Wisconsin public employee union mess
Posted: 1 March 2011 at 22:54:58
Sorry if it seems like I'm being incredibly insensitive, but that's how I see it. Here in Utah, our legislature and governor have done a far better job of managing the state fiscally than most other states in the US. As a result, we're not laying off public employees or asking them to make significant concessions in order to prevent a major budgetary meltdown.
Personally, I think public employee unions should be banned. They're public employees, after all. They already have mechanisms in place to petition their employer (the government and, by extension, the people) for requests be it wages, benefits, working conditions, etc. Unions add overhead costs to both the public employees and the government they work for and siphon government employee pay to political activities, as we can plainly see by the organized activities in the news.
The Wisconsin governor's and legislature's decision to cut wages and benefits of public employees makes perfect sense as a strategy to regain some fiscal sanity, but so does restricting union involvement in public employees' contracts and so forth since that also costs money and could endanger the government's solvency in the long run.
As for people living and working for the government in Wisconsin, it sucks to be you. If you're not willing to do what it takes to keep your job, then consider moving somewhere else where people aren't being asked to sacrifice. Maybe Utah, but I have to warn you, median teacher pay in Utah is about half what they're making in Wisconsin. Oh, and test scores are much higher. Hmmm. Maybe there's a connection buried in there.