WOULD BREAKING UNIONS ALLOW GOVERNORS TO SAVE MILLIONS?

Some people have suggested that all of the states should follow the example of Indiana, where collective bargaining by unions was done away with by the governor. Gov. Mitch Daniels says his move allowed him much more flexibility to change the way the government operates and to save money in the process. Here is the TerryReport response:
Big changes in the way government agencies operate in states should be accomplished through legislation, not by breaking unions. As for the issue of older, higher paid workers being forced out of their jobs, that issue needs to be addressed across the entire American economy, public and private. Employers want people who have the energy of the youngest workers, with the judgment and maturity of someone with years of experience on the job. In the end, they will almost always take the younger person who earns less but "learns fast". In a brutal, take no prisoners economy, human values lose out.

Unfortunately, unions everywhere make it a practice of protecting the jobs of those who are already there over improvements in productivity or eliminating waste. These attitudes, I think, are based on the idea of union leaders that they can only survive by making the workers believe they need them vitally and, also, by the historic fights that led to unionization in the first place (you don't give up easily what was, in some cases, won with blood).

Unions, in my view, need to open their eyes to the new realities. This is not the 1930s. They need to modernize their attitudes to accommodate changes that benefit states and society as a whole. During the late 1970s, I watched while unions took Eastern Airlines on its last ride into dissolution, but they could claim, to the end, that they fought the good fight. Visiting CBS News once in New York, I watched in amazement as an "engineer" wheeled out a VCR to play a tape: the executives were not allowed machines in their offices, machines that any 12 year old in America knew how to run. These kinds of silly rules help no one, except the person who temporarily has a job doing nothing worthwhile.


Still, state workers who have won collective bargaining must be allowed to retain it. Otherwise, forget about the unions and forget about any support from workers for modest proposals to protect the middle class, the near poor and the poor. If these governors get their way, America will take another giant step toward brutalization of workers and push another few million people toward poverty. It is that basic.

This is nonetheless a battle for the soul of our country. The Republicans want to eliminate a major source of Democratic support by destroying unions. We are in deep trouble in America with regard to fairness in wages, benefits and retirement. The lower 2/3s of American families and workers are being pushed lower every year and employers constantly come up with new ways to mistreat, under pay and rid themselves of workers. If the Republicans were to be successful, they would likely only hasten the day when there is a major revolt against the "destroy or be destroyed" form of business enterprise practiced by many big corporations and now moving into state government.

Doug Terry, 2.28.11