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Adventures in economic juggling
Oct. 11th, 2011 02:03 pmA couple of thoughts regarding these states cutting public employees' rights to negotiate their benefits and salaries:
A friend who used to work both for and against union shops in a marketing/PR/advertising capacity told me many, many years ago that the workers she dealt with in each job did not organize primarily because they wanted a bigger paycheck. They did it because they did not feel respected in their jobs. Which makes sense, because union negotiations don't always lead to significantly higher pay or benefits - there are almost always concessions and/or losses. I saw that for many years, as the daughter of a UAW factory worker. But the workers like to feel they have been involved in the process, that their representation contributed somehow to the end result (and - getting a little more out of the bosses never hurt, either). So for a governor or legislator to say they're putting an end to collective bargaining rights really has very little, if anything, to do with saving money. Like efforts to outlaw abortion access or restrict birth control, or strengthen the rights of corporations as legal persons, or cut back on publicly funded education, it's another effort to minimalize and marginalize the value of the individual in our society.
( Cut for deference to f-lists )
These are the things I think about on my lunch hour. /shrug
A friend who used to work both for and against union shops in a marketing/PR/advertising capacity told me many, many years ago that the workers she dealt with in each job did not organize primarily because they wanted a bigger paycheck. They did it because they did not feel respected in their jobs. Which makes sense, because union negotiations don't always lead to significantly higher pay or benefits - there are almost always concessions and/or losses. I saw that for many years, as the daughter of a UAW factory worker. But the workers like to feel they have been involved in the process, that their representation contributed somehow to the end result (and - getting a little more out of the bosses never hurt, either). So for a governor or legislator to say they're putting an end to collective bargaining rights really has very little, if anything, to do with saving money. Like efforts to outlaw abortion access or restrict birth control, or strengthen the rights of corporations as legal persons, or cut back on publicly funded education, it's another effort to minimalize and marginalize the value of the individual in our society.
( Cut for deference to f-lists )These are the things I think about on my lunch hour. /shrug
