There is nothing wrong with union workers!!
Readers of my blogs will jump to the conclusion that i blame government union workers for all RI’s financial problems. Not true. I blame the union bosses and thier allies in government–legislators at the state level and city managers, mayors, and town council members at the local level. Union workers, properly managed, will work just as hard as any worker in private industry. I know this for a fact.
My wife is an elementary school teacher in Central Falls. She leaves for work Monday through Friday at 7:00 am and returns each night at 7:00 pm. Most weekends she spends half her time correcting papers, doing lesson plans, making materials for classroom projects, or filling out report cards. My brother is a facility engineer (maintenance technician) for the RI court system. He is a hard worker and earns every cent of his pay.
My problem is with highly paid union bosses who demand ever more money from state and local governments regardless of whether or not these governments can afford to finance these increasing demands for higher wages, benefits, and pensions. Where does this money for the unionized government workers come from? It comes from every taxpayer in the state and every taxpayer in the state’s cities and towns. But even worse than these greedy union bosses are the state legislators, city managers, mayors and town council members who refuse to say–enough! These politicians are willing to give away hard earned taxpayer dollars to these government workers in exchange for the worker’s vote come Election Day. This cycle of ever increasing unionized government worker compensation in exchange for another incumbent victory on Election Day has reached the breaking point in RI. No you say.
Consider this. Average pay for public sector government workers in RI is 4th highest in the country. See p. 43 in the book Rich States, Poor States at http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Rich_States_Poor_States. It is no coincidence that RI has one of the highest rates of unionized government workers in the country–62 percent as compared to the national average of 37 percent.
Again this is not the fault of the rank and file union worker in RI. It is the fault of politicians in the RI general assembly who insist on unionizing every single service provided by the government. This would not be so bad if one union compete against another to provide the best service for the lowest price. It would not be so bad if unions competed with private companies to provide these government services for the lowest price. Yet, instead of implementing competition amongst various suppliers for these government services, the legislators enact laws that make it almost impossible for RI to privatize any government functions.
At the same time, these state legislators are enacting laws that shift union expenses from the unions to the state which means the state taxpayers. For instance, instead of a union and a school committee splitting the cost of mediation or arbitration when the two sides can not agree on an issue, the legislators want the state (taxpayers) to pay the first $15,000 of the mediation or arbitration cost. Why should the state’s taxpayers pay for union mediation in a city or town? Why shouldn’t the union and the city or town pay these costs!
Another prime example of union boss and politician collaboration at the expense of the tax payer is how the union worker’s health insurance is paid. Only recently have union members started to pay part of the cost for their health insurance. For years the city or the state taxpayers paid the whole premium for these health insurance plans and the union member paid nothing. Yet, civil servants in the Federal Government pay about 30% of the cost of their health insurance. If a Federal employee elects not to take the federal health insurance, he/she gets no “buyback.” My wife does not take her Central Falls health insurance because she is covered by my health insurance, but the school department “gives” her the money the school would have paid for her health insurance if she had taken it. This is called a buyback. It is things like buybacks that are causing cities and towns all over RI to go bankrupt.
Union leaders must realize there is a limit as to how much government and its taxpayers can afford for the government worker’s compensation. Legislators, city managers/mayors, and town council members must carefully analyze the cost of every pay raise and other benefit that they bestow on their government workers to make sure that the taxpayers can afford to shoulder these costs.
Finally, if the taxpayers realize the politicians are not doing their job to protect the public’s interest, then their only recourse is to vote these politicians out of office. You can ‘t get blood out of a stone and you can only get so much out of each taxpayer! Robert A. Benson, Jr.
I agree that changes need to be made to better balance state budgets, but I don’t think taking aim at public school teachers is the way to go about this. Before you make such comments you should spend one week with your wife in that class…trust me she earns every penny and every benefit. Look to change government spending in other areas.
Anne,
she probably does earn every penny she makes. But is it fair that teachers only pay 5% of their health insurance cost or that East Providence Teachers pay nothing for their health insurance when the city is in debt 10 million dollars? is it fair that if she refuses this health insurance, the school department “gives” her the money it would have paid had she taken the health insurance. This is called a buyback. The Federal Government does not give “buybacks” if a civil servant like your brother elects to not participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program. Is it fair that she pays nothing for her term like insurance? Every time a state or city worker pays nothing for some benefit, it is the taxpayer who pays for it via state taxes or local property taxes. RI teachers salaries are the 10th highest in the country yet student performance is on average below national averages. In the pension system your mother is in right now she could retire after 28 years of service with 60 % of her high three average salary. if she works until she has 35 years of service, her pension will be 80% of her average high three salary. In the federal government, a civil servant would have to work until age 42 to get 80%. In the Federal Gov’t., a worker and a retiree like me pays 30% of our FEHB insurance premium. Why should RI teacher benefits be so generous compared to those in the Federal Government? Are RI teachers better than Federal employees?