Private and Public Sector Unions

Republicans and unions have been clashing for years, especially in Rhode Island. Unions want you to believe Republicans are completely anti-union, but that’s not true. Republicans take issue with public sector unions, which represent government employees, but are not against the government employees, as the unions want you to believe. Unions won’t even acknowledge that there’s a difference between private and public sector unions.

Where private companies exist, unions are there to protect workers. There’s a natural check and balance in this system. Management wants to keep costs down, unions want workers to get their share.  Somewhere in between is where the two groups usually end up. If management won’t negotiate, the union goes on strike. If the union demands too much, the company can close (Twinkie’s being a prime example) or move operations outside of the country. Each side is motivated to work with the other.

There’s a flaw in the system when it comes to public sector unions, however. The public sector unions negotiate their benefits with elected officials, who receive campaign donations from unions. The politicians who were elected to represent the “people” have a conflict of interest when it comes to negotiating with the unions.

That’s how we get contracts with ridiculous benefits. One example is that the Cranston and Johnston Fire Departments get September 11th off as a day of remembrance. Sounds reasonable, right? But the New York City Fire Department does not get September 11th off. Firefighters and police officers can  DOUBLE their annual income because of onerous rules and regulations regarding overtime. Because of contract quirks, a fire fighter in the Anthony Fire District in Coventry can be on overtime (time and a half) in the first hour of their work week.

Another way the public sector unions work with politicians to ensure they get more benefits for their union members is to ratchet up the minimum educational requirement for the job. This is done by requiring a master’s degree for jobs that are similar to jobs in the private sector that only require a bachelor’s degree or less. This drives the supply of people qualified to do the work down, which drives salaries up.

Besides taxpayers, the other losers in all of this are the private sector unions. Private sector unions often are the workers who do civic work projects like fix our roads and bridges or build new schools. As more and more of RI’s budget goes to fulfill public sector contracts, the government budget gets stretched until these projects can no longer be funded. No work for the private union worker.

You may hear the phrase, “structural deficit.” That’s slang for the promised increases in public sector contracts. Next year’s “structural deficit” is expected to be $150,000,000 more than last year.

In a letter dated August 16, 1937, written to the National Federation of Federal Employees, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service,” and goes on to explain why government employees should not have collective bargaining rights. The icon of worker’s rights saw the inherent problems with unions in public service.

How do we fix the problem? Stop unions from supporting candidates in elections. Elected officials can now go back to representing ALL of the people, not just the ones in public sector unions.