces as making public sector unions a bad idea. In 1937 he wrote:
“All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has distinct and insurmountable [emphasis added] limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer…. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives….” [Emphasis added.]
Roosevelt also disapproved of public employees going on strike, noting that, ”Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees.” (I wonder what FDR would have thought about last year’s protests by Wisconsin’s public employees?)
As FDR saw, the main problem with government unions is that citizens working for governmentare still citizens, with the same voting rights as every other citizen–in other words, by their right to vote, government employees are in effect both management and labor. When private sector unions negotiate, the companies they are negotiating with are making decisions that affect only their own money. However, when government unions negotiate, the “management” they are negotiating with is “we, the people”, or more precisely, with elected officials who, as a result of both public and private sector citizens’ votes, not only represent both labor and “management,” but are making decisions that affect other people’s (taxpayers) money.
If even FDR could see and warn against the disruptive nature of public sector unions on our governments, not to mention the ultimately corrupting influences on our political processes, how can any government union even pretend to claim legitimacy, let alone rationalize their now outrageous claims on the public purse? The average government employee is far better compensated than the average private sector employee, and far, far better compensated when benefits like health insurance, retirement, paid vacations, sick days, personal days, numerous paid holidays, and job security are taken into consideration.
Just who do government employees think is the “management” that is getting rich by “exploiting” their labor? As already noted, by myself and even FDR, management is “we, the people,” specifically taxpayers, who have every right to determine not only how much we want to pay for any given service, but whether or not we want a particular service at all.
Allowing bureaucrats and other government employees to unionize distorts their relationship to the body politic, undermining the freedom, property rights, and voting rights of other citizens. It also diminishes their understanding and appreciation of wealth creation, which is, of course, the exclusive province of private sector markets. No matter how important their job might be, government employees need to remember that their jobs cannot exist without the surplus wealth, or profits, created in the private sector.
The idea that one group of citizens (government employees) have a right to use their vote to dictate their wages and terms of employment to their fellow citizens –through elected officials who have an obligation to represent all citizens– simply means that “some citizens are more equal than others.”
Thomas, someone really needs to re-read their history. FDR might not have liked the idea of a gov’t union but he saw, as did everybody else in Gov’t at that time, that it was inevitable that the growth of the Gov’t was going to generate a labor – management environment. Carol Hill, by the way, is an almost required reading author in most of the far right-wing university’s and Business School’s. Like the one’s that the National HPC supports along with very healthy donations and endowment’s from the Koch Brother’s and like minded contributor’s.
Ms Hill paints the Gov’t work environment as a kind of Utopian-like workplace, like some kind of bee’s nest where everybody is so involved with what they are doing that they don’t see, or have the time, to appreciate what’s going on around them. Someone either forgot, or deliberately left out, the fact that human being’s work in Gov’t. As such their is always the presence of an abusive ego rising to the Management level and using their ego to abuse their position, and the people who are under them, for personal gain and enjoyment. Anyone needs proof just look at the recent Cheney / Libby / Plame-Wilson mess that was made over the last 3 years. That’s what you get when you unleash a sick ego on the American public, and it’s damage to the Country’s workforce is seen for what it’s worth.
In one of Jimmy Carter’s VERY FEW instance’s of sanity he enacted the Federal Labor Relations Statute ( 5 U.S.C. 73 ) and made worker involvement in the actual running of, and particiapation in, the Federal workforce a legal requirement. The Statute is v-e-r-y specific in it’s application and authority. It also provides for exclusion’s, as some are both obviously and clearly required. And it actually worked, all the way until 2002 and Bush’s suddenly needed ‘National Security’ emergency. Bush destroyed the Civil Service, and with it any hope of a motivated and dedicated Federal, and both State and Local workforce since they tend to follow the Federal Model, workforce with his suddenly declaring that the ‘old Days of the Civil Service can’t meet our present needs’. What crap ! Bush just didn’t want to hear any possible options that he would have had to listen to. It was pure ‘My way or the Highway’ personnel management, i.e., ‘At Will’ employment and everyone now had to kiss the boss’s rump if they wanted to keep their job. Add to that fact was the Cheney Fan Club, which was more than ready to take control of the Gov’t thru Contracting out (and raping the Federal Budget for over the last 10 year’s in the process) and we all got a real good taste of just what happens when the Gov’t’s management decides just what’s ‘in the public’s best interest’. No, Scott Walker may have won the recall vote in Wisconsin, and by extension LePage and Company, but they might have done more for the labor movement than any other GOP figure since Reagan. Wisconsin was the fuse and the GOP might have just lit it while sitting on the keg of gunpowder. And everytime that Romney opens his mouth and start’s saying that it’s the Gov’t employee’s fault that gov’t is screwed up, he’s just cutting that fuse shorter and shorter for the voter’s to see just who’s getting ready to ‘jump in’ the Federal, and other Gov’t worker’s, to another 4 year’s of raping the public’s best interest in the name of the public. Sooner or later, that’s gonna get old. And when it does, well, it’s gonna get U-G-L-Y !
{We are no longer in danger of having seven-year-olds work 12-hour shifts in unsafe sweatshops for pennies a day.}
Wake up! Our competition in China does and they say we need to be competitive!
30 years ago No one went into the public sector because the pay stunk!
Now its about the same pay and everyone thinks that they are over paid!
That shouldn’t be to hard to fiquere out who the real culprit is!
….