The Union/Anti-Union tensions continue dividing States, with economic troubles, directly or indirectly, touching almost everyone (except the top 0.1% or so).
If you missed it yesterday, James Kwak, in Conventional Meaninglessness, argued persuasively that comparing benefits doesn’t make sense. Specifically: 1) comparing public and private worker’s future potential benefits without considering present salary is meaningless. Negotiations include both, and for public workers, there is typically a trade off between present earnings and future benefits. 2) Private sector workers receive greater total compensation than public sector workers, except for those in the less than high school category. – Ilene
Spreading Anti-Union Agenda
Conservative leaders in most states with strong unions have in the past generally made accommodations with organized labor, often winning support on social issues in return. That changed this year after wealthy conservatives poured tens of millions of dollars into the election campaigns of hard-right candidates like Mr. Kasich and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
As Eric Lipton reported in The Times on Tuesday, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who have long been staunch union opponents, were among the biggest contributors to Mr. Walker. (Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group financed by the Kochs, will begin running anti-union broadcast ads in Wisconsin in the next few days.)
Some public sector unions have contracts and benefits that are too rich for these times, but even when they have made concessions, Republican officials have kept up the attack. The Republicans’ claim to be acting on behalf of taxpayers is not believable.
Full article here: Spreading Anti-Union Agenda – NYTimes.com.
