State Budget Crises and The Public Employee Unions
The scenes from the state house in Madison, Wisconsin look eerily like those from Cairo and Tripoli. Are they both representative of the common man rising up against dictatorial leaders? I don’t think so. In Madison, or as we called it when I lived in Wisconsin, the People’s Republic of Madison, I see a bunch of public employees trying to use the power of the mob to protect their own wallets and pocketbooks at the expense of the common people. Public employees have long benefitted from weak and unaccountable government leadership and the deep recession has finally brought it to a head.
Our government executives are really not a lot different than those in private enterprise. Perhaps its the short term perspective that has crippled both public and private executives from making decisions that benefit the country as a whole over the long term. CEOs are determined to make their quarterly numbers and keep their jobs while governors and mayors are too focused on winning the next election to upset a sizable voting block called public employees. In heavilly unionized industries and in the government, the situation has been completely out of control.
In the private sector, the unions can shut down the factories. Idle plants do not produce product and no product means no sales. When wage demands go over the top, the only thing to do is to promise benefit packages instead. They are less visible and defer much of the cost to the next generation of leadership, so why not keep the factories running.
The same is true with state and local governments. Government executives not wanting to appear anti-union agree to unreasonable benefit packages, the cost of which will be inherited by future generations of leaders and taxpayers.
The solution is by no means simple. In government and many industries unions hold monopoly power. If a company or government wants people to get the job done, there’s one and only one place to go for it.
Are the unions the bad guys here? I don’t think that either. They represent their members and try to maximize their compensation using any lawful means possible. They are part of the short sighted leadership issue as well. While older union members can look back upon many generations of union membership in a family and even employment in the same factory, that is no longer the case. Pushing the envelope on wages and benefits has destroyed industries and reduced the union rolls. Foreign competition, factories in low cost countries and out-sourcing have been the result.
Local, state and federal governments will face the increasing necessity to out-source work if things don’t change. Our country is a much different place than when unions arose and saved workers from unfair labor practices. The monopoly power now enjoyed by many unions must be revisited.
Public employees, government officials and, most importantly, taxpayers must look at what is at stake here. What we see in Wisconsin is not the little guy fighting for his or her rights against an all powerful government. This is a monopoly trying desparately to hang on to its power at all cost.
Richard Gabel
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