Saturday, October 2, 2010

How to fix California: ban public employee unions

According to (Pete) Wilson, public employee unions trigger a destructive dynamic. Public employee unions take money from their members and use them for partisan political purposes. They pressure government officials to cut them sweetheart deals, especially through things like job protections and pensions, that don't show up on the bottom line for years. They create a larger and larger interest group that demands more government spending and higher taxes, which drives out private entrepreneurship and swells their ranks even more. Reduce the power of the public employee unions, and you lower the size of government, reduce the costs of the state, and fix the looming pension problem.

So here's my idea, and it applies beyond California. There is no constitutional right for public employees to form a union and to use their dues to pressure the government for more spending and benefits. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote while a state judge, a policeman "may have the right to talk politics but he has no constitutional right to be a policeman." Unions only have this right because state government has granted it to them. So how about a one sentence ballot initiative, to amend the California constitution, that simply says that public employees cannot form unions -- and why not do this state by state.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes, Yes YES! Do a promo campaign to educate the public on the facts. I dont think most of the public in California realize they are going to PAY thru the nose for the Public Employee Union pensions, when they themselves HAVE NONE!

My experience is my mother is a retired school teacher who has a comfortable public pension, where as my father funded his own retirement. He put MILLIONS into it and is living under the standards my mother is. He is worried he may run out of money where as my mother who didn't pay fully for her own, will receive her fixed pension forever! PLUS free health care insurance for life.Paid for by the California tax payer.

Im sorry the public employee union should be illegal. Because they contribute so heavily to politicians who then have to pay them back by giving them more and more in wages, and pensions, when the rest of us have to PAY FOR THEM!

VOTE THEM OUT while we still can. Because when the Public workers make up more of the population we wont be able to do that!

To be quite honest I really resent the public employee unions when government workers are now making more than their private worker counterparts, plus they have such luxury benefits, paid for by the taxpayers!

Since we pay for them, and soon the public employee pension will take over the entire tax base, we MUST vote them out of existence!