For the most part public sector wages are out of line with the historical balance with the private sector,and that is about the only correct statement I read with regard to this discussion.Talk about $150,000 salaries and 80% pensions after 20yrs.is misleading,because if the situation exits it is hardly the norm.In most cases it is against the law for police and fire to stike and many times do not vote in the municipality that they work in,so much of the power discussed here does not exist.In most cases their union consists of a local brotherhood designated as barganing unit for the local department.Their power, if you call it that,lies in the initial contract when at the behest of the government in most cases,only salary and a few other issuses are open for negotiation unless both parties agree,and the government CPI was used as the benchmark to discuss wages which historicaly gave the edge to government as well.Many times the government hires a negotiating firm for more money than is at stake in the entire contract,talk about waste.One of the reasons for delay in trimming the discrepancy between public and private sectors is much of the jobs money went to local government to maintain status quo last year.Public employees recieving 2,3and4 percent increases while many American are losing their jobs,and when rehired receive less salary makes ie easy to see how this discrepancy ocurred.There is no way people working for Wall Mart type salaries and going fund the present public sector wages at this point and they will be adressed out of necessity; but,to suggest these discrepancies occured due to power and greed such as wind fall wage gains is incredibly wrong and I have difficulty understanding why someone with basic arithmatic skills can not figure this out.Most of America is in reverse with regard to wages for the fist time
and the system was not set up for such a contingency.How anyone can blame cops and firefighters for America's problems when trade treaties began the exit of jobs, health care can tripled in price over a short peroid for no apparent reason,expensive wars are being fought based on lies,bankers were able to lend unlimited amounts of our pension money, to take over firms, paying 30% premiums for companies,mergers the same based on synergies and mortgages to cats and dogs and dead people and other people who overpaid and used false documentation or non at all,and all of this under the radar SURE.Public Employee Unions destroyed this country same logic as reason for the trade treaties was to open foreign markets to our goods. |
