Oregon Public Employees Who Strike Should Be Replaced - Government Services Should Not Stop
Grants Pass, Oregon - Union represented employees of Josephine County, Oregon, are on strike. They have made unacceptable demands on the County of Josephine and on its tax-paying citizens. County commissioners should immediately find replacement employees to fill all of the vacancies caused by strikers.
It's a follow-the-leader game. By negotiating for wages and benefits that match those of public employees in other higher-paid jurisdictions in Oregon, unionized public employees of one county continue to ratchet up their total compensation until a new compensation leader is created. At that point, all of the other unionized jurisdictions in Oregon have a new, higher target for the wages and benefits paid to their employee groups.
As the upward compensation cycle continues to escalate, total compensation for these public employees reaches an unsustainable level. It is common for public employees to negotiate wages and benefits that are substantially higher than their counterparts in the private sector.
What is striking anyway? It seems to me that it's some sort of childish tantrum. "I'm not happy with my job but instead of making it better or finding a different job I'm going to show you whose boss."
Guess what? If today I decided to stand outside my place of employment with a sign rather than go inside and work then I would be fired.
"But we don't get paid enough/have enough benefits/aren't happy/etc"
So what? Lot's of people aren't happy with their jobs. At that point you choose to move on to somewhere else.
If what government does is soooo important, and all the employees they have are soooo neccessary then how come they get to take these long leaves of absence and life somehow still moves on?
6 comments:
Daniel,
Didn't you know, the tantrum, I mean Strike is over. What was funny listening to the news coverage last night was that the only people speaking on the topic were the union workers, and they all sounded upbeat. What this means is Both the Union and the County Government won. The county abandoned their principles and caved into the union which got, most likely, exactly what they wanted, and the county is going to receive more money by increasing taxes on the citizens of Josephine county. So really, the only loosers in this, as always, are the tax payers.
Stossel on Teachers Union & Education
Seem I had just read a rant about unions ... and I had. Friday 1/13/06 - Stossel should be on ABC with the broadcast.
"This should come as no surprise once you remember that public education in the USA is a government monopoly. Don't like your public school? Tough. The school is terrible? Tough. Your taxes fund that school regardless of whether it's good or bad. That's why government monopolies routinely fail their customers. Union-dominated monopolies are even worse."
Who is the idiot that allowed Government workers to Unionize in the 1st place? He should be SHOT!
Gov'ts don't need a union, there will always be Gov't, there is no need for the Mafia to protect those jobs.
Let's get a law passed to stop any Gov't workers from being in unions. THEN we would have their attention AND they would be reminded that WE hold the purse strings. THEN we would have back OUR gov't OF, BY & FOR US! not them.
It used to be that the public sector would try to keep up with the private sector, but now it is a totally different animal. Public employees think they are OWED higher levels of compensation, but without any accountability. Give me my money, and, oh yeah, you can't fire me even if you wanted to.
Stossel's program was interesting... had some truths, had some fluffs. Read my take here Diesel Shack. Sorry for the shameless plug Daniel!
And I can't do html links either... go to the Diesel Shack link off of Daniel's main page. I suck!
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