Unlike private unions, public unions aren’t “bargaining” or “negotiating” with anyone. The politicians who vote for these sweet deals are sitting on the SAME SIDE of the table as the unions. This is vote buying, pure and simple. Wisconsin is not some bellwether state, blazing a new trail and seeking to bust unions. Only half the states have a collective-bargaining agreement in place, and there is plenty of data to support the fact that the states that don’t, like Virginia or Indiana, are in fact able to deliver effective services and at a lower cost.
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And therein lies the problem. The adversarial relationship that exists between private unions and their employers does not exist between municipal unions and those they are negotiating with. They are sleeping in the same bed. And in most cases the negotiators for the taxpayers are in line for even larger pensions than the union members. That is why we end up with these ridiculous contracts with benefits and retirement packages virtually unheard of in private industry. It’s also why so many states don’t allow collective bargaining for their municipal unions. It’s a recipe for fiscal disaster.
