Public Workers

After watching the news recently, I'm beginning to think I live in the Mid East. There are so many demonstrations against the governor of Wisconsin and there may be some against the governors of Ohio and Indiana. The only thing the governors are guilty of is trying to restrict some of the power of the unions. Public sector workers have walked off their jobs, even the legislators in Wisconsin have abandoned their job which is to debate and then vote on the merits of the bills that come before them. These people have shirked their duties and fled to another state and are in hiding.

Over 40 years ago I said that the unions had outlived their usefulness. Yes, in the beginning, there was a need for them, but now we have minimum wage laws, child labor laws, etc. We don't need the unions.

According to Matthew Continetti of Beltway Confidential last October 1, 2010, "Even President Franklin Roosevelt, a friend of private-sector unionism, drew a line when it came to government workers: 'Meticulous attention,' the president insisted in 1937, 'should be paid to the special relations and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government….The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.' The reason? F.D.R. believed that “[a] strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable.”

Maybe the governor of Wisconsin should follow Ronald Reagan's example and fire the teachers and any other workers who have walked off their jobs.

Governor Walker does not want to eliminate collective bargaining. He merely wants to restrict it to pay and benefits. Other states want to implement "Right to Work" laws. That seems fair to me. Why should a worker be forced to join a union and pay dues. Those dues are used to support political candidates who the worker does not support or agree with.

I hope the legislators who ran away from their responsibilities will not receive any pay for their vacation, nor should the state have to pay their expenses.