In 1980 William Clay, the president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers union (PATCO) told their convention that they must “learn the rules of the game,” which were “that you don’t put the interest of any other group ahead of your own.” They must be “selfish and pragmatic” and emphasize that “what’s good for the federal employees (is) good for the nation.”
PATCO ran into Ronald Reagan, a rare politician willing to stand up to them, and went out of business. But the nation’s air traffic controllers are still unionized and government employee unions are still operating under Mr. Clay’s rules of engagement. Their determination to put their own interests first mocks the notion of public servant. Instead of serving the public, they threaten our ability to fund anything other than their wishes.
In an earlier America, government unions were recognized as incompatible with public welfare. FDR in 1937 rejected government unionism, pointing out that collective bargaining “cannot be transported into the public service” because of “the very nature and purposes of government.” Roosevelt wasn’t breaking new ground here; he was expressing views widely held by American leaders including the founder of modern progressivism, Woodrow Wilson, and the resolutely conservative Calvin Coolidge.
How could we have been so foolish to reject the bright line between public and private sector unions these thinkers recognized? The difference is night and day. For starters, government workers own a monopoly on the services they provide, while private sector workers are unable to keep consumers hostage. They must be careful to keep their demands reasonable so that their employers aren’t priced out of the marketplace. For government workers there are no such boundaries. More is always better, there is no such thing as “enough.”
Government unions are also privileged in getting to pick the negotiators on the other side of the bargaining table. That’s why they’re the major financial supporters of the Democratic Party where teacher’s unions alone supply 20 percent of the national convention delegates. When both sides at the negotiating table are committed to union interests, the results are predictable. Government worker pay, once discounted for job security, is today about 30 percent higher than that earned by private sector workers for the same jobs.
Check out the Chicago Teachers Union to see the result of 50 years of public unionism. This is a union that delivers a terrible product for a financially failing entity. Just 20 percent of Chicago eighth-graders can pass a reading test, while fewer than 8 percent of 11th-graders are deemed college ready by a state test. Yet, Chicago teachers have received raises between 19 percent and 46 percent over the last five years, even though Chicago public schools are $3 billion in debt.
Chicago teachers average $76,000 in salary plus health benefits, pensions, paid days off and summer vacations. The taxpayers footing the bill earn an average of $47,000 annually. In the private sector, the company would be failing and employees would face job loss. The CTU’s response to this state of affairs? Demand even more pay raises and continue to resist efforts to weed out bad employees and provide higher-quality education.
Prior to this month’s strike, the union demanded a 30-percent pay raise over three years, but now seems willing to settle for only 16 percent. But the real point of contention was a plan by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to institute a teacher evaluation system, designed by teachers, that was more based on student academic progress.
Union president Karen Lewis put her foot down, insisting that 6,000 teachers could lose their jobs. The irony of admitting that so many teachers are non-performers was apparently lost on her. The union’s interest — job preservation for its members — must come first. And, in an election year, they mostly got their way.
FDR was right on this one. We never should have allowed collective bargaining to invade the public sphere and we shouldn’t have allowed public unions to amass huge war chests by extracting union dues from workers’ paychecks without their permission.
Now we’re in trouble. Bankruptcy, once unthinkable, is now a looming reality for local governments around the country unable to fund pension obligations to their retired workers. Even government doesn’t have infinite resources.
Bodacious posted at 9:02 am on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
The government cannot give anything to anyone without taking it from someone else first. Public union need to be banned.
chatmandu002 posted at 9:19 am on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
Tom,
I agree with you. Public sector unions are destroying the ability of cities, counties and state governments to control their budgets. Now with the growth and power of a big federal government, bankruptcy is a looming prospect for all.
IceCat posted at 9:55 am on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
Tom writes: Chicago teachers average $76,000 in salary plus health benefits, pensions, paid days off and summer vacations.
I don't know it that's true, because each web site has a different figure. Is it to much?
Well, I don’t know. Teachers in Chicago are working 10 months a year trying to teach kids who often just come for the free (or subsidized) breakfasts and lunches, and maybe spend after school hours participating in the gang violence rocking the city. Great pay for this kind of work? I know greeters at Wal-Mart get paid less. Still…
And speaking of that Tom attempts to compare the income of the private sector to the public sector, which the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics always posts a disclaimer to warn against this, since there isn't many $7/hr jobs in the government.
There was a time, before Reagan became President, when government service was seen as a higher calling, because they wanted to devote their life to making this country stronger, to make our country even better, a safer place, and to have a career that one could be proud of.
After being in government since 1974 I can say we are not a drain on the economy. We are teachers, police officers, lawyers, doctors, Ph.d students, planners, electricians, construction workers, and technology experts. We are the reason why the United States became as great as it did.
To use public unions as the whipping boy for the ills currently in the country is wrong.
delluser posted at 10:09 am on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
I agree there should be no public sector unions, my tax dollars should not go for union dues. The big reason many cities and towns are on the verge of bankruptcy is because they can afford to pay for the high price of union benefits.
JMJ posted at 12:26 pm on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
Public Servant should not equate to indentured servant. There are NO unions in Arizona, only "associations", which tend to not have one whisker of alleged "power" when it comes to teacher pay and benefits. The "Meet and Confer" process is not collective bargaining.
Teachers, no matter where they are teaching, should not be held accountable by administrator-made evaluation systems, which vary from district to district, in Arizona, by the way, to meet guidelines set by ADE. It is still a loaded system wherein administrators [many of whom are horribly inadequate, themselves, and have been "promoted" by their friends in the stupidintendency] can target teachers and simply rid themselves of them, ostensibly to get some more of their moronic friends in their stead. There has always been a way to "get rid of" teachers; administrators have been wholly lazy and ineffective before all this hoo-ha about evaulation systems.
I would venture to say that teachers in Chicago have similar issues as teachers in West Mesa, a ghetto by most definitions, regarding lack of parental support in even getting students to [a] show up, let alone [b] actually word toward learning.
Blaming teachers and "unions" has become all the rage. How can anyone in Arizona blame the "unions" [...not...] when theses "unions" don't have any teeth, haven't garnered a raise until this year, and a measly 2%, at that, all in the state whose Repugnican legislature has cut any funding to the bone and beyond? This legislature hasn't cut to the bone, it has amputated funding.
How's the Repugnican legislature workin' for Arizona's children? It ain't.
Vote for 204, and stop the blather about "unions" ruining everything. In Arizona, the legislature has ruined everything.
You get what you pay for, Arizona, and the sad state of our public education has not been the "undoing" of the "unions".
onerebel posted at 2:02 pm on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
I am not union nor am I anti-union, however I do feel it is wrong to be FORCED to join a union for a job, and for that union to use your union dues against your will, to support ANY political group. I do work for a government entity yet I believe our pension funds should be able to support its self. Unlike many of the government pensions around the country that it's employee's pay nothing or a few dollars a month. Thru the Arizona State Retirement System you are required to pay about 12% of your income for your pension. That's the way it should be!
samkat posted at 2:18 pm on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
Quote: "They must be “selfish and pragmatic” and emphasize that “what’s good for the federal employees (is) good for the nation.”
Actually this quote should apply to our flat earth right wing religious zealots running our state. They have no problem whatsoever in looting our state coffers to satisfy their own special interest supporters.
While I do not support runaway unions, I have the same disdain for the majority of our elected officials who seem to put their own ideals ahead of the citizens who pay their salaries.
Haddie Nuff posted at 6:28 pm on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
Arizona is a right to work state, has been for years. No one in Arizona can be compelled to join a union to hold a job. This entire opinion piece is an attempt at distraction and a "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" tactic.
Rich posted at 7:48 pm on Sun, Sep 23, 2012.
Once we were hunter/gatherers. Our artists and philosophers changed that into an ever escalating, something, we really don't know what, and they never had a clue, that's why they changed it. What do you teach children when the greatest wisdom you know is that you don't know? A drop and a drop is a bigger drop, not two drops. The crazy people made this, and you live with a government that is supposed to be limited. It is progressing to unlimited, and it wants more. The elected reps, want more; the employees as is pointed out here, want more, and only those on the outside pay. And that's you, or mostly you along with the crazy people who will solve this, and move on, Mitt Romney hasn't an answer but you might turn to him for a shot of 'something else' though chances are you just get more of the same. Obama? You've seen it and it ain't pretty. Someone else? our best choice, but you won't take it. Most of us just want to hunt and gather in Peace, crazy people have let us do that with indoor plumbing. It should be paradise, it isn't, Never ever vote for an incumbent unless your life is perfect. If you adopt that simple principle, eventually you will elect someone crazy enough to make it all work.
mnjcpa posted at 7:41 am on Mon, Sep 24, 2012.
Tom - I just finished up a tax case with an IRS that told me he was `retiring`. 54 years old and `retiring` to a golf course in San Antonio. Something wrong with this picture when the average American will be lucky to retire at 70? Or that when you do just a simple finance calculation with his life expectancy what the taxpayer is on the hook for?
Meet the new 1% - government union pension holders. Agreed wholeheartedly and the Chicago teacher's union fact pattern tells the story best. We desperately need another Reagan.
Bluepoet posted at 9:59 am on Mon, Sep 24, 2012.
I fail to see any relevancy of this, to the State of Arizona. The problems of the Chicago inner-city education system, the idol-worship of the Great Imposter Ronnie Raygun...what has that got to do with, for instance, the temporary education tax, that our illustrious legislature promptly frittered away on things not even related to education?
Yes, another flowery smoke and mirrors deflection topic, brought to us by the Republican machine, via Mr.Patterson.
My question to Mr. Patterson: If you get your way (referring to your previous posts), and public education goes totally private, will teachers still be underpaid, in Arizona, or will their average pay/benefits reflect the national? Will it pave the way for the next great wave of Unionism, in this country--because that is where we are headed, as a natural reaction to the corporate piracy practices at the forefront?
It's really a rhetorical question, don't bother your pointy head about it...
VofReason posted at 1:21 pm on Mon, Sep 24, 2012.
Question, how much should it cost to educate a child per year? Why? No one in education can seem to answer that question, it is always just more than whatever they get now. Question #2, what black and white determinant can be used to judge how a teacher is doing? Again, cannot seem to get a straight answer from anyone in education. Just not whatever test is in place. Charter schools are funded at less then public schools and at 9K per student, the same money could send an AZ kid to a private school with better results. Wonder why?
mnjcpa posted at 3:20 pm on Mon, Sep 24, 2012.
HeyVofR -
Could be because real measurement of performance such as is done in the private sector would never be considered. And besides, we need to make sure those education pensions are funded so don't be questioning pesky details like how are we doing.
Cerulean posted at 8:48 am on Tue, Sep 25, 2012.
Two days after an “anti-labor agenda” was widely defeated in Ohio “Scott Walker jetted to Arizona to launch the next front in the national campaign to attack union rights.”
“We need to make big, fundamental, permanent structural changes. It’s why we did what we did in Wisconsin,” declared Walker, who at the annual dinner of the right-wing Goldwater Institute said that compromising with unions was “bogus.”
In fact, Brewer and her allies are, as the Goldwater Institute suggests, going even further than Walker did.
The legislation introduced by the governor’s allies in the state Senate would, according to the Arizona Republic:
—Make it illegal for government bodies to collectively bargain with employee groups. Public safety unions would be included in the ban.
—End the practice of automatic payroll deductions for union dues.
—Ban compensation of public employees for union work.
Arizona’s bills would do away with collective bargaining entirely and also go beyond Wisconsin law by including public safety unions,” the newspaper explained. “Coupled with Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to do away with civil-service protections for state employees, the new legislation could make Arizona ground zero for union protests during this election year.”
http://www.thenation.com/blog/166038/how-scott-walker-and-alec-plotted-attack-arizonas-
Who is Scott Walker? Who pays for him to jet around the country attacking union workers? I wonder if Patterson would answer that question for me. BTW, for those who do not know, Patterson works for the Goldwater Institute.
mnjcpa posted at 9:17 am on Tue, Sep 25, 2012.
Wisconsin was broke Cerulean - now they're not. What's hard to understand about that?
It's really pretty simple - you can't spend more than you take in, a novel concept for folks that believe there's unlimited supply of handouts. All he was asking was for public union people to pitch in like everyone else has to.
Cerulean posted at 9:29 am on Tue, Sep 25, 2012.
Mnjcpa, Why are Arizona law makers attempting to starve school teachers and public employees while expanding the "handouts" to private prison industry. Don’t you contradict yourself?
VofReason posted at 12:36 pm on Tue, Sep 25, 2012.
Let's start again. AZ pays about 9K per student per year for K-12. That equates to about 225K per classroom of 25 kids. The Educrates decide how much of those funds get spent. So maybe a better question is what the heck they are doing with just shy of a quarter of a million per class that disallows them to pay teachers and buy school supplies? Perhaps paying private prisons makes it so they don't have to pay prison guards platinum healthcare and pension for 30 years. Like so many other things, the better you allow the private sector to do it, the more effecient and cost effective it is. I learned that from the "right wing" Goldwater institute, but it is really just common sense.
Cerulean posted at 3:50 pm on Tue, Sep 25, 2012.
Common sense? Not very much.
I remember not so long ago when small communities in Arizona had to seek funding from Coca Cola Inc. to get a school gymnasium built. Our Jr high and high schools were, and maybe still are, funded in part by Nike, Dunkin Doughnuts, Taco Bell etc.. Republican privatization will result in each lesson having a sponsor , “And this lesson is brought to you by the makers of ….. “
You have not answered my question, “who is paying Scott Walker to fly around the country giving pep talks to right wing organizations like the Goldwater Institute ?”
Mike McClellan posted at 4:36 pm on Tue, Sep 25, 2012.
This is hilarious. First, public unions in AZ have little teeth, since we are a right to work state.
Second, speaking of pensions, I note that Patterson neglects the most egregious public pension in the state -- the elected officials' pension plan.
Which results in elected officials making more in retirement than they did when in office. In fact, 10% of them make more in retirement than they did in office.
Unlike teachers or other state employees, our "retired" elected officials get a regular cost of living increase. In fact, their plan is the "richest" plan in that those folks get the best retirements. One out of every seven gets more than $100,000 a year in retirement.
On the other hand, the ASRS average is $13,000 a year.
And they need only 20 years in office to achieve full benefits (vs. 30 years for ASRS retirees).
And they only contribute 7% of their salaries to their pensions (vs. 10% for ASRS workers). And the average matching contribution by the government is 17% (vs. 10% for ASRS employers).
But is there a peep from Patterson about this? Nope.
I wonder if his silence, in part, comes from his receiving this very nice retirement?
wdgnas posted at 7:34 am on Wed, Sep 26, 2012.
funny how paul ryan and scott walker are calling for the lockout to end against the union refs.
the cities and counties can file for bankruptcy like many of the corporations--mainly airlines and let the taxpayers (you and i) take over the pensions. does pension benefit guaranty corp ring a bell.
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