Red Clay Citizen

Why Do State Employees Want to be With the SEIU?

According to this article in the NY Sun, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is underfunded in its pension fund for dues-paying union members, but is over-funded for it's own union officers!

Yet in 2006, the SEIU National Industry Pension Plan, a plan for the rank-and-file members, covering 100,787 workers, was 75% funded. That is, it had three-fourths of the money it needed to pay benefit obligations of workers and retirees.

In contrast, a separate fund for the union's own employees, numbering 1,305, participants was 91% funded. Even better, the pension fund for SEIU officers and employees, which had 6,595 members, was 103% funded.

Wow, I guess we see who the union is really interested in.  Workers be damned, as long as they look after those making the decisions.  Maybe the union members need union representation to negotiate a better deal from the union bosses.

And these are the guys (well, SEANC by extension) who filed a lawsuit against Treasurer Richard Moore for his handling of state employee's pension funds!

Unions don't give up easily - especially when they lose a vote!

In an earlier post, there was a description of the House Local Government II Committee meeting that considered and rejected a union backed bill, SB 1271 - Firefighter/EMS Payroll Deductions. This bill, defeated once, is to be considered again by the same committee on Wednesday, 25 June at 10:00 AM.

In the first meeting those voting to allow the payroll deductions were Reps. Alma Adams (D-Guilford), Nelson Dollar (R-Wake), Susan Fisher (D-Buncombe), Earl Jones (D-Guilford), Jimmy Love (D-Lee) and Larry Womble (D-Forsyth).

While the votes of the Democrat members  in support of this legislation are understandable from a philosophical and practical point, unions poured a LOT of money into electing Democrats in the 2006 election, the vote of Representative Nelson Dollar (R-Wake), is not. Why does a self professed conservative Republican join with a group of mostly liberal democrats to support a union backed bill that will mostly benefit the Teamsters?

The way this "already defeated" bill will rise from the dead (Dracula like) is that one of the legislators who voted against the bill, Reps. Lucy Allen (D-Franklin), Larry Brown (R-Forsyth), Phil Frye (R-Mitchell), Marvin Lucas (D-Cumberland), Mary McAllister (D-Cumberland), Fred Steen (R-Rowan), Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) or Laura Wiley (R-Guilford), will make a motion to "reconsider". They will again debate the bill and vote again. Since the bill failed by two votes last time they will need either opponents to take a walk or switch votes assuming they keep all of the original supporters.

Usually when a bill is brought back up in this manner the supporters are pretty sure they have the votes in their pockets...

Poll: Voters Support Right-to-Work

Despite the millions of dollars pumped into North Carolina campaigns and an intensive lobbying effort by national unions to weaken North Carolina’s labor laws, voters overwhelmingly support maintaining North Carolina as a right-to-work state according to a new poll released by the Civitas Institute. 

When asked if they supported maintaining North Carolina as a right-to-work state where workers can not be forced into a union, a resounding 78 percent agreed while only 16 percent disagreed.  7 percent were undecided.

“Big labor has targeted North Carolina as a potential state to expand its scope and influence.  Unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Teamsters are pushing collective bargaining for state and local government employees as the first step towards repealing right-to-work in North Carolina,” said Francis DeLuca, Executive Director of the Civitas Institute.  “Unfortunately for the unions, the voters of North Carolina overwhelming reject this path,” DeLuca stated.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) recently voted to officially align with the national SEIU organization.  SEIU and other unions have pumped over $2 million into state and local elections in North Carolina over the past four years.

“It does not matter how long they have lived in North Carolina, natives and newcomers alike have seen the damage done to the economies of states like Michigan and New Jersey by forced unionization.  They do not want to see the same thing happen here,” DeLuca concluded.

Full text of question:

DO YOU SUPPORT KEEPING NORTH CAROLINA A RIGHT-TO-WORK STATE, WHERE WORKERS CAN'T BE FORCED INTO A UNION?

                                    #    %   
YES                             465   78    
NO                                95   16                                 
NOT SURE                      39    7    
REFUSED                              1         

                       TOTAL    600 

For crosstabs click here:

Legislative Lowdown: Public Union Setback

The House Local Government II Committee was packed on the morning of Wednesday, June 17th when members debated the merits of SB 1271.  This bill was being sold by lobbyists from the Firefighters' Assn. and the Fraternal Order of Police as a simple way for these associations to collect dues through their members' paychecks.  This bill was about much more than that. 

After passing through the NC Senate early during last session, the bill languished in the House Committee on State Personnel without a vote until the powers that be in the House pulled it from Personnel and sent it to the Local Government II Committee.  The bill sponsor, Sen. John Snow (D-Cherokee) made this case that this bill was a way to support our fire and police officers by allowing them to do the same thing that the United Way does, payroll deduction.

Rep. Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) began to question the need for the measure and cited his experience as a town commissioner.  Rep. Laura Wiley (R-Guilford) also sought explanations for the bill's purpose.

Several local government advocacy groups then spoke against the measure, including the NC League of Municipalities, the NC Sheriff's Assn. and the  NC Assn. of Chiefs of Police.  But, by far, the most direct and compelling argument against the bill was made by Paul Meyer of the NC Assn. of Counties who correctly pointed out that this bill was really a precursor towards giving public employees in North Carolina the power of collective bargaining.  Sen. Snow took great exception to the mentioning of collective bargaining and appeared very agitated.

New people flee to North Carolina every year to escape the high taxes and poor economies of the Northeast that are dominated by public service unions that demand annual pay increases and threaten to strike if they don't get what they want.  A majority of representatives on the committee heard that message loud and clear and defeated the bill by a vote of 6-8.

Voting to allow the payroll deductions were Reps. Alma Adams (D-Guilford), Neslon Dollar (R-Wake), Susan Fisher (D-Buncombe), Earl Jones (D-Guilford), Jimmy Love (D-Lee) and Larry Womble (D-Forsyth).

Voting against allowing the payroll deductions were Reps. Lucy Allen (D-Franklin), Larry Brown (R-Forsyth), Phil Frye(R-Mitchell), Marvin Lucas (D-Cumberland), Mary McAllister (D-Cumberland), Fred Steen (R-Rowan), Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) and Laura Wiley (R-Guilford).

The reality is that employee associations can have their members set up bank drafts that automatically deduct dues from the members' bank accounts without ever involving government.  But, once you have inserted these wannabe unions between a worker and his paycheck, the line between voluntary participation and coercion begins to blur.  What happens if you are the only member of your police dept. that does not have payroll deduction?  Maybe you just need a little "talking" to to "get your mind right."  Fortunately for North Carolina, on Wednesday morning, the Local Government II Committee was stacked with a number of members that remember their days on the city council or county commission and don't want to make the jobs of their successors anymore difficult.

25% = Majority

Only in the world of unions does less that one-forth of employees voting for a union give approval for the union.

Take the recent results in Colorado, where the Governor single-handedly enacted collective bargaining for state employees, then when the vote for unionization occurred, less that 25% of state workers voted in favor!  Yet, that is good enough for the union to compel the other 75% to join the union and now pay dues.

Denver post story here.

First Step Towards Collective Bargaining

As the General Assembly continues to debate giving collective bargaining rights to public employees, the first step in the process is apparently moving through the Senate next Tuesday.

SB 1394 would allow employees to have union dues deducted from their paychecks.  In essence, the state payroll office will be acting as a conduit to allow union dues to be collected.

This is all a result of SEANC's decision to align with SEIU.  This legislation will make it easier to sign members up and funnel their money to the deep pockets of the national organization.

The committee meeting is Tuesday at noon.  The list of members of the committee is here.

Moore: Union Tried to Bribe Me

A story so good, I wish I was making it up.

WRAL has a brief story here.

For the REAL scoop, please see Under the Dome's excellent series of blog posts beginning here, and continuing here, here, here, and here.  Or just read all of Dome until you get to it here.

Of course, the union will just argue "that's how things are done."

If they will attempt to bribe a lawmaker over control of the pension fund, what will they be willing to do when their workplace conditions and pay increases are at stake like if they had collective bargaining rights?

More Labor Follies

Today, a coalition of unions will march on the General Assembly to demand the passage of HB 1583 which would allow for collective bargaining for public employees (teachers and state and local government employees).

James Andrews of the AFL-CIO is given space in today's N&O to explain his position.  However, his points are misguided.

Andrews attempts to make his case by paralleling private sector collective bargaining and public sector collective bargaining.  Unfortunately, they are not one in the same.

In private sector collective bargaining the labor union has a stake in the overall success or failure of the company.  Therefore, they cannot make their demands so unreasonable as to cause the company to fail or lose profitability since that would hurt them as well.  Both the union and the firm share a profit motive, that as the firm is successful, the employees will be as well.

That does not hold true for the public sector.  There are no shared profits to motivate and thus, no shared collective interest in success.  Employee labor unions can continue to make demand after demand regardless of its economic impact because there is no collective sense of prosperity.  There's no risk of the government going bankrupt, it can always just go out and grab new revenues from the taxpayers!

I can go through the laundry list of other harms from collective bargaining (a basic piece I wrote last year is here): no chance EVER at merit-based pay, increased costs to government and taxpayers, forcibly taking money from employees who don't join the union (through administrative fees), and the whole cycle of using union dues to support political candidates who will promise to raise pay, which generates more union dues, which generates more money for their campaigns, and on and on...

But we'll save those for later.

More on Collective Bargaining/Unions/Elections

To those on the left who mocked my question relating the issues, I give you this press release:

Union prepared to spend more than $150 million, mobilize tens of thousands during and AFTER the election to win healthcare, big improvements for working people.

Under the plan, SEIU leaders are pledging to spend more than $150 million and put tens of thousands of members in motion to achieve those goals by the end of the first 100 days of a new administration.

SEIU leaders also pledged to continue the union’s unprecedented growth by creating a national plan to unite more than 500,000 new members in the union by 2012. That would make SEIU the largest union in American history that is not exclusively public sector, and ensure that it has the strength to continue winning high standards of pay and benefits for its members and all working people.

So, once again, tell me how expanding collective bargaining rights to public employees and SEIU's involvement in elections aren't related?

Poll: NC Voters Oppose Collective Bargaining

Full press release here.  Highlights follow...

Now that the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) has officially aligned with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), these groups have made overturning North Carolina’s ban on collective bargaining their highest priority. Unfortunately for them, the voters disagree.

When asked if state employees and teachers’ unions should be able to engage in collective bargaining with elected officials they might endorse in elections, 56 percent said no. Only 30 percent thought it should be allowed. 14 percent were undecided.

Not even a majority of self-identified government employees approved of collective bargaining when asked – 49 percent approved, 40 percent disapproved.

Full text of question:

Should state employee and teacher's unions be allowed to engage in collective bargaining with elected officials they might endorse in elections?

Yes - 30%
No - 56%
Not Sure - 14%

Introducing SEIU Local 2008

What used to be the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) is now officially a branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

TBJ has the story here.

Merit Pay in Fayetteville?

The Mayor of Fayetteville, Tony Chavonne, announced yesterday that he wants to implement a merit-based pay system for city workers.

One week he stands on stage endorsing Sen. Barack Obama, the next he's calling for merit pay for city employees.  Up is down! Left is right! Cats and Dogs living together!

SEANC Affirms Relationship with SEIU

According to this article (subscription required) in the March 21st Triangle Business Journal, the State Employees Association of North Carolina's executive committee has voted 47-10 to enter into negotiations with the Service Employees International Association (SEIU) on an affiliation agreement -- taking one more giant step closer to finally admitting that they are a labor union.

The move would represent a major shift for North Carolina, the nation's least unionized state. In 2007, only 3 percent of the state's work force was unionized, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic. Adding SEANC's 55,000 members would increase the state's union population, now at 115,000, by nearly 50 percent.

SEANC wants SEIU's sophisticated political operation to have a say in national legislation and help knock down North Carolina's prohibition against collective bargaining for public employees, Cope says.

SEIU, Cope says, is interested in teaming with SEANC because the union wants to learn how to organize workers in the South. SEANC has successfully put together the largest independent organization of public employees in the nation, Cope says, while unions have struggled to recruit workers in the state.

Add this news to the earlier reported $360,000 that the NEA is spending in the governor's primary (and millions more to come from them and fellow unions) and North Carolina is quickly becoming the frontlines in labor's march to destroy the economies of the south much like they have in the Midwest and Northeast.

All those people and businesses who have moved to NC over the past few years to escape the overly high taxation and government regulation are seeing those same people following them down here.  Maybe this time we'll have sense enough to tell the unions we don't want you to do to North Carolina what you've done to Michigan.

Labor Unions Trying to Buy the Governor's Race

We've all seen the trend over the past few election cycles that organized labor has targeted North Carolina as fertile ground to expand its reach.  In the past it has mainly been in support of Democratic candidates in the general election, but this year, organized labor is trying to manipulate the Democratic primary for Governor.

Earlier this year, the State Employees Association of NC (SEANC) took it's lawsuit against State Treasurer Richard Moore public spending $30,000 on a series of newspaper ads mentioning their public records lawsuit against his office.  There was little doubt the timing of the ads were politically motivated to throw mud on Treasurer Moore before the primary.

Now, the nation's teacher's union -- the National Education Association (NEA) -- has bought $360,000 of radio time over the next two weeks promoting Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's education credentials.  (Download pdf of their expense filing here -- Download nea_communication.pdf.)  Dome has the full text of the ad here. 

$360,000 on radio statewide is a huge ad buy for two weeks.  Any media consultant will tell you that's enough to pretty much blanket the state.

Oh, and how did the NEA pay for these ads?  With the union dues of teachers.  The funds came from their general fund, not from their political action committee.  How many NEA members who support Richard Moore just had their dues confiscated from them and used without their input to support a candidate they do not agree with? 

How many good, honest teachers joined the NEA because they thought it was the right thing to do in order to support their profession and now come to find out that money is coming straight out of their paychecks to influence elections?

If the unions are willing to spend this much in the Primary to get their preferred candidate, how many millions will they spend to advance their anti-business, socialist agenda in the general election?

WRAL's Misleading Story on Teacher Pay

I don't know why WRAL found now the appropriate time to do a story on a dead bill given that the General Assembly isn't back in session for another two months, but it would at least be nice if they didn't just give the teacher's unions' talking points as "news".

Yes, teachers are asked to pay $50 when they take a personal day to offset a portion of the cost to hire a substitute teacher, but they still get paid for the day, which at most teachers' daily rates is in excess of $100.

So they are still getting paid about $50 to take a day off!  It's not like they are losing money off the deal.
This is also on top of the 22-30 days of paid sick leave/vacation leave they accumulate per year depending on years of experience.
Teachers accumulate so much leave that a teacher that takes no leave will have built up enough vacation or sick leave in their career to retire four years early.  Four years!  That's over 720 days of vacation accumulated.  Seems like plenty to me.

Out of Whack

When the Governor's budget comes out in a couple of months and SEANC starts whining about pay increases for state employees, someone send them this:

"State and local government workers are enjoying major gains in compensation, pushing the value of their average wages and benefits far ahead of private workers"

No Strike Here

With the Writer's Guild of America on strike, threatening to shut down production of your favorite TV shows, some bloggers are joining the writers and taking their blogs dark to show support for the writers.

Rest assured, we here at RCC will not be joining in.

Frankly the logic behind the strike makes very little sense to me.  The writers are going to sacrifice weeks of present value dollars (millions upon millions in lost salaries) to bargain for a greater share of on-line or download profits in the future.

Well, here's the flaw in their logic.  They are squandering money in their pocket now for a share of revenue from a produce that may or may not be worth anything.  Currently, you can go to Itunes and download a show to your computer for $1.99.  Or, some networks this season have begun to allow you to download shows for free.  Miss Desperate Housewives last night?  Go to abc.com and watch it anytime on your computer, and pay nothing.

So, how exactly do you get a larger share of something that may not generate revenue?  It's an awfully big risk they are taking.  Maybe someone should explain to the Writer's Guild the concept of time/value of money.  The present value of a guaranteed revenue source vs. the future value of the possibility of a revenue source.

Don't get me wrong, I don't discount the emergence of the web as a viable media delivery product, but we're not there yet and may not be for years.  How the writers see the logic in losing current money for the chase of the future dollar is beyond me.

Mexico Says NC is Unfair to Unions!

File this in the "I wish I was making this stuff up, but it's really true" file.

According to the Mexican Labor Ministry, the State of North Carolina is violating International Law and NAFTA by not repealing its statute (G.S. 95-98) which prohibits public employees from collective bargaining rights.  And they have sent a complaint letter!

Oh boy, where do I begin on this...
First, MYOB.  (There's another letter that could be inserted between O and B, but I'll keep it G-rated.)
Second, the idea that the Mexican government thinks for one second that the State of NC cares what it thinks regarding labor law is so ridiculous it's almost hard to believe.
Third, this just shows how out of touch with reality the labor unions are that they think this is a good strategy to convince North Carolinians and North Carolina lawmakers to repeal the statute.  Can you really see 61 NC House members voting to repeal G.S. 95-98 "because Mexico thinks we should?"  Do the labor unions think this will sway the general public to join their fight?

Labor unions in this country have gone so far off the deep end to the left they are marginalizing themselves and their effectiveness.  They have moved so far to the fringes of mainstream thinking that professed socialists may be able to run to their political right.

Smithfield vs. UFCW

I don't know how many of you have been following the unionization effort at the Smithfield Foods hog processing plant down in Tar Heel, NC, but it's providing a great example of how unreasonable the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) are being in their demands and the lengths they will go to deny the workers the right to vote.

Yes, the union is denying the workers the right to vote.

Take a look at the offer made by Smithfield that was rejected by the union:

• All employees would be informed of the election process at a joint meeting held by Smithfield and the UFCW. Smithfield would tell employees they were free to meet with union representatives, and would agree to bargain in good faith with the UFCW if the employees voted for union representation.
• Smithfield would limit its campaign activities to a series of plant meetings with employees. The UFCW would be allowed to monitor those meetings and would be given equal time to address employees.
• All campaign messages would be approved for truthfulness by a third party. Both sides would agree to avoid personal attacks.
• Smithfield would provide the UFCW with an accurate list of current employees, including addresses and phone numbers.
• Campaign votes would be counted by a third party. Smithfield and union representatives would monitor the counting process.
• Both sides would agree to cease negative media campaigns.

Seems pretty fair.  But the union only wants a check-card process where a majority of workers would state their preference for a union but not actually cast a secret ballot saying they wanted to unionize.

Why is the union so afraid of a secret ballot vote?  It's the same process it uses itself to elect its leaders, but it's not good enough for the workers?

(HT: Labor Pains)

Me Fail English? That's Unpossible

Remember the announcment from a couple of days ago by Eddie Davis (the teachers union's head grammarian) that he would run for Superintendent of Public Instruction? Over at The Soup, Miss Dish adds a few more layers of irony than we could dig up in our original post.

The Red Clay Citizen was quick to point out the glaring typo in Eddie’s announcement. There is certainly an enjoyable paradox when grammatical errors befuddle candidates promising to improve public schools, but RCC missed the bonus fact that Davis is a former high school English teacher... for 30 years. Every kid that failed grammer can smirk.

As if that weren't enough...

But wait, there's more for the “do as I say, not as I do” category. Remember, Davis said the reason for NCAE’s decision to move up its gubernatorial endorsement was, "If we're going to be worker bees, we can't wait." But Davis is a taking a much more lackadaisical approach himself, telling the AP he doesn't plan to step down from his president's post to campaign. "The rigors of the campaign may cause me to take some leave" only in the weeks leading up to the May primary, he said. Davis also promised he wouldn't use NCAE’s databases to contact its 70,000 members for politicking. Please.

Good luck with all that, Eddie. (S - u - p - e - r - i - n... where was I?)

UAW Concedes to GM

So says the headline of this Business Week article, and basically, if you read what has been revealed about the contract, that is basically the case.

GM gets:
Offloading of health care program to the union
Lower starting salaries for new hires
Reduction in "Jobs Bank" program
A two-tiered wage structure

UAW gets:
No wage or benefit reductions (notice, no increase either)
A commitment from GM to invest in US factories (although no specifics are given)

There are some that theorize that the strike by the UAW was simply a ploy to show their rank-and-file members that they were fighting the "man," when all along, they knew they really had a very weak bargaining position.  Thus a 2-day, practically meaningless strike.

Capitalism wins, labor loses, there is no other way to read this.

Reactions to UAW Strike

MSNBC has a list of Democratic Presidential nominees' reaction to the UAW strike, and it typical left-wing pandering, they all side with the plight of the unions.

So, in the interests of fairness, I'll provide a somewhat different reaction:

Shut up, get back to work, and be thankful you have a job.  Your outrageous demands and overly-generous benefits are so out of whack with the market that the companies you work for are being driven to the edge of bankruptcy.  Maybe you should have your union boss remind you about what happens to your job and that precious union contract under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

Unions running DPI?

Eddie Davis, the head of the teacher's union in NC, the NC Association of Educators, announced today that he is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

"I strong [sic] believe that my candidacy will bring excitement, hope, and the joy of learning to citizens from Murphy to Manteo," Davis announced in an email.

Perhaps the joy of proper adverb usage will become a plank in his education platform, as well.

Isn't electing the head of the teachers' union to run the public schools akin to naming the UAW boss as the CEO of General Motors?

If elected, will Davis collectively bargain with himself?

It's great to be Right-to-Work

With the SEANC/SEIU marriage being made official, and the $60 million in handouts to two union-run manufacturing plants this week, we should stop and think about the road down which NC is headed.

Repealing Right-to-Work and instituting collective bargaining for government workers (two separate issues) is not a process that is going to happen overnight, but the wheels are turning and as long as these labor-loving liberals are in charge of our state, we're going to creep in that direction.  It's an incremental approach their taking and the power of big labor continues to grow, especially as the amount of money they are willing to commit to elect their friends continues to grow as well.

Well, here's a couple of items to remind us why it's good to be Right-To-Work and the advantages it brings our state.

First, a report (pdf) from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research that shows that since 2001, job growth in Right-To-Work states outpaced that in forced unionization states by a rate of 5:1.

Second, the Michigan-based Mackinac Center released a report showing "significant economic advantages" for Right-To-Work states over other states, like Michigan.

And finally, more from Michigan, where Michiganers, especially younger residents, are fleeing the state and moving towards Right-To-Work states for jobs and quality of life.
(I guess mentioning the App State game would just be salt in the wounds at this point).

The evidence is clear and North Carolina has a choice.  Continue to slide down the path towards unionization, or reject the failed policies of forced unionism and the economic ruin it brings.

SEANC and the Unions

The link between SEANC and labor unions, more specifically the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been quite known for a while now.  (For more, see my piece on labor involvement here.)

Now, word comes from The Insider that SEANC has amended their bylaws to officially affiliate with labor unions.

SEANC MOVES: The State Employees Association of North Carolina agreed at its annual convention last weekend to allow affiliation with existing unions, a move that had been forbidden by organization bylaws in the past. SEANC president Linda Rouse Sutton said the move will strengthen the organization, allowing it to better protect workers' benefits. The move comes amid growing political involvement by unions in North Carolina and as SEANC has increasingly pushed legislators to drop the state's ban on collective bargaining by public employees.
The decision could also pave the way for SEANC to be folded into unions should collective bargaining rights ever be allowed. SEANC delegates, though, would have to approve any initial affiliation agreements.

Collective bargaining is coming, people.  Start fighting it now or it's going to be too late.

Union spending on politics

Hats off to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) for being the first labor union (that I know of) to itemize and make publicly available the amount it spends on political spending vs. collective bargaining expenses.

You'll recall this recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows employees to opt out of having their union dues to be used for political activities.  The AFT estimates that it spends approximately 68% of the money it collects on collective bargaining or "chargeable expenses."  Thus leaving 32% or roughly $44.4 million being spent on expenses "of an idealogical or political nature and not germane to work-interests of employees."

$44.4 million from just one organization, all unchecked and unregulated and all to advance the unions' socialist agenda.

And you know this is just the tip of the iceberg.  The AFT doesn't have near the membership of the NEA, Teamsters, SEIU or AFL/CIO.  So you can only imagine how much more is being spent on political activities that we don't know about.  Hopefully this will be a sign of things to come and more unions will disclose just how much of its workers money is being used to advance the radical left wing agenda.

Labor and Leviathan: A Socialist Fantasy?

"Fighting the last war" is how Rob Schofield begins his latest attack on us free-marketeers in his latest diatribe on how public service unions will be good for North Carolina.

Funny, that is exactly what the unions are doing by turning their attention to the only captive audience they have left.  With their numbers declining, or in many cases, evaporating in the private sector, big labor unions like the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are trying to hold the line and "fight their last war" at the only place they can gain membership -- public sector employees.

He talks about repeating the same mistakes over and over, but isn't that exactly what we would be doing by allowing collective bargaining?  Allowing a failed phenomenon to spread?

Unions had a time and place in our history, perhaps--a time when gross negligence by employers was prevalent, when workers' dignity was often not respected, and when workplace conditions were unsafe.  It is very hard to suggest the comparison between the working conditions of the factory worker in the 30s, 40s and 50s with that of the government bureaucrat of today. As a social movement it did its job. As an economic one, it has failed.

Unions were needed when workers had little choice in their jobs and travel and mobility were limited.  Now, if you don't like your job, it is very easy and relatively inexpensive to just get up, leave and go find a new one.

But let me just take a few minutes to rebut a couple of Schofield's assertions:

Schofield claims, "First and foremost, it is simply inaccurate to state that the presence of public employee collective bargaining will automatically drive up the cost of government and/or taxes." However, a document entitled "Report of the SEANC Collective Bargaining Study Committee" found here states that "on the average, collective bargaining boosts state and local-government salaries by approximately five to six per cent and probably increases the dollar value of benefits even more."

So explain to me how a 5-6% increase in salaries will not drive up the cost of government? Especially when according to the NC General Assembly's Fiscal Research division (CAFR p. 318) a 1% across-the-board pay increase for all state employees in 2006-2007 costs $106.89 million dollars. Apparently Schofield believes that the government spending an additional $535 million dollars is not an additional cost or wouldn't have to be paid for with higher taxes.  So exactly where does he envision the money coming from?  Maybe the state can buy some tickets for the $300 million Powerball drawing this weekend.

Next Schofield makes the assertion that, "just because 'the market' has determined that North Carolina workers must, on the whole, make do on lower average wages than other Americans does not mean that this is proper or just."

Hold on.  Go back and read that again.  The labor market is not proper and just?  Is that what you are saying Comrade?  So please Rob, tell me: who then, if not the market, should set wages?  You?  The Central Committee?  And exactly what is a "proper or just" wage?  $10/hr? $20? If Schofield thinks value-for-value exchanges among consenting adults should be determined by an elite, I'd be happy to come and price his Cornflakes for him. (You see, Schofield's likely 'laboring' under the theory of value put forth by Marx, which argues that values are objectively determined by central planners, and that profit is not return on investment, but expropriation. We think values are subjective and are exchanged by free people.)

Finally, Schofield talks about union dues and political contributions.  Funny, he only mentions SEANC when everyone knows that SEANC's political activity is very limited and they let their SEIU brothers do the heavy lifting.  That such is the state of affairs in North Carolina is only because the state doesn't recognize public-sector unions.  Just take a look at any other state, the teachers and state employees unions (if not represented by AFSCME or SEIU) all use forcibly collected union dues for political activities (Maybe a refresher on this recent US Supreme Court case will help).

To allow the government to organize against itself would be the political equivalent of cannibalism. Governments can't go out of business, so there is no reasonable limit to the demands government can make of itself (passing the cost onto taxpayers, of course). Nevermind that there is something really wrong with pitting government against the governed at the negotiating table.

Raleigh Sanitation

Last year, numerous Raleigh sanitation workers stopped working for a couple of days to protest what they considered unfair working conditions and low wages.

Now, one year later, many of those same unfair working condition claims are being made and approximately 70-75% of the workers have joined a union even though by state law, the union has no authority or power to negotiate with the city.  The N&O documents the events here.

(Let me stop here to point out the irony in complaining about low wages, yet voluntarily forking over union dues to a union that has absolutely no power and is not recognized for negotiations.  Why not stop paying union dues and give yourself a de facto pay increase?)

But there is a very quick and simple solution to this problem: 

Get the City of Raleigh out of the sanitation business. 
I'm sure there's a company or two or three who might be willing to bid on the contract.  And who knows, it may just save us citizens of Raleigh some money.

Thanks Congress!

A special thank you goes out to the US Congress today for trampling on North Carolina's right-to-work status and it's right to decide employment policy for its government workers. (I hope you can detect my dripping sarcasm).

The story hasn't hit the major daily papers down here yet (not that I've seen, I could be wrong), but The Washington Post writes about a bill that passed the US House and will probably pass the US Senate that will grant collective bargaining rights to public safety unions.

North Carolina is one of only two states, Virginia the other, hence the WaPo article, that prohibits collective bargaining for government workers and this legislation will supersede our state's employment practices and mandate collective bargaining rights to firefighters, police and EMS workers.

So, thanks Congress, for your infinite wisdom in mandating a policy we don't want and creating budgetary nightmares for municipalities. 

IBEW gets smacked

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has been clamoring for a vote at Progress Energy's Shearon Harris Nuclear plant outside of Raleigh for months, if not years.

Well, guess what, the employees voted and the union got beat.  Bad.

According to the News & Observer, the vote was 499-157 against unionizing.

It's quite promising to see that despite all the union's grandstanding and rhetoric that the workers here in North Carolina clearly see that unionization is a bad deal for them and the company they are employed by.

Making progress on merit pay

A NY Times article from yesterday (registration required) looks at the issue of merit-based pay for teachers and how there may be some softening of the teachers union's staunch opposition.

A consensus is building across the political spectrum that rewarding teachers with bonuses or raises for improving student achievement, working in lower income schools or teaching subjects that are hard to staff can energize veteran teachers and attract bright rookies to the profession.

The unions (NEA and the AFT) seem to prefer quasi-merit based systems like the ABC Bonuses here in North Carolina that award all teachers in an entire school rather that individual teachers and have resisted efforts for differential pay for low-wealth schools or needed subjects like science and math.  However the ABC structure has become more of an entitlement component of teachers' salaries and does not fix the free-rider problem where bad teachers can still be rewarded if the rest of the school is successful.

However, it is good to see movement forward on this issue.  If teachers want the "professional recognition" they say they deserve, they need to play by the same as the corporate world where each individual is judged and paid according to their merits.

Wonder how the teachers' unions will spin this...

A new report is out from the University of Florida that that finds merit pay for instructors equates to better test scores for their pupils.

Pay incentives for teachers had more positive effects on student test scores than such school improvement methods as smaller class sizes or stricter requirements for classroom attendance, said David Figlio, a UF economics professor. The study, by Figlio and UF economics professor Lawrence Kenny, has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Public Economics.

Two consecutive basketball titles, a football title, and now this...

Go Gators!

Nah, no union influence in NC

The N&O's WakePol blog reports that Doris Weaver has been elected the new Wake County Democratic Party Chairman, er, Chairwoman.

The kicker is, Ms. Weaver is the Chief Lobbyist for the NC branch of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) labor union.

Nope, I'm just being paranoid about the 7 lobbyists employed by the NCAE, the $3.7 million in campaign contributions that labor unions have given Democrat politicians and now this.  Maybe the business community will start paying attention too.