Photo: Michael Moore, well known communist, Castro and Chavez supporter, who claims all private wealth belongs to the people, spoke at a Wisconsin public union rally to huge cheers and applause from the assembled public union members.
Scott Walker's bid to curb public union power has focused a lot of discussion in the media recently on collective bargaining "rights.” This is a great step forward since, unions have been destroying American industries since the 1950’s with little public notice. They almost finished off the last major US manufacturing industry, the auto industry in 2009, and they would have, if our union puppet President hadn't stepped in, confiscated the common stock and the bonds and gave it to the unions.
Collective bargaining "rights" are not provided for in the United States Constitution, which preserves only individual rights, not collective rights. Collective bargaining is a privilege provided under some statutes. In fact, Federal employee unions do not have collective bargaining rights and most states prohibit or severely limit public employee collective bargaining. Union supporters argue that free association is guaranteed under the US constitution and that collective bargaining rights are therefore guaranteed under this provision. Actually the opposite is true. As with all "collective" Right, laws that establish collective bargaining rights, sacrifice the individuals' right of free association for the benefit of the collective.
Collective bargaining laws like the one just amended in Wisconsin, generally create a legal frame work for the establishment of a union. The employees decide to have a union represent them or not by an election. This means that, if the required percentage of employees vote for the union, the union then becomes the exclusive representative for all of the employees, including the percentage who did not vote for it. Once certified, all employees must become members of the union and they must pay union dues whether they like it or not. Any effort of the employer to go around the union is an unfair labor practice, which subjects the employer to severe sanctions.
The public collective bargaining law in Wisconsin attacked by Scott Walker, provided that the individual had no right to be employed by the state government, without being a member of the union. Once employed, the individual was prevented from negotiating or receiving a raise or other benefits based on individual merit or direct negotiation with the employer. The individual employees must accept what the union negotiates (although the members vote on the negotiated contract again, majority rules). If the employer does not agree to the union terms then there is required binding arbitration where a govenment employed and politically appointed "judge" imposes an "agreement". This system can hardly be described as preserving an individual right, but, rather it is a deprivation of personal rights to have a personal relationship with one’s employer in return for collective rights.
In the name of protecting workers and increasing union dues, the union has an interest in preventing any worker from being fired and to minimize the work done by any one worker. In actual practice, the unions serve to protect the less competent workers from being fired or disciplined for poor performance. Thus, it is axiomatic that the union fosters poor performance because inefficiency requires more employees which increases union dues. That minority of workers who are the best workers, by definition, must be held back to the same wages and the same benefits as other less competent workers. Thus, a collective system tends to enslave the best to work for the benefit of the worst. "Each according to his need," Carl Marx.
Statistics show that there are typically about a third to 35% of unionized workers including teachers and other public employees, who vote Republican and see themselves as "conservative." By definition these people do not like the union or they would not be voting for a party seen as pro employer and anti union. It stands to reason therefore that the better employees are generally also the 35% of union members who reliably vote Republican.
On the other hand, the poor workers who can’t be fired and are most responsible for Wisconsin being the 44th worst public school system in the country are almost certainly the same ones in the Wisconsin rotunda screaming, “Walker is another Hitler” and “don’t touch my collective bargaining rights.” Walker has stated that many thousands of public workers have sent him messages of support saying they want the right to opt out of the public union. These are the public employees who do not think being forced to join the union is a "right." Take a guess as to whether the teachers protesting are the good teachers or the ones you hope your child doesn't get next year. Anyone who is a hard worker by nature and likes to do a good job who ever worked in a closed union shop will tell you that the union promotes inefficiency, poor performance and holds back the best workers.
If that were all it would be bad enough, but it gets worse. Collective bargaining is rarely a genuine arm's length negotiation in the government sector because the politician negotiating, supposedly on behalf of the taxpayer, is typically beholden to the union that contributed the funds and votes that got him in to office in the first place. We can see this even at the Presidential level where national union bosses have more access to the President than cabinet members.
We are witnessing a classic battle between the collectivists and the people who are going to have to pay for their outrageous demands. Who will win depends in part on whether Walker and the Republicans in Wisconsin and governors around the nation can get the necessary information to the public to understand what is really at stake. Unfortunately, if we loose this battle, the last chance to to save our prosperity we all have come to expect will go with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment