The Sunday Union Leader had a letter to the editor titled "2012 can’t come fast enough." It suggests that New Hampshire did not vote for a majority and leadership intent on stripping collective bargaining agreements from 70,000 New Hampshire workers…" which is a number I would contest given this data. (Where we may be hiding 70,000 public sector union workers is a question worth exploring, but not right now.)
The author is Kevin Foley. Kevin is a great guy. We worked together at UPS for a number of years, he was a driver, and I was a package car loader–including his. But Kevin has been a well paid union organizer with the Teamsters for years, as an IBT Business agent, and earns more than double the national average in income and compensation for the privilege. Kudos to Kevin for the sweet gig. I bet he works hard for it.
Kevin has donated hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars to democrats and the local Teamster PAC–(Granite State Teamsters DRIVE) which supports the national union and democrat candidates in the state (one local example from NH S.o.S.); the same ones who grew state government, added public union employees, some of whose dues pay Kevin’s salary, and the same democrats who left us with a nearly one billion dollar budget deficit as a result.
And Kevin is entitled to all the success he has, and his union work in the private sector, his political opinions, and the right to support any candidate or cause he likes, but it is here that we must part ways. Because when I voted for my House reps, reigning in public sector unions and removing their monopoly power over local towns and residents was near the top of my list. Not private sector unions mind you, public ones. So as the New Hampshire House and Senate work through a series of bills designed to get the public union boot off my taxpayer neck, we are more than pleased with the results. And by we I mean everyone I know who voted for Republicans be they in the GOP, independents, and even a few democrats. (After all, democrats–some of them at least–pay taxes too.)
The facts are that the tenure system sucks. It denies a younger generation of employees a future in their chosen fields. The taxpayer propped up benefits are anything but equal, out of touch with economic reality, and with over 50 billion (is it higher?) in unfunded State pensions, unsustainable. And the only workers and families getting screwed are the ones who do not have an organization with captive donors, access to millions of dollars nationally, well heeled lawyers, and well paid professional organizers like Mr. Foley, who sue that money and union power to keep their members well fed at the expense of others.
This is not an issue we can tweak at the edges. If public union power is not neutered merit and wage competition will never take root in public employee work places, and costs will never be manageable. The unions will use their power and resources to pressure towns into keeping education budgets high–many of which consume more than half of any given towns entire budget.
That has to end. The return on investment is lousy. Un-credentialed moms and dads are producing better quality students from their kitchen tables than a building full of experts with masters degrees that we have to pay for though higher wages and benefits. What we have been doing for decades does not work. It is time for something new.
And this is not really about jobs or families. Around 90% of American jobs and families do not need a union to be successful. This is about acting in the best interest of the employer (A big national union) to protect it’s market share. It’s market share is union dues and political influence. The union needs bodies, who collect taxpayer funded paychecks, that produce income for the union. The union then uses that money to finance democrat elections so that if they win, these democrats will give them more market share (with your money). Somehow, this is not a crime.
So Kevin and I will have to agree to disagree.
One thing Kevin and I can agree on however, is that 2012 cannot come too soon. Obama is prejudiced against non union workers and discriminates against the taxpayers who must pay for them. He has to go, so Kevin is right, 2012 can’t come fast enough.
