Collective Bargaining = Collective Coercion

Fact: The majority of union members are in the public sector.

Fact: Public sector makes 46 percent more than private sector counterparts.

The protests in Wisconsin are showing Americans the true nature of the corrosive effect unionize civil servants can have on our societies. I am not against the right for private citizens to organize unions to lobby their employers. Let me be clear about that.

HOWEVER, public sector unions are a TOTALLY DIFFERENT ballgame because their pay and benefits is funded by taxpayers and taxpayers have zero choice whether or not to fund them. In the private sector unions must strike a balance between asserting their influence on their employers in order to gain better wages and benefits and killing the businesses that employ them because at the end of the day a business must earn a profit to grow. A recent study by the Heritage Foundation perhaps summed it up best.

Unions function as labor cartels. A labor cartel restricts the number of workers in a company or industry to drive up the remaining workers' wages, just as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) attempts to cut the supply of oil to raise its price. Companies pass on those higher wages to consumers through higher prices, and often they also earn lower profits. Economic research finds that unions benefit their members but hurt consumers generally, and especially workers who are denied job opportunities.

In other words, Unions literally kill jobs.

In the case of public sector unions there is almost no limit to the spending because as the politicians that back these unions and buy their votes through their patronage are spending other people's money. It is no mystery that the states with the largest unions and most pro-labor laws are also the same states with the greatest budget deficits. This is due to the vicious and dangerous cycle that union patronage perpetuates. Politicians who support and reward unions are virtually guaranteed their votes. As the union benefits grow so do the unions. Liberal politicians who reward unions through funding higher wages and benefits with tax-payer money and pass laws virtually guaranteeing the unions monopoly on the services they provide are thereby guaranteed re-election. It is no wonder most state legislators in big union states tend to be Democrats.

This destructive relationship is terribly damaging to our democracy because it almost literally means politicians can buy votes and this trend is on the rise. Recently the U.S. Bureau of Labor released data showing that for the first time the majority of union members in America were public sector workers.

Not only do public sector unions waste our money but they can do something private sector unions never do. They can hold us hostage. This was made painfully clear in New York city this winter when several people DIED because union workers intentionally and in an organized manner deliberately refused to clear snow covered roads in order to protest reduces in pay and benefits. This is a shocking scenario.

Imagine if police, many of whom are unionized, simply refused to protect our streets because they didn't get a 5 percent pay raise in a year. Or firemen, many of whom are unionized, refused to put out fires. In the case of Wisconsin we have teachers refusing to teach our children due to proposed cuts. If that isn't being held hostage I do not know what is. What is even more infuriating in these cases is that Unions, especially teachers unions, are almost ALWAYS against private sector charter schools. Not only do they attempt to rig the system by supporting corrupt politicians who buy their votes but they also try to rig it further by preventing any mechanism that would break their monopoly on education. This isn't just true of teachers or firemen or policemen. It is true of the entire pro-labor cabal that IS LITERALLY killing jobs in America.

Consider this statement by Intel CEO Paul Otellini

"I can tell you definitively that it costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip, and operate a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States," Otellini said.

The rub: Ninety percent of that additional cost of a $4 billion factory is not labor but the cost to comply with taxes and regulations that other nations don't impose."

Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers elaborated on this in an interview with CNET, saying the problem is not higher U.S. wages but antibusiness laws: "The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn't want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways."

In the case of California much of the reason for those hostile anti-business practices are a bloated government system that must bleed its people in order to pay for its unparalleled public service sector that enjoys benefits and pay that have driven the state into historic levels of debt.

So what is the solution? Well first of all find a way to support Governor's Christie of NJ and Walker of WI and any other governor with the courage to free taxpayers held hostage by unions.

For a long term solution we must make it firmly illegal for public sector workers to unionize PERIOD. This may seem draconian but consider this. The U.S. Miliary collectively forms the largest public sector work force category in the Federal government yet no members of the U.S. military are unionized.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE		736,592		733,479		+3,113		689,363		687,147		+2,216		72,120		71,919		+201
DEFENSE, MILITARY FUNCTION TOTAL		712,234		708,562		+3,672		665,062		662,284		+2,778		71,379		71,182		+197
DEFENSE, CIVIL FUNCTION TOTAL		24,358	*	24,917	*	-559		24,301	*	24,863	*	-562		741	*	737	*	+4
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY		281,632		280,790		+842		261,342		260,394		+948		21,705		21,755		-50
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, MILITARY FUNCTION TOTAL		257,275		255,874		+1,401		237,042		235,532		+1,510		20,965		21,019		-54
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, CIVIL FUNCTION TOTAL		24,357		24,916		-559		24,300		24,862		-562		740		736		+4
CORP OF ENGINEERS		24,285		24,844		-559		24,228		24,790		-562		668		664		+4
CEMETERIAL EXPENSES		72		72		...		72		72		...		72		72		...
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY		190,988		190,281		+707		183,688		182,946		+742		26,851		26,608		+243
DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

So why aren't military service members unionized? The answer: because it is totally illegal. In military terms to "strike" is tantamount to "dereliction of duty", "failure to obey a lawful order" or in layman's term "mutiny". This is illegal under the uniform code of military justice and technically punishable by death. WOW huh!? how draconian! Yet think about the logic behind it. Could you imagine a situation where an invading Army sat at our nation's doorstep and a large portion of our military refused to fight because they were unhappy with their pay and benefits?! As a nation we place a tremendous trust in our armed forces to protect us and due to the collective importance of that task military service members voluntarily give up their rights in the service of their country. So why can't this same system work for all of the public sector?

Can you think of any organization more worthy of a pension than the military? Probably not. Yet, military pay and benefits pale in comparison to that of their civilian counterparts in the public sector. So why do they join? Well I can tell you from my experience it has a lot to do with wanting to serve and taking pride in their service. Service members still can lobby for their rights. They can write letters to congress and belong to lobbying organizations that work on their behalf. This is largely why benefits for the military continue to increase. They ask and taxpayers decide. Its all about choice. The choice to volunteer and the choice to reward those who volunteer to serve.

So if it is good enough for those fighting and dying for our country its good enough for lazy government workers, unionized teachers and all public sector workers, especially those whose inactions endanger our lives. Let's put meaning back in the term "public service" support legislation that bans collective bargaining for public sector workers NOW!!!!!!