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Throughout
American history -- and as recently as the 1950s -- there were no
unions for government workers. Public-sector employees were expected to
earn a bit less than their private-sector equivalents. The reasons
they did so included an interest in public service, job security and
reasonable benefits.
But
that changed in the late fifties with New York City Mayor Robert
Wagner's cynical appeal to the votes of city workers. He signed an
executive order authorizing them to unionize, and soon other local and
state Democrat legislators around the country followed his lead.
These
efforts culminated in 1962, when President John F. Kennedy granted
federal employees the right to collectively bargain. Since then, public
sector union membership has skyrocketed while, in the private sector,
unions have fallen out of favor.
In 2009, private sector union members were outnumbered for the first time by their public sector counterparts.
The
historical basis of unions revolved around workers receiving a
reasonable share of a company's profits. But that tenet is nonsensical
when applied to public service. Governments don't make profits; they
simply assess taxes.
The aims of public sector unions conflict directly with the interests of taxpayers.
And
because it has been exceedingly hard to fight public sector unions, the
salaries and benefits of public employees have skyrocketed in recent
years. Since the election of Barack Obama, the number of federal
employees making over $150,000 a year has more than doubled to over
10,000.
In
2009 government salaries jumped 2.4%, approximately twice the increase
earned by private sector employees. In fact, the average salary of a
federal worker is now $71,000, about $22,000 more than the average
private sector employee.
Worst
of all, public sector unions have negotiated pension plans that are
proving financially untenable. Many allow workers to retire at age 55
at around their full salary in their final years of employment. These
pensions often include inflation adjustments as well as lifetime free
health care.
These plans are so outrageous that state retirement systems, for example, are currently underfunded by about a trillion dollars.
So
how have public sector unions achieved these amazing results? The
answer is the hundreds of millions of dollars that unions have donated
to federal campaigns since 1990. Almost every single dollar went to
Democrats or Democrat causes. In the 2008 election alone, some
estimates put public sector union contributions to Democrats at $60
million.
These unions are also astroturfing for Democrats, providing slush funds to help liberal causes. An example is ThePartyIsOver.org, a faux populist website designed to discredit TEA Party activists.
The
Democrats' health care bill, the 'Employee Free Choice Act' and the
$800+ billion stimulus bill all contained payoffs to public sector
unions. In fact, while the private sector has shed 8,000,000 jobs since
the recession began, the number of public sector jobs has risen nearly
every month -- led by President Obama's various spending programs at the
federal level.
Public
sector unions are killing our economic system and the American
taxpayer. The debt unleashed by their outrageous benefits plans simply
cannot be paid. The union bosses have lied to their members about
lifetime benefits and they have betrayed the American people. Public
sector unions must be disbanded and outlawed before more of our country
begins to resemble Greece, Spain and other European countries.
Those countries are teetering on the brink of economic calamity, thanks to unions just like ours. And please observe that the union bosses and the Democrat Party could give a rat's behind about American taxpayers -- 20 percent of whom are currently unemployed or underemployed. They still want theirs.Based upon: Amy H. Laff, StateBrief. Linked by: Mark Levin, The Washington Examiner, Ace o' Spades and TigerHawk. Thanks!
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/
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