Public Sector Employees Are In The Cross Hairs Of The Right Wing.

A Google search of “public sector unions” returned an alarmingly negative response.

Here is a sample of the more than six million Google hits I found:

Public Sector Unions Gone Wild: This morning we warned you about the Public-Sector Union Threat to Economic Recovery….

Public Sector Unions Are Killing United States: If you are a member of a government employee public sector union, enjoy your job security while it lasts….

Public-Sector Unions Are a Major Obstacle to Fighting Waste, Abuse: …public-sector unions are among the biggest obstacles to efforts aimed at addressing state and local government waste, fraud, and abuse.

Public Sector Unions Must be Banned: …the solution of course, is to ban public sector unions and to ban defined benefits.

Public Sector Unions Holding Taxpayers Hostage: …study in 2005 by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated that the average public-sector worker earned 46% more in salary and benefits than comparable private-sector workers.

Jump in Public Sector Unionization Raises Overall Rate Again in 2008: …Public sector unionization last year grew to 36.8 percent from 35.9 percent in 2007. This increase of about 275,000 members came largely through gains in local and state government, where unionization in 2008 reached 42.2 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively.

No, not all the hits were this dramatic but most were negative comments about public employees and their right to collectively bargain. Remember, not all states allow collective bargaining for public employees. The Employee Free Choice Act and The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act have caused the right wing to mobilize as possibly never before to mute the voices of public and private sector employees.

Organized labor has been the target of the right wing since somebody figured out that workers banding together would give them strength against their bosses. Unions in the private sector have been suffering to the point of near annihilation while public sector labor unions have grown steadily.

Now, it is time for the public sector unions to feel the pain of the spot light. The economy is in shambles; tax reform is the key word of the century; and public employees are being forced to finance the prior bad decisions of the politicians and management with give backs, take backs and layoffs.

The governor of Colorado just vetoed legislation which would have allowed firefighters to collectively bargain without prior approval by the employer. The governor of New York vetoed a fire and police pension bill the day before. Just days before, the governor of Florida vetoed a workers’ compensation bill that have allowed injured employees the same access to legal representation as have the employers.

Here is a quote I frequently reflect upon. It is Nazi leader Hermann Goering’s ramblings during his incarceration after WWII.

“… it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Here is another: “Education is dangerous - Every educated person is a future enemy”

This country and its workers are at war on multiple fronts internally and externally. Its people are being led to economic doom by those who will demonize the opposition (public employees) as the source of the problem much like the Nazis targeted the Jews, Catholics, gays, Freemasons, intellectuals, gypsies, physically and mentally disabled, trade unionists, Poles and other eastern Europeans.

No, I am not suggesting that today’s anti-government right wingers are Nazis or fascists, but they are using the same tactics to divide and defeat.

If you cannot see where this is heading, no one can help you. There are things that the citizens can do to stop or at least slow down the successful attacks on career public servants, but first it will take a realization that there is a severe crisis. Then it will take an organized effort to defeat the sources of the problems.

Throwing out the right wing politicians who want to defeat government from within by starving the employees who provide the service that the public requires is the only answer. …But then this is only my opinion. Caveat Lectores. And… Oh yes, have a nice day.

wjc