Going after the public sector unions in California:
hat’s how the LA Times is characterizing the latest act in the California budget drama. I would characterize it as “The Unions vs. Fiscal Sanity.”
Reporting from Sacramento – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put organized labor squarely in his cross-hairs in 2010, opening a fight that will largely determine the shape of his final year in office.
Schwarzenegger’s proposals would cut the size of the union workforce, reduce pay, shrink future pensions and roll back job protections won through collective bargaining.
Labor and the unions’ Democratic allies are already girding for battle.
To quote The Matrix, “What do you need? Besides a miracle.”
The news comes on the heels of a report that, for the first time, the number of union members working for the public sector is larger than the number of union members working for the private sector. As one observer told the New York Times, “There has been steady growth among union members in the public sector, but I’m a little bit shocked to see that the lines have actually crossed.”
A crazy person might observe that unionization appears to be associated with growing government and shrinking private industries. Kudos to Schwarzenegger for trying to buck the trend.
Public sector unions are the bane of good government and fiscal sanity – ever since we allowed government employees to unionize (I believe it was back in the 60’s, under JFK, that we let this plague lose in our nation), things have simply gotten worse. Government is more costly, more corrupt, more inefficient because unions don’t exist to produce good work – and with the money unions pour in to Democrat politics, they have a mortal lock on one of the two major political parties.
Think about it: Is a government union ever going to advocate budget cuts? The elimination of a department of bureau? Pay cuts for government workers? Reductions in the gold-plated government employee pension plans? Are unions, to put it bluntly, ever going to advocate policies which help the people as opposed to helping the unions? Of course not.
Public sector unions are driving cities and States in to bankruptcy with their absurd pay and benefits. Public sector unions corrupt our politics by essentially diverting our tax dollars to support people who will jack up our taxes and increase government spending. Public sector unions are no good, and need to be brought to heel.
Schwarzenegger has done a lot of wrong things as governor – but if he carries this fight forward, he’ll have set himself a place in history as a great governor, whatever else happens.
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