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As an ordinary citizen affected by, I support privatization where possible and at-will employment regimes for public servants where not. Public servants are pri

As an ordinary citizen affected by, I support privatization where possible and at-will employment regimes for public servants where not. Public servants are privileged and should not have the right to strike.

sfkdjf9j3j 8y ago
What do you mean specifically by "should not have the right to strike"? As in, they should have their right to free association limited? They should be forced to work under penalty of jail time?
RestlessMind 8y ago
So if public servants are forbidden from striking and their employer (govt) starts abusing them, what would be their recourse? Voting might be insufficient if size of the workforce is too small to matter. In general, strike is a tool labor has against capital. Just because capital happens to be provided by taxpayers, how does that warrant a special case handling?
- ferongr 8y ago
  They can always quit. But nobody quits from guaranteed for-life employment with generous pensions, lots of paid leave and limited workload.
  - snazz 8y ago
    Public school teachers don’t have any of those benefits, at least in the US. Their pay and pension are anything but generous, they have little paid leave (where I live, maternity or paternity leave uses up paid sick days too), and they work long hours, with the expectation that they are available to answer emails practically every day. This is pretty much why there are very few public school computer science teachers who do a decent job, since the ones who can legitimately write code can get a much better job at a private company.
    - cascom 8y ago
      They have little paid leave because they have summers and other holidays off, and as for answering emails - welcome to having a job in America. When you factor that they only work 2/3 of the year, the value of their pension and healthcare teachers actually make a considerable amount of money. That being said I’m not sure what the right amount is - I put a great deal of value on education - then again the best private institutions probably pay less than public ones at the k-12 level
  - RestlessMind 8y ago
    Same can be said about private sector workers. Then why have separate rules for public vs private?
- pnw_hazor 8y ago
  They can vote their bosses out and they usually have statutory civil servant protections as well. When government employee unions negotiate with their employers, they negotiate with a political actors who, if they act right, get support from the union for their next re-election. The incentives encourage political actors to bend to the unions will to receive donations or endorsements in their next election. Typically this is called a conflict-of-interest.
door5 8y ago
You're right, to some degree, public sector employees have stronger labor protections than private sector employees. However, we disagree in that I think these protections are a good thing, and I support nationalization where possible and private sector unions where not. Everyone should have the right to strike.

sfkdjf9j3j 8y ago

What do you mean specifically by "should not have the right to strike"? As in, they should have their right to free association limited? They should be forced to work under penalty of jail time?

RestlessMind 8y ago

So if public servants are forbidden from striking and their employer (govt) starts abusing them, what would be their recourse? Voting might be insufficient if size of the workforce is too small to matter. In general, strike is a tool labor has against capital. Just because capital happens to be provided by taxpayers, how does that warrant a special case handling?

ferongr 8y ago
They can always quit. But nobody quits from guaranteed for-life employment with generous pensions, lots of paid leave and limited workload.
- snazz 8y ago
  Public school teachers don’t have any of those benefits, at least in the US. Their pay and pension are anything but generous, they have little paid leave (where I live, maternity or paternity leave uses up paid sick days too), and they work long hours, with the expectation that they are available to answer emails practically every day. This is pretty much why there are very few public school computer science teachers who do a decent job, since the ones who can legitimately write code can get a much better job at a private company.
  - cascom 8y ago
    They have little paid leave because they have summers and other holidays off, and as for answering emails - welcome to having a job in America. When you factor that they only work 2/3 of the year, the value of their pension and healthcare teachers actually make a considerable amount of money. That being said I’m not sure what the right amount is - I put a great deal of value on education - then again the best private institutions probably pay less than public ones at the k-12 level
- RestlessMind 8y ago
  Same can be said about private sector workers. Then why have separate rules for public vs private?
pnw_hazor 8y ago
They can vote their bosses out and they usually have statutory civil servant protections as well. When government employee unions negotiate with their employers, they negotiate with a political actors who, if they act right, get support from the union for their next re-election. The incentives encourage political actors to bend to the unions will to receive donations or endorsements in their next election. Typically this is called a conflict-of-interest.

door5 8y ago

You're right, to some degree, public sector employees have stronger labor protections than private sector employees. However, we disagree in that I think these protections are a good thing, and I support nationalization where possible and private sector unions where not. Everyone should have the right to strike.