For the vast majority of us, this massive protest is about unions. Wisconsin was the first state to establish a state employees’ union, so this state has historically been a workers’ rights leader. But now, on the pretext of repairing the state budget, Governor Walker’s bill does everything short of abolish public-sector unions.
Conservative businesspeople I’ve spoken with don’t seem to understand the importance of unions. That may be because private-sector unions have all but disappeared in recent decades. ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos writes that as of 2010, “36.2 percent of public sector workers were unionized, compared to a 6.9 percent union membership rate for private sector workers.”
I’ve had a lot of conversations about unions lately with people from across the political spectrum. Here are my thoughts.
1. Unions aren’t perfect.
United Auto Workers is often blamed for having contributed to the bankruptcy of several American auto companies by demanding benefits and pensions the companies couldn’t sustain.
Teachers’ unions are notorious for hindering the progress of young teachers—for instance, by allowing experienced teachers to choose their own placement, regardless of merit.
At my own workplace, the state Department of Natural Resources, I’ve been frustrated with the union’s protection of a few incompetent employees who should have been demoted or let go. Likewise, Ron and I have had trouble rising through the ranks of the DNR because we’re not unionized—since we’re outsiders, we can’t easily compete with the unionized workers for higher-paying jobs.
I feel that unions shouldn’t be allowed to prevent employers from rewarding employees for good work, nor should they be allowed to protect employees who’re egregiously out of line. And employers shouldn’t have to concede so much that the company will be bankrupted.
2. But unions are important for fair compensation.
Even though unions aren’t perfect, they’re the lesser of two “evils”—the other “evil” being employers with unbounded power to set the terms of employment.
Employers shouldn’t be able to take away so many benefits that employees can’t survive. It was unions that did us all a great service long ago by establishing workers’ rights such as weekends and the 8-hour workday. I worry that without unions, such rights will be taken away. They’ve already been taken away for many non-unionized workers.
For example, a conservative friend in the private sector says, “If my boss tells me to come in on a Saturday, I have to come in.” He asks why those of us in the public sector should get special treatment. My response is that no one should be forced to work more than five days. I’d prefer that my friend belonged to a union that prevented this from happening.
Do naysayers really feel that the answer is “If I can’t have a union, you shouldn’t get one either?” Shouldn’t the answer be, “If you get a union, I want one too?”
3. Many public-sector jobs don’t exist in the private sector, so their unions are critical.
One Tea Partier we talked to at the protest said, “The government is getting a steal from you guys—master’s degrees and you only make that much? Why don’t you get jobs in the private sector instead?”
He was nice, but in retrospect, this was irritating. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to ask, “If you’re so underpaid by the public sector, why are we trying to decrease your pay even more?”
And does he really want all of us in the public sector to jump ship? Where would that leave Wisconsin, if everyone competent left public employment?
But also, like teachers, Ron’s and my expertise is designed for the public sector. We know how to set up a state’s stream monitoring, and how to survey streams and protect them from human impacts. Such jobs are scarce in the private sector but are important for governments.
If we left our jobs, there’s a real possibility we’d need to move to another state in order to find employment in our field. Without unions to protect the benefits of workers like us, what incentives will we have to stay in these jobs?
Another conservative friend asked Ron, “If you have a teaching certificate, why don’t you just teach? You could make more money doing that.” This logic also seems to miss the point.
We’ve chosen this field—because we feel passionate about it, enjoy it, and believe it’s important. If we wanted a field where we’d make money, we would have gone into business or law.
But just because we’re not in it for the money doesn’t mean we can survive on peanuts. We need some basic minimum of compensation, which is what we’re fighting for.
We’re fighting to protect state workers from having that minimum taken away.
