I live in Union County, North Carolina, which is one of the most heavily Republican counties in one of the least unionized states in the country. Go figure. Although our professional football players are unionized, our teachers are not. I'll come back to both of those professions a little later.
Shifting quickly to one of the most heavily unionized states in the country, the Wisconsin legislature found a way to pass restrictions on the bargaining rights of most public employee groups. The pro-union forces thought they had the legislation blocked by playing hide-and-seek but the pro-taxpayer forces defeated them, eventually, by changing provisions in the controversial bill so that anti-democracy legislators could no longer block it by running away and refusing to vote.
It seemed as if the pro-union forces were saying, "If you won't let me win, I won't play. In fact, I'll run an hide so I won't even have to watch the game and by doing so, prevent the game from being played."
The tactic worked for a while and managed to draw the attention of the entire nation. Battle lines were drawn and large demonstrations were held in support of both sides of the issue. Overlooked somewhere in all the rhetoric were many of the facts.
The Wisconsin bill was not anti-union per se. It did not affect the bargaining rights of any workers at private companies. It only applies to public employees who are paid by the taxpayers of a state that was going quickly bankrupt. How bankrupt? Very.
Wisconsin was facing an immediate revenue (read that as tax receipts) shortfall into the hundreds of millions of dollars and longer-term deficits into the the billions. That's serious money the state didn't have, with the only means of getting it by taxing its citizens who didn't have it. The new limits on public employee collective bargaining won't fix the entire problem and there will need to be many other shared sacrifices by the citizens of Wisconsin. This is only one piece of the puzzle.
Although I haven't analyzed the Wisconsin budget, the biggest budget item for every state is employee expenses. Salaries make up a large part of it but, according to most published reports, Wisconsin taxpayers, the majority of whom work in the private sector, were being asked to pay for healthcare and retirement benefits of public employees that were far in excess of anything offered in the private sector. That's pretty tough to swallow if you're struggling to pay your mortgage, pay the power bill, put food on the table and put your kids through school.
Speaking of school, teachers have one of the most important and undervalued roles in our society. They are critical to our children and our future and they are not overpaid. In many situations they are underpaid. Teachers in my family are bright, capable, caring professionals who are very good at their jobs and the children in their classrooms are lucky to have them.
In Union County we have our own budget woes and we've had our share of cutbacks. A county government has to do the same thing a family does when there's a shortfall of revenue--cut expenses. I don't always agree with our school administration about where they cut or how they spend our money but none of that is the fault of the teachers. Our schools are still open and our children are still being educated by a caring group of dedicated professionals who are not represented by a union.
In case you haven't heard, there's also a collective bargaining war being waged in the National Football League where the median annual salary approaching $1 million and the average salary well in excess of it. I love football as much as anyone but that is collective bargaining gone insane.
No comments:
Post a Comment