![]() ![]() Today, unionized workers are more likely to be teachers, librarians, trash collectors, policemen, or firefighters than they are to be carpenters, electricians, plumbers, auto workers, or coal miners. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 2009, for the first time ever, more public-sector employees (7.9 million) than private-sector employees (7.4 million) belonged to unions. The second transformation, however, is even more significant: the change in the composition of the unionized work force.Īs private-sector unions have withered, public-sector unions have grown dramatically. In 1955, organized labor represented one-third of the non-agricultural work force today, it represents just 12.3%. The first is the dramatic decline in overall union membership. Since the middle of the 20 th century, organized labor in America has undergone two transformations with major implications for the nation's politics. economy and small-d democratic governance." They may also be the biggest challenge facing state and local officials - a challenge that, unless economic conditions dramatically improve, will dominate the politics of the decade to come. As the Wall Street Journal put it recently, public-sector unions "may be the single biggest problem.for the U.S. In exchange, taxpayers in these states are rewarded with larger and more expensive, yet less effective, government, and with elected officials who are afraid to cross the politically powerful unions. New York, Michigan, California, Washington, and many other states also find themselves heavily indebted, with public-sector unions at the root of their problems. New Jersey has drawn national attention as a case study, but the same scenario is playing out in state capitals from coast to coast. If policymakers fail to rein in this growth, a fiscal crack-up will be the inevitable result. And staggering as these burdens seem now, they are actually poised to grow exponentially in the years ahead. The cost of public-sector pay and benefits (which in many cases far exceed what comparable workers earn in the private sector), combined with hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities for retired government workers, are weighing down state and city budgets. As Christie said about the duel with the NJEA, "If we don't win this fight, there's no other fight left." Melodramatic as this may sound, for many states, it is simply reality. ![]() Clearly, the lesson for reform-minded politicians has been: Confront public-sector unions at your peril. Christie's executive order met with vicious condemnation from union leaders and the politicians aligned with them his fight with the public-school teachers prompted the New Jersey Education Association to spend $6 million (drawn from members' dues) on anti-Christie attack ads over a two-month period. The firestorm that these proposals have sparked demonstrates the political clout of state-workers' unions. Recognizing the burden that such benefits would place on New Jersey's long-term finances, Christie has sought instead to impose a one-year wage freeze, to change pension rules to limit future benefits, and to require that teachers contribute a tiny fraction of their salaries to cover the costs of their health insurance - measures that, for private-sector workers, would be mostly uncontroversial. More recently, he has waged a protracted battle against state teachers' unions, which are seeking pay increases and free lifetime health care for their members. On his first day in office, the governor signed an executive order preventing state-workers' unions from making political contributions - subjecting them to the same limits that had long applied to corporations. Facing a nearly $11 billion budget gap - as well as voters fed up with the sky-high taxes imposed on them to finance the state government's profligacy - Christie moved swiftly to take on the unions representing New Jersey's roughly 400,000 public employees. When Chris Christie became New Jersey's governor in January, he wasted no time in identifying the chief perpetrators of his state's fiscal catastrophe. ![]()
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