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Scott Walker was right: public servants should be forbidden from unionizing.

by amyjess 11y ago

bilbo0s 11y ago
You must not be from Wisconsin. Walker believes every public servant... (Other than Police and Firemen)... should be prevented from unionizing.
logfromblammo 11y ago
I feel I should note that Walker exempted police unions from his union-busting. And I disagree. The size and scope of the entity representing the employer and the size and scope of the entity representing the employee should be similar in scale. It's the only reasonable way to curtail abuses arising from imbalances in political power. For government workers, there is effectively only one employer. It is entirely reasonable for those employees to band together into one union. Or three. Or ten. That tenth one might not be all that effective, but collective bargaining as a labor cartel should be equally accessible to everyone, regardless of who their employer may be. If one union behaves badly, it should be perfectly acceptable for the employer to blacklist their members from future employment or contract renewals. In the case where the union is defending the indefensible--the open and notorious police misconduct seen in the video--the right thing to do would be to just stop employing their members. In trying to save the jobs of a handful of bad cops, this union is damaging the collective reputation of all police in the entire country, along with the criminal justice system. The behavior in the video is reminiscent of Hollywood motion picture depictions of organized crime crews shaking down business owners for protection money. Not all unions are bad, but this one sure is.
- amyjess 11y ago
  > I feel I should note that Walker exempted police unions from his union-busting. OK, eww, yeah, Walker was wrong then. Fundamentally, forming a union is an act against your employer's interests. When your employer is a private entity, that's not a big deal. It's a dispute between two private parties, let them hash it out amongst themselves. But when your employer is the government, forming a union is an act against the public's interests. Public servants should never, ever be allowed to act against the public's interests under any circumstances. And this goes double when your job is a fundamental part of public safety. It's why Reagan fired the air traffic controllers: because such a group going on strike is a direct attack on public safety. Imagine if there was a police department that actually did their jobs instead of choking black people to death on the streets; now imagine that "good" police department suddenly went on strike because of a pay dispute. Imagine how many people calling 911 for domestic violence, home invasions, etc. would be completely and thoroughly screwed. Police unions simply are incompatible with public safety.
  - logfromblammo 11y ago
    If you frame this in terms of freedom of association versus public safety, my preference is to choose the former. ~If the cops go on strike, we can always contract city security out to OCP and their clever robots.~

Scott Walker was right: public servants should be forbidden from unionizing.

by amyjess 11y ago

Scott Walker was right: public servants should be forbidden from unionizing.

You must not be from Wisconsin. Walker believes every public servant... (Other than Police and Firemen)... should be prevented from unionizing.

logfromblammo 11y ago

I feel I should note that Walker exempted police unions from his union-busting. And I disagree. The size and scope of the entity representing the employer and the size and scope of the entity representing the employee should be similar in scale. It's the only reasonable way to curtail abuses arising from imbalances in political power. For government workers, there is effectively only one employer. It is entirely reasonable for those employees to band together into one union. Or three. Or ten. That tenth one might not be all that effective, but collective bargaining as a labor cartel should be equally accessible to everyone, regardless of who their employer may be. If one union behaves badly, it should be perfectly acceptable for the employer to blacklist their members from future employment or contract renewals. In the case where the union is defending the indefensible--the open and notorious police misconduct seen in the video--the right thing to do would be to just stop employing their members. In trying to save the jobs of a handful of bad cops, this union is damaging the collective reputation of all police in the entire country, along with the criminal justice system. The behavior in the video is reminiscent of Hollywood motion picture depictions of organized crime crews shaking down business owners for protection money. Not all unions are bad, but this one sure is.

amyjess 11y ago
> I feel I should note that Walker exempted police unions from his union-busting. OK, eww, yeah, Walker was wrong then. Fundamentally, forming a union is an act against your employer's interests. When your employer is a private entity, that's not a big deal. It's a dispute between two private parties, let them hash it out amongst themselves. But when your employer is the government, forming a union is an act against the public's interests. Public servants should never, ever be allowed to act against the public's interests under any circumstances. And this goes double when your job is a fundamental part of public safety. It's why Reagan fired the air traffic controllers: because such a group going on strike is a direct attack on public safety. Imagine if there was a police department that actually did their jobs instead of choking black people to death on the streets; now imagine that "good" police department suddenly went on strike because of a pay dispute. Imagine how many people calling 911 for domestic violence, home invasions, etc. would be completely and thoroughly screwed. Police unions simply are incompatible with public safety.
- logfromblammo 11y ago
  If you frame this in terms of freedom of association versus public safety, my preference is to choose the former. ~If the cops go on strike, we can always contract city security out to OCP and their clever robots.~