We used to call it public service when someone worked for state, local or federal government. That term referred to the notion that the worker was truly "serving" or sacrificing as opposed to profiting. Today however, Americans across the country usually busy with their day to day lives are being shocked into action by revelations that their government services are being cut. Realizing they are paying more and more even while receiving less service, they are dem
anding to know why. The answer, more often than not, is that union "legacy costs" are crushing government budgets and straining the families who depend on services. Something has to give, and organized labor is taking it big time. Their political losses signal a watershed change.
The simple reality is that union bosses gain and hold seats by extracting less work and more perks in the annual negotiations. In some areas that works, but in fiscally conservative Missouri, not so much. Audrey Spaulding of the Show Me Institute takes a great angle regarding reports of pay raises for Missouri state employees who are paid the lowest average salary of any state in the country. Well, the glass half empty crowd might note that someone has to be last, and if this is the category, well, we'll take it.
What is bad news to some may be a source of pride for others. Clearly, Missourians are getting the most "bang for their bucks". If Missouri ranks in the middle in education outcomes, then the taxpayers are getting tremedous proportional value. New Jersey, where they spend the most per capita on education ranks among the lowest in student performance. Snooky should be horrified about how badly she is getting screwed. Dinner out is not even included.
The just reaction to the pay story is to thank a public employee.
Unlike in Illinois or California for instance, for the most part that clerk in the DMV, social service worker, or that cashier at City Hall is probably not very well-paid for their time, but is otherwise happy. Most Missouri workers operate under an old-fashioned compact. They work for low pay in exchange for relatively high job security, decent benefits, and an intangible sense of self-satisfaction knowing that they are serving a higher good. They should be appreciated and treated with respect. This is true in most sectors of Missouri, but not all.
A few years ago, the union organizing activites once limited to "the big cities" of St. Louis and Kansas City suddenly spread like a cancer toward the Bootheel, Springfield and Jefferson City. The union bosses came with the usual promises, "your days of low pay will soon be over, vote us in and we will make some of you bosses and not workers". "We will get you all kinds of new stuff". The rally cry is "less work and more pay". Who would not want that?
Well, Mr. Public Servant, how is that working out for you?
Missouri state workers remain the lowest paid, but do unions care? They have lots of ready cash ripped from the workers' paychecks every month by their government employers who make monthy bank transfers from taxpayer funds into union bank accounts. Union bosses then use taxpayer cash to enrich themselves and reward the Democrat office holders with campaign funds. The process is so vile because government unions have a singular purpose of charging taxpayers more for less service and they do it with taxpayer money! Worse, negotiating on the taxpayers' "behalf" are Democrat politicians and their agents who are looking across the table at their biggest campaign contributors. How hard would you negotiate?
"I'll thank you for NOT endorsing me.
Some "public servants" are doing quite well indeed, but public sentiment is turning fast. Wisconsin is just the beginning.
The endorsement of firefighters and cops used to evoke images of heroes. The union greed is changing that. Unionized public employees, led by unionized suburban firefighters, are becoming the highly compensated "masters" and the toiling taxpayer is the servant. The jig is up.
Union endorsements whether police or firefighters are increasingly being seen by the fed up taxpayer as the ill-gotten gains by politicians siding with unions over taxpayers. This is simple math. If the candidate is endorsed by any "public servant" organization whether firefighters, cops, or even teachers, that means the union made the endorsement because the politician promised to negotiate harder for them than for the taxpayers.
A Democrat Problem in 2012
From St. Louis City, where mayor Francis Slay is trying to enact some reforms to the police and fire pensions, to Democrat mayor Chuck Reed in the Democrat stronghold of San Jose, California, and Chicago, run by Obama's own Rahm Emmanuel, reports abound regarding big-spending liberals in the quandry of their political lives. The taxpayers will not accept new taxes and budgets cannot sustain fat pensions. Something has to give. More and more Democrats are saying "no" to the greediest public unions.
Given a choice between providing fat pensions to a few cops versus providing smaller pensions to more cops, the people are demanding more cops. What is a good Democrat to do? That the status quo is of the Democrat party's making is a matter of clear public record, and the problem is the worst in Democrat run large cities and states. Justly, fixing the mess is falling on Democrats, many of who have had enough of the greed in this family quarrel. The pendulum is swinging.
Just say NO
The world now knows that left unchecked, unions extract more annually until the host can no longer sustain the parasite. Even the mighty "Big Three" auto manufacturers collapsed under the "legacy costs" of fat union demands committed years ago leaving once-thriving Detroit and even the state of Michigan reeling. Governments are collapsing. Big city Democrat mayors faced with decreasing payrolls and increasing pension rolls faced with no other choice, now find that the public is with them and they are doing the unthinkable. They are saying "no" to union greed and it is music to the ears of struggling taxpayers. The remaining question is whether those taxpayers will reward Democrats who reject unions. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has shown that they will.
