The narrative is everywhere: public employee unions are bad for good government. This month the meme is echoed by Jarrett Skorup of Michigan Capitol Confidential who wrote a piece giving a brief history of public employee unions and why they are so bad for our government.

As we’ve discussed here many times, the public employee union is a rather new animal born into the world of labor relations. When unions were codified under American law starting in 1936 publlic employees were left out of the deal and they were left out on purpose. As Skorup says, “the thinking was that this would over-politicize government and cause a conflict of interest between unions and politicians.”

A conflict of interest would be as follows: First, government union elects politician by funding their campaign and organizing a massive get-out-the-vote drive; second, politician supports employee pay increases, generous pensions and condition of employment; third, union takes dues (read: taxpayer money) and starts the cycle all over again for selected politician.

Yes, precisely. And that is exactly what we’ve come to see happen over and over again in every state and the federal government.

Skorup goes on to show that both parties are to blame for this, but though Skorup doesn’t say so it is obvious the Democrats are more to blame.

Skorup ends with this:

Politicians granting unsustainable government employee salaries, benefits and pensions is a problem everywhere, but the states with the strongest public-sector unions will have the hardest time correcting it. More broadly, as long as these incestuous relationships between government unions and the political class remain in place and unchallenged, the size and scope of government will continue to grow.

Again exactly right. As we say here at the blog, public employee unions are antithetical to good government. These unions need to be outlawed before we can fix this situation. It’s just that simple.

No related posts.