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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (110087)	3/30/2010 2:18:36 AM
From: John Metcalf	2 Recommendations Respond to of 116555

"public unions are superfluous, as well as fraught with political moral hazard. That said, having civil service positions politicized by a political patronage system is also not advantageous, so some measure of protection needs to be in place so qualified civil servants aren't arbitrarily dismissed because they are aligned with the wrong political party." To me, State/local services are more important than Federal, and I'm not happy with the multi-layered corruption we have. Here in Illinois, we have political patronage, plus civil service protection, plus a unionized State workforce. Each level of "protection" entitlements the corrupt who have been given the "public" jobs. The net result is that politicians install the "civil servants" and the unions (and civil service procedural requirements) protect them, and both collect the workers' contributions. As B4, the unions and politicians collude to erase meritocracy, and everyone goes along to get along. Unions and politicians write the civil service rules. Unions have acclimated well to the patronage environment. Once in State employment, a patronage worker gets the same union protection as a merit employee. They all pay dues. The lowest level jobs are the hottest battlegrounds in patronage fights because only people without qualifications have to sell out for political patronage. Unskilled workers must do so, because private sector employment will never give them the wages and benefits that they can get with political sponsorship and no special ability. I am less concerned about the arbitrary dismissal of a civil servant who belongs to the "wrong party", than by a party hack who is wrongfully hired by the "right" party -- and that's most of them, and for every level of job. This system has persisted through administrations of both parties which have alternated in presiding over the decline of our State.