Some history about Public Unions

FDR wrote to the president of the National Federation of Federal Employees in 1937, Roosevelt reasoned: "... Meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the government. All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations ... The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for ... officials ... to bind the employer ... The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives ..."Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees. Upon employees in the federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people ... This obligation is paramount ... A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent ... to prevent or obstruct ... Government ... Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government ... is unthinkable and intolerable." FDR had Labor unions in his pocket and his Socialist tendencies swooned many who eyed Government (tax payer) to take care of their needs. FDR’s take on Public Unions should not be ignored. Many of our fiscal issues at the state and local levels are the result of dancing with the devil FDR knowingly warned us of. --- New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. jolted the public sector union movement into life when in 1958 he gave city employees the right to collectively bargain, in the process making them valuable political allies in his reelection bid and igniting a series of similar moves by other politicians in cities and states across America. What happened next confirmed the fears of many critics. The 1960s were a time of government strikes, including several dozen in September of 1966 by teachers that shut down school systems in some of our largest cities. When cities and states responded with laws outlawing strikes among government workers, unions developed a new strategy, concentrating their firepower in state capitals and city halls to elect leaders sympathetic to their cause. Over time they’ve become the biggest players in places like Sacramento, Albany and Madison, and such a permanent presence that every effort at reform is eventually undermined. --- Now we are where we are at with Public Unions. The long term crony relations between Politicians and Public Unions will not go away willingly. Just imagine if the Steel Workers Union was giving union due kickback money to U. S. Steel executives they bargained with, I am sure this private worker union and the executives wouldn’t want to give up their crony relationship either. The national Public Unions want automatic tax payer funds restored for their coffers, apparently they worry their Wisconsin members won’t pay their dues without the State forcing members to pony up the graft. They want the graft in law once again to ensure their tax payer funded payments to politicians. They have Wisconsin “recalls” as a priority sometimes ahead of President Obama’s reelection. They plan to spend as much as they can glean from tax payer funds to accomplish their goal. I would like to thank those who contributed to this history; their words rang true long ago and still haunt us now.

Let us not ignore FDR again. I am Oscar the Pig.