Great state of union (bashing) for workers around the country
Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 02:55 PM
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When Michael Mulgrew became head of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) this year, he was entering some uncharted territory. As Harold Myserson noted in an August 2009 article about the waning influence of the Irish in the labor movement, the ascension of the Irish American Mulgrew ended “a 50-year succession of Jewish UFT presidents.”This Wednesday, June 16, Mulgrew turned up the heat in the UFT’s ongoing battle with New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg by spearheading a rally against education cuts at City Hall.
Mulgrew’s rise to the top of the UFT came around the same time Mary Kay Henry was named leader of the West Coast-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents over two million workers.
Henry, 52, was described by the Los Angeles Times as “the eldest girl among 10 siblings in an Irish-Catholic family in suburban Detroit.”
So if, as Harold Myerson suggested, Irish influence in organized labor is dwindling, it’s not going away anytime soon.
There’s one catch, however. These jobs might as well come with a bull’s eye, because unions have become a handy target for angry people and politicians in recent months.
Full disclosure -- I am a member of the UFT. So naturally, I am a little sensitive about some of the criticism aimed at New York City teachers by Bloomberg and schools chancellor Joel Klein.
I should add, though, that no one is more frustrated by ineffective teachers than teachers themselves. So it’s not that the UFT is above criticism.
The bigger problem is that, in tough economic times, members of nearly any union have come to be viewed as members of an elite class who are paid lavishly while doing little work.
An article in this past Sunday’s New York Post explored the “long lines” of applicant’s seeking the “cushiest gigs” at a number of local unions. These jobs included spots at Local 246 of the aforementioned SEIU, which represents auto mechanics. There were also applicants seeking jobs with Ironworkers Local 361.
Boy, talk about cushy gigs! What could be easier than learning how an automobile functions from top to bottom and getting the thing fixed.
Or how about those ironworkers! All they have to do from time to time is slice steel with a flaming torch, often several thousand feet above the bustling streets.
I remember less than a month after 9/11 talking to Jack Doyle, head of the heavily-Irish Ironworkers Local 40. Doyle had actually helped build the Twin Towers in the early 1970s, and was vowing to help build again at Ground Zero.
But only after the ironworkers completed the very dangerous task of clearing out the debris. What a cushy gig!
The king of union bashing these days is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. His stump speech for a long time was that New Jersey has “two classes” of citizens, -- “those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them."
Wow. We’ve certainly come a long way.
In the past, thundering populists and brainy prophets have warned that America was indeed split into two societies -- black vs. white, or the obscenely rich vs. the desperately poor.
Now, according to Christie, the only thing we have to worry about are the folks who dare to have a pension and a little stability. It seems to me we might want to work to get that for more people, not fewer.
Look, I understand that state governments are going broke. Taxpayers have a right to know their money is being invested in sound, productive employees. Unions should roll up their sleeves and help produce solutions.
But there is an ugly side to this. As much as anyone else, the Irish built the American labor movement with blood, sweat and tears. This was no “cushy” task.
Politicians know there is a deep insecurity in America right now. So rather than devise bold ways to alleviate that insecurity, they target “elite” union members and their “cushy” jobs.
Meanwhile, children need to be educated. Cars need to be repaired. Steel must be sliced.
The vast majority of people doing these jobs now do them happily and effectively. Smearing these workers may make the next generation think twice about entering the profession.
But it doesn’t make the work itself any less vital or necessary.
(Contact tomdeignan@earthlink.net or facebook.com/tomdeignan)
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Monsoonman | Jul 17, 2010, 01:28 PM EDT
"City of Vallejo blames bankruptcy on contracts with unions"..."The average police officer will receive a base salary of $121,518 under the current contract, with pension, health coverage and other benefits pushing the total cost to $191,060, said a staff report to the City Council on May 6."
"The average firefighter will receive an annual salary, excluding overtime, of $130,112, costing $193,174 with benefits. Ranking officers get much higher pay – for example, a police captain earns a salary of $231,120, and the total with benefits is $347,726....After retirement the benefits remain virtually the same.
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concernedRN | Jul 16, 2010, 07:44 PM EDT
Excellent article! Instead of villifying unionized workers perhaps we should strive for decent pensions and healthcare for everyone. Maybe we then could have a just society. We would have retirement and healthcare security which would ultimately help the economy. The elephant in the room which few want to mention is our out of control military spending along with Wall Street's investment (casino) banking fiasco. Local governments are struggling because of funding cuts from the state and federal govt not because of employee pensions. Millions of jobs have been outsourced to other countries in the drive for increased profits resulting in rising unemployment. Things for workers are going to get a whole lot worse and unions are needed now more than ever!
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Monsoonman | Jul 07, 2010, 10:30 AM EDT
The local police dept. just got fired. the county sheriff will be taking over those duties. the local tax base can't afford to be paying for 3 unionized police forces anymore. One active and two retired all making the same salary and benefits. Look for many more changes to come.
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Monsoonman | Jun 30, 2010, 01:14 AM EDT
Like I said Dennis, privatize it all and we'll get the best bang for the buck. The private sector will determine what the market will bear and will pay what a job is worth.
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DennisQ | Jun 28, 2010, 12:00 AM EDT
Regardless of the state of the economy, governments have to offer a competitive salary to attract good workers. If there are a lot of employers competing for those workers, wages rise accordingly. The problem you're addressing arises when the economy slumps and there are a lot of people out of work. You offer privatization as the answer to this problem, but that's ideology talking. If you'd really rather government contract out for everything, I don't think that's feasible. We need direct, non-intermediated control over government workers. Your remedy doesn't address the swings in the economy, and it removes a level of accountability.
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Monsoonman | Jun 24, 2010, 10:19 AM EDT
nO Dennis: I am actually the one forced to pay for these outrageous wages and benefits, so I have a vested interest. You on the other hand are a recipient of the largess extracted from me at the tip of a bayonnet. If wages/bennies of the public union thugs were what they should be, we could afford to have enough bus drivers/cops and firemen to do the job without horrendous overtime and the sinful double dipping. I say bk everything and start over, outlaw public sector unions and open all "services" up to competitive bid. If you don't like it work somewhere else.BTW: This does NOT apply to private sector unions, they are free to make their industries uncompetitive as much as they like, at least the public has a choice.
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DennisQ | Jun 24, 2010, 12:36 AM EDT
No, you're talking about individuals who put in a lot of overtime and make a lot more money than the job actually pays. In an earlier post you said that police make $150,000 and firefighters make $200,000. You generalize from these anomalous data points that private sector workers are as grossly underpaid as public service workers are overpaid. It's an unconvincing argument. If you believe it yourself the reason is your political ideology.
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Monsoonman | Jun 23, 2010, 09:57 AM EDT
Oh Dennis: It's all upside down, the slaves(private sector) are now toiling for the public sector union bosses, that's not ideology it's a fact. When unionized city employee bus drivers pull down 130K a year and make almost as much retired and at the same time there is rampant unemployment and underemployment in the private sector/the private sector is flooded with illegals..then something has to give. The gravy train has overturned and sum ting wong. Obviously you are one who profits from the inequity, so you like it.
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DennisQ | Jun 22, 2010, 10:23 PM EDT
Once again, M-Man, you're talking ideology. Any number of factors have contributed to the situation the states are in - the recession, Bush's irresponsible tax cuts, the shrinking value of Wall Street investments . . . Instead of looking at the entire situation, you focus in on those aspects that allow you to place blame on working people. You don't want a solution, you want a scapegoat. You're an example of why people have tuned out right wing government. We want answers, not recriminations.
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Monsoonman | Jun 22, 2010, 10:13 AM EDT
So the alliance of huge cradle to grave government and corrupt public employee unions have given us? What's that deficit now? 1 trillion and counting and an accumulated debt of 20 trillion? The state of Cali is so upside down with entitlements and unfunded pensions and benefits it has nothing left and will go to the federal government for a handout before it even tries to fix the broken system. Let Cali be the example of where your socialist ways, big nanny government, run by public employee unions will take you. We have had 30 years of it and it is time to pay the piper. Can't raise taxes anymore, can't sell anymore bonds.
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DennisQ | Jun 22, 2010, 01:11 AM EDT
No, that's just an assertion. We do know that private enterprise will reduce political accountability, just at a time when we're becoming aware of the need for greater accountability. For-profit enterprises often disregard the public good as an externality. If it's not on the balance sheet, it's unimportant. If we've learned anything from oil spills and the like, it's that government should play a greater part, not a lesser part. By the way, this Austrian economics stuff didn't just become nonsense - it was nonsense when it was first propounded.
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Monsoonman | Jun 21, 2010, 09:24 PM EDT
Oh Dennis, there is nothing I can think of that private enterprise can't do more efficiently and far less costly than government. There are cities in the US that are now putting out to bid all of their services and it is very successful. Private firefighting companies are again making a resurgence as cities and towns combat being held hostage by public employee unions.
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DennisQ | Jun 21, 2010, 10:56 AM EDT
I wouldn't want to live where police and fire services are supplied by the lowest bidder. Fire fighters wouldn't rescue people in burning buildings. We already have cops who shoot first and ask questions later - privatization would only increase that problem. It's not the answer you think it is.
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Monsoonman | Jun 21, 2010, 10:16 AM EDT
Oh Dennis? So should police and fire people all get a couple of hundred K raise to insure top quality personnel? Most cities are struggling to pay the inflated wages, pensions and benefits now and find it hard to fully staff their departments...they can't afford to ire personnel, so they start paying overtime...LOL!!! The answer: Privatize it all and put "services" out to bid, union and non union firms are welcome to bid.
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