Mitch Daniels (R – IN), the recently empowered Governor of Indiana, revoked public sector employees’ right to collective bargaining as soon as he took office. Other states have followed suit, the most recent being Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, protestors took to the capitol and Democrat lawmakers fled to Illinois so that the recent legislation could not be passed, as the remaining lawmakers cannot constitute a quorum. (At least with Rahm Emanuel in office the Democrats will have a hospitable place to stay in Chicago.)
The public sector workers are different from private sector workers in that their boss is not some rich, monopoly seeking, tycoon that wants to pay his workers next to nothing for back breaking work. Public sector workers report to the government. (Yes, the government does have monopolies, but it is by no means rich.) If public sector jobs were so horrible as to need powerful unions to protect the workers, why are they so frequently sought? I don’t hear public sector workers complaining about unreasonable hours. And the benefits, well, those aren’t anything to complain about, either. Yet union workers have launched a continual string of protests across America. They claim they want the power to demand wages that they can live on. I don’t understand why they would need this power seeing that public sector employees start at around $26,000 for even the lowest of jobs; most of the jobs start around $35,000. This isn’t wage slavery.
But until now, the protests have been civil. Today, however, a Communication Workers of America assaulted Tabitha Hale, a conservative activist working for FreedomWorks. The attack occurred when she was filming the protestors outside of FreedomWorks’ office in DC. The mustached brute even had the audacity to say that the union way was “to get a little bloody.” (I guess he wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to strike). Of course, none of this was reported by mainstream – or liberal – news stations. Fox analysts did give Ms. Hale a voice, though, so her story did not go unreported. The crime, which is on video, will also not go unreported. I must entreat Ms. Hale to also seek legal action in civil court, because the assault must have been jarring and emotionally disturbing.
Liberal journalists and talk show hosts are fanning the flames as I write this. Daily Beast reporter Rick Outzen said about elderly Tea Party supporters – who he calls “teabaggers” – that the country was “just a few funerals away from a good government.” This came after an elderly Tea Party protester was beat by Irish-American union thugs during a rally in Boston. (Now we know why Democrats work so hard to help criminals avoid punishment.)
It is alarming that public service unions are this up in arms over something they clearly do not need. The only reason for fighting this hard, that I can think of, is that they like the extra cushion that our taxpayers’ dollars provides them. One thing, however, is clear – the unions will resort to violence to intimidate conservatives. I would not be surprised if Mitch Daniels wakes up tomorrow to find a dead fish on his front porch next to the morning paper.
An average American household brings in 50,000 a year. Chances are, if someone is working in the public sector, their spouse isn't working at all. 35,000 is great for a single person, fine for a couple but pretty low for a family. Young people tend to not settle on public work so most of the workers you're talking about have families. It seems reasonable to want higher wages in that case. On the other hand, if the state is worth negative dollars, they need to down size like any company would. It sucks but it's true. I just don't like that you belittle those people.
ReplyDeleteThe $35,000 is the average starting pay, the average pay is around $50,000, so they're actually the same. In Wisconsin, the average public sector union employee makes approx. $70,000, more than private sector. I don't mean to belittle them, but if they are making more than private sector employees they really should not be complaining. And some of the union people are thugs, not most, but a few, so I do mean to belittle those people. Striking a 20 year old girl is cowardice.
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