In honor of the Wisconsin recall, a little song by our own Waylon Jennings. There are some lessons in the analogy. Once we were all on the side of the firefighter's unions; once we loved them. Why not? They fought to defend the principle that the firemen who protected us all deserved the best we could give them. Now, well... like the teacher's unions, we find ourselves paying so much for retired members that we can no longer afford to continue the function that originally earned our gratitude and honor.
So here we are.
Here is another version, a little more recent. It makes a nice contrast. Waylon Jennings always wanted the style to change and update with the times; he would have been pleased, I think.
When a union is in there fighting for the rights of policeman who's been targeted for firing for political reasons, or a fireman who's facing retaliation for raising a stink about needlessly unsafe working conditions, I'm in their corner. But you can't have a public worker union that uses the power of the state to mandate membership and dues collection, and then uses the money to lobby the state to increase comp and benefits. There's no feedback mechanism to keep that machine from spinning out of control and demanding the socialization of greater and greater percentages of the economy. At least a private-sector union has to control its appetite a bit in order to avoid killing the host.
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell, that is why I think the public unions must go. It's also why I can't get too exercised over unions in the private sector.
ReplyDeleteIn the former, the taxpayer has little to no say in funding the entity, beyond writing the check to the government. In the latter, the consumer has the ultimate veto power.
Agreed, but even private unions must not enjoy state sponsorship in the form of mandatory dues.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, says the IBEW apostate who figured out early in life that looking busy and waiting for your turn for a promotion was not the land of freedom his father described. So he quit the job, left the union Snuggly and never looked back.
ReplyDeleteIf right to work, as in right to work legal protections provided in the state laws, Georgia and Texas being but two of the, IIRC, ≈24 states with RTW laws, is not a right, what is? A daily condom?
*shakes head and wonders how we all fell through the rabbit hole and only recently noticed*
But you can't have a public worker union that uses the power of the state to mandate....
ReplyDeleteNor can you have a union of any sort whose members lie to their employer about where they are and why they're absent form their job so they can join protests--and bring the children they were entrusted to teach along with them--as the Wisconsin teacher's union did a bit over a year ago.
Such unions should be certified.
Eric Hines
"At least a private-sector union has to control its appetite a bit in order to avoid killing the host."
ReplyDeleteUAW and GM. It takes being on the verge of complete collapse for them to realize that, and in the case of GM, they managed to actually come out owning a big part of the company, and having the taxpayer save it. Somehow, I think they've figured out how to rig that side of the game too.
"Somehow, I think they've figured out how to rig that side of the game too."
ReplyDeleteCould not have happened without the Enabler in Chief, his Consorts, and some Fast/Loose with those officiating over the Bankruptcy legalese.
Gonna take a long time for the taxpayer to scrape that off the shoe.