Collective Bargaining – Yes
Next time you go to work, observe the privileges you have within your work environment. Privileges people now take for granted. For example, the five day work week, the eight hour work day, a decent wage, sick days, paid vacation, and a safe and healthy work environment. These things were not simply granted by employers. They had to be fought for by people, and unions are the collective force that has historically fought for these rights.
People underestimate the influence unions have had on our lives and the development of the middle class. If the state worker’s right to collectively bargain were stripped, their middle class wages could be capriciously cut by paltry politicians, and as wages shrink, the incentive to take a job as a fire fighter, police officer, or teacher would be degraded. These people have important roles in society and we should all desire to have the most qualified individuals filling these professions. For example, if we continue to reduce teacher’s wages, the quality of teachers will subsequently decrease, as the more intelligent, better qualified individuals seek other professions with more economic appeal. And we need intelligent and competent teachers within the public school system to give children, especially impoverished children, the best opportunity to succeed.
The demonization of union and public sector workers is absolutely abhorrent. There are commentators, politicians, and common citizens that claim public employees such as teachers have easy jobs with too many benefits. The fact is that most teachers work hard and are passionate about their profession. They are not in the profession because they are looking for a lucrative job because it is not traditionally a high salary position. The majority of teachers get into the profession because they love to teach and care about influencing a child’s education.
All of these arguments against state workers rights to collectively bargain have no substance. They are all based on generalizations and stereotypes. For example, this idea that all public and union workers are lazy and over-privileged shows a complete lack of interest in researching the topic, and represents an indolent approach to the argument by resorting to an easy, yet weak debate mechanism. Even if you personally know someone who works in the public sector or is a member of a union that has an apathetic approach to their job, this does not mean it is representative of the entire population of public sector workers. The previous sentence represents another weak debate tool that has been used against these workers, and that tool is the anecdote. This scheme is always insufficient because it fails to present any facts and assumes that one or a few people embody an entire group.
Why do we continue to support policies that snatch power from common citizens and escalate it towards the people at the top of the economic food chain? Rich bankers on Wall St. gamble the country into the largest economic downturn since The Great Depression and yet, not one of them faces repercussions for their transgressions. Instead, we place the burden on the working and middle class. Punitive measures are being struck against the public sector employees rather than the people at the top. Certainly everyone is forced to make sacrifices in a recession, but should we not make the industries that created the problem sacrifice first? Remember, states did not have these excessive budgetary issues prior to the economic collapse.
Allowing workers to collectively bargain-and this ideal applies to all workers, both private and public- is fundamental to retaining any semblance of power for workers throughout the country. Otherwise, in the case of the public sector, politicians can arbitrarily cut the wages and benefits of middle class families. In the case of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, he is exploiting the budget deficit problem that he himself helped create. His corporate tax cuts coupled with the Wall Streeters who sold toxic assets to pension funds which consequently imploded lead to a budget deficit, which somehow grants him the authority to ransack the public employee’s collective bargaining rights. This Svengali and his authoritarian measures are detrimental to the country, and the perpetuation of these actions will continue to shrink the middle class and place all the power in the hands of the most affluent. Most state employees are hard workers who care about their profession and contribution to society, and they deserve the right to collectively bargain for their wages and benefits.
