[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Upon Further Review

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Upon Further Review
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1189303827.shtml


   It's time to revisit an idea, a policy change really, that public
   employees should have the right to strike. It obviously tugs on our
   egalitarian heartstrings. It almost seems noble to end an apparently
   outdated disparity between the public and private sectors. But much of
   what the public employees have done with that privilege the past 40
   years is anything but noble.
   The latest example was that of some professional protesters that
   disrupted a University of Minnesota Board of Regents meeting, claiming
   to support a strike of ASCFME support personnel against the U of M.
   Police were called, and the usual journalists obligingly published the
   usual stories of police brutality against the usual suspects.
   The 800 pound gorilla is Education Minnesota, the number one reason
   why costs continue to rise well above inflation and results continue
   to fall. We've seen a few cases where K-12 teachers have walked out on
   their students. Once it's over, the teachers argue that the outage did
   no long term harm to their students' education yet claim their
   services are indispensable to their future.
   Then there is MAPE, an amalgam of completely unrelated professions,
   much more so than even the Teamsters. Such an entity shouldn't really
   exist in the perfect unionized world. But they went on strike
   recently, impairing several agencies, including some law enforcement.
   When Ford workers go on strike, there are alternatives, i.e.,
   competitors. When your local elementary school goes dark and like
   most, you cannot afford private schooling, you're stuck. If the crime
   lab gets backlogged to the point where the opportunity to apprehend or
   convict is lost, we all lose. This creates a disproportionate
   incentive to settle, which helps explain why only the public sector
   unions are growing.
   The most fundamental problem in the above is that too many public
   sector jobs shouldn't be public sector jobs. Take your local public
   library. The entire operation could be outsourced to the private
   sector. The winning contractor's staff could unionize and strike, and
   that's the American way. But both the union and the contractor would
   weaken their position at the next contract renewal.
   K-12 education could also completely be returned to the private sector
   via vouchers. Just because the government pays for it doesn't mean
   they have to run it. Given their record, they clearly shouldn't
   continue to run it.
   MAPE's members don't provide any service not readily available in the
   private sector. So why are these people public employees?
   There are jobs that must be public sector, most of the police force,
   for example. And with such privilege must come the requirement not to
   strike, offset by other benefits like civil service protections and
   early retirement.
   But as for the rest: you strike, you're gone.