While unrest continues in Wisconsin over the Governor's plan to restrict some public sector benefits, the question arises, who do public sector unions represent?
An interesting view from the Economist blog:
"[Public sector unions] are bargaining against everybody who pays taxes and/or benefits from government spending. The question of distribution in democratic politics isn't about splitting up jointly-produced profits. It's about interest groups fighting to grab a bigger share of government revenue while sticking competing groups with the tax bill.
"Because of the sheer size and relatively uniform interests of the group, public employees constitute a politically powerful bloc with or without unions. As the percentage of the labour force employed by the government rises, the heft of this group only increases.
"Public-employee unions simply consolidate an already impressive concentration of political bargaining power. Moreover, as the Democratic Party comes increasingly to rely on patronage from the public-sector unions, the determination of Democratic politicians to bargain against the unions on behalf of taxpayers and the beneficiaries of competing government programmes necessarily weakens."
We stand for the proposition that public servants should be such, serve the public. If for any reason they stop wishing to be public servants, then they should join the rest of us in the private sector.
Here in Miami-Dade County, Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Manager George Burgess have continually negotiated contracts with the public sector unions that give County workers far more benefits that those available to the large majority of the private sector.
Now, in his time of need, it is these same unions that are coming out in support of Mayor Alvarez in his effort to fight his recall.
The next Mayor of Miami-Dade County must align County worker benefits to those offered in the private sector, offering taxpayer relief along the way. Failure to do so will end in the same fate Mayor Alvarez faces on March 15th.
