>Public Employee Unions : We have reached a defining moment on this issue
The point is not the percentage of the population represented by public union members (police, fire, teachers, government employees, etc) or even the specific amount that they contribute to their pensions or health care benefits. The simple point is that, across the country, public union members have not paid their fair share for decades and these programs are underfunded. Therefore, ALL taxpayers must make up the deficit. This forces the government to increase taxes or cut services to fund the public union obligations. THAT is why this small minority of public union members in the population are a significant contributor to the failure of local, state and federal governments to balance their budgets.
Most of the union membership has been misled by their leadership on these issues and do not understand the facts. Unfortunately, like Pavlov’s dogs, the union members have been conditioned to believe that they are entitled to the status quo, or worse, that the status quo is unfair when compared to the private sector. Neither is true.
We have reached a defining moment on this issue. The only way that this gets resolved satisfactorily for the country is for the 90%+ of the population that has been picking up the slack for public union members to insist on change, right now! This requires public union employees to contribute the same amount toward health care and pensions (if pensions are even a viable alternative) as their private sector peers. It also requires that the benefit structure be reviewed to ensure that it does not inflate at the end of a worker’s career, that the benefits do not kick in prematurely (encouraging early retirement), that benefits are not overly generous when compared to private sector options and that benefits can not “be accumulated” by retiring early from one job and then starting one or more new careers under the same or another public union benefit plan.
