Earlier this year the Wall Street Journal chronicled the ascendancy of public unions in America. Read more:The threats of insolvency in distant places (like Greece, Spain, and......California) should serve as a red flag for all of us. It doesn't take much to connect the dots. Look at the plight of Gov. Steve Christie in New Jersey.
At the end of the 19th century labor unions were absolutely necessary to improve working conditions. Unfortunately, for the last five decades of the 20th century too often labor unions held their employers, creditors, and stockholders hostage until unsustainably high wages and benefit concessions were extracted. Gradually business and job destruction followed. These days in states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois labor unions have essentially priced many businesses right out of the global markets and themselves right out of jobs.
Americans are now seemingly surrounded by reports of ballooning state and federal budget deficits. Are there dots to be connected?
There is a certain win-lose brand of adversarial thinking prevalent in the minds of virtually all labor union negotiators. When labor unions brought General Motors to its knees everyone lost. With public labor unions there is actually no end user-customer to satisfy. Bad service and products don't matter. In the end, the negotiating adversary is the taxpayer's representatives.......the politicians. The warning signs are everywhere.
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