Monday 14 March 2011

Those Poor Unionised State Workers

Cry Me a River of Tears

We have blogged several times on the inherent conflicts of interest promulgated by public sector unions (here, here, here,, here, and here.) They are a cancer on the body politic.

In the US a considerable number of states are fiscally bankrupt. A major cause of this mess has been the exorbitant wages and benefits paid out to state sector workers who have used the "muscle" of their unions to "negotiate" with their political dependants ever higher and higher payouts and salaries.

Here is Ann Coulter's take.
Public sector workers are pursuing their own narrow financial interests to the detriment of everyone else in their states. That's fine, but can we stop pretending it's virtuous?

Because of the insane union contracts in Wisconsin, one Madison bus driver, John E. Nelson, was able to make $159,000 in 2009 -- about $100,000 of which in overtime pay. . . . Seven bus drivers took home more than $100,000 that year. . . . It's ludicrous to suggest that these union contracts were fairly bargained. Only one side was at the negotiating table. Ordinary people with jobs were not at the meetings where public sector compensation was discussed. . . .

Why do public sector employees have absurd overtime rules? Why don't they pay for their own health insurance? Why do they get to retire at age 45 with a guaranteed pension of 65 percent of their last year's pay -- as state police in New Jersey do?

This is asymmetrical warfare. Seven percent of the population cares intensely about public sector union contracts -- and nothing else. The remaining 93 percent of voters can't be bothered to care.

Meanwhile, state after state spirals into bankruptcy.

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