Government Worker Unions: The New Age Mob

Subverting Democracy: The Rising Influence of Government Worker Unions

Unions and government worker unions exert a significant influence on politics and elections, to the point where it can skew democratic outcomes. Government worker unions are part of what's been termed the 'swamp', creating a highly corrupt arrangement in plain sight. In many cases, there is broad public support because unions can be very persuasive.

This is not an attack on government employees or the right to unionize. A large number of dedicated, hard-working government employees police our communities, teach our children, maintain our roads, and staff our courts. Most of them are good people.

Moreover, it's not the union itself that's the problem. Without the protection of labor contracts and government worker unions, we'd face a different set of issues, such as rampant nepotism and cronyism. Without union protection, politicians would have too much freedom to replace government workers with their supporters, creating a new problem.

The issue lies in the political contributions and activities of the unions, which need regulation, or even elimination.

Consider this: how nice would it be to work in a place where you could dictate the terms of your employment to your boss? Better yet, suppose you could have your boss's boss pressure your boss to accommodate your demands. Sounds appealing, right? Except the problem is that the boss's boss is spending your money, taxpayer money. I'm talking about politicians working FOR the unions that are supposed to be SERVING the public.

Politicians and government worker unions are intertwined in a way that allows the unions to exert significant influence in politics, especially fiscal decisions. In some ways, they've become the new age mob. They've got the country in a chokehold, and it's costing a fortune.

It's a known fact that unions buy politicians, and if that weren't enough, they act to the point of being blood-sucking amoebas. Do you think I'm exaggerating? States and local governments are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. Why? Because of unfunded union pension agreements, but that's not the whole point. It's a total distraction.

Have you ever wondered why it seems that EVERY SINGLE politician says one thing then, once they're in office, they do a complete flip flop? Every single one. Republican, Democrat, everyone. We chalk it up to, "Oh well, politicians lie." Ok, but why?

Some are better at it. President Obama was a smooth talker; he could've sold ice to an Eskimo. There's a video of him saying that the Affordable Health Care Act was going to allow people to effortlessly go to healthcare.gov and sign up for health insurance for about the cost of a cell phone bill. He said that. He actually said that. If you read the so-called Affordable Health Care Act, there's not one thing in that law that makes health care cheaper or more affordable. Not one thing. It was a complete lie.

So then, when he was getting ready to leave office, he was saying, "Well, it's not perfect, but we need to keep the parts that are good and fix the things that need to be fixed." What? Fix what? The lie. That's the same lie he told during the debates with John McCain.

He was questioned about the budget and the deficit. People were angry about the massive debt run up from the Bush years. That was part of the Obama campaign. McCain said he wanted an across-the-board 10% spending cut on all government programs.

Obama stands there and says, "Now John, we can't do that. That would be terrible. Some government programs are bad and they need to be cut completely. But some programs are good and need more funding. And, my administration will go through the budget line by line and balance the budget." Then, he goes on to run up almost as much debt as ALL the previous presidents, COMBINED. Then he blamed it on Bush. You can believe what you want about all that. But, why the switch?

Let me phrase it differently. Have you ever noticed that the actions of politicians and the government never align with the will of the voters? I'm going to use the debt as an example. Is there a single person on this planet who believes that all this debt is okay or a good thing? So, why does it keep happening? It's happening again under Trump. Why are our public servants doing things we don't want?

Here's another question before I give you a glimpse into the dark world of the government union deep state. Who do you think runs the government? Do you think it's the president or governors? Wrong. Do you think it's the senate or representatives? Wrong. It's the staff. The government staff and management. The government employees.

Just look at the military. The president and congress don't run the military. They approve the budget and they might hold some fancy propaganda hearings once in a while that fool us, and maybe themselves, into thinking they have any real input, but the generals run the military. It's the generals making the military decisions.

And so it goes with the police, the teachers, the road workers, the administrative staff, the courts. All of it is run by the government employees. State, local, and federal staff, management, and employees run the government.

Government workers have done quite well under this arrangement. On average, they make more than their private sector counterparts, get better benefits, and in some cases, fantastic pension packages. Usually, they can even earn more than one pension. Government sector employment is one of the few job sectors that even offers pensions anymore. The pensions themselves are causing a massive fiscal problem.

Estimates of the unfunded pension liability for state and local government are around $3.2 trillion. That doesn’t include healthcare liabilities, which are harder to estimate, but probably add another $1 trillion. That’s equal to more than an entire year’s state and local government revenue.

On top of that, the rate at which government workers are retiring is faster than the rate at which people are retiring in the private sector. This is probably because the pension plans are so much better. By 2030, there will be as many retired government workers as there are working. Think about that. State and local governments will be paying for two and getting one worker. That’s a huge burden on the system. The result is that other needs suffer.

There's a simple solution to the pension problem. Pensions can't be collected until retirement age. Under most of the pension plans offered to government worker unions, they can retire after twenty years. A police officer could join the force at age 22 and retire at 42 years old. If he lives to 82, he'll collect pay for forty years of retirement based on twenty years worked. This means the government is paying 3 to 1. It's a three-fold cost increase. It's unsustainable and unfair to the taxpayers. Some of them go on to work another twenty years at another job and collect a second government pension. In these cases, the costs are astronomical.

There have been politicians who have taken on this fight. Governor Walker of Wisconsin tried. The unions spearheaded recall elections. Walker won those recall elections. In fact, he won the recall election with a wider margin than the initial election. It was the same with some state senators who supported his position on union contracts. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie tried to take on union contracts. It cost him re-election.

These are examples of how, on top of buying the influence of politicians through a massive pipeline of political contributions paid for by union dues, our tax dollars, the union influence has many other unfair advantages in the political system.

Government worker unions benefit with a guaranteed day off to vote. Election Day is a holiday in most government union contracts. This means their voting numbers are strong. They have a built-in, paid lobby of union staff. Try getting in touch with someone from the union office around election time. You'll never reach anyone because they're all out campaigning. On top of that, they can plug into a massive pool of volunteers. They call on these volunteers to work polling locations, distribute campaign literature, and even protest. The union is able to tap this massive pool on demand. They use member contact information to reach out by text and email with unsolicited propaganda.

We need strong government worker unions to protect against a different kind of political corruption. Without the protection of a contract and government worker unions, we would run the risk of widespread nepotism and cronyism. In other words, politicians would be free to hire, fire, and demote government staff. It has the potential to create utter chaos in many areas of government work. But, the current arrangement is threatening our democracy and the solvency of the country.

How can we have a government of the people, for the people, when the government is staffed by groups that have one agenda only: their own selfish self-interests and the interests of the people they serve? They serve their own selfish self-interests at all costs, no matter what damage is done to the country. How does that represent American values? How can it possibly represent the will of the people? How can anything good possibly come of it?

We talk about things like the deep state and corruption. Where do you think it's coming from? A very large portion of it is coming from government worker unions. They have an insane amount of influence and control, and it's being abused at every turn. The police unions, the administrative union, and the teachers union have an unfair chokehold on this country to the point that they have become the modern-day mafia.

Who do you think runs the government? It's not the politicians. The governors, the mayors, they don't run the police. The police chiefs do. And barely. The president doesn't run the military; the generals do. The Supreme Court might set some legal precedent, but who runs the local courts? The local judges and the clerks. It goes on and on. That's the way it is and the way it always will be.

Here's the problem with government worker unions. Imagine if the president or CEO of a company were elected by the employees. The employees would want someone favorable to the workers. But they'd also have an interest in the survival of the business because it would also mean the survival of their jobs. They'd have to balance that. That is compensation, benefits with longevity.

Unlike a business, the government doesn't have to be competitive. The government doesn’t have to worry about keeping costs under control or face extinction the way businesses do. So, the government employees that elect their bosses have no interest in competitiveness or survival of the organization. They only care about bosses, politicians that are most favorable to the interests of the workers. That's not a government of the people, by the people.

As citizens, they vote. Not only do they vote, they have a guaranteed day off on election day. They have a big advantage over the rest of the population in terms of how they're able to show up at elections. Not only do they vote, they have a massive staff and volunteers that can lobby and campaign. They also have a huge amount of money in the form of union dues that they use for political influence. When lobbying and protesting tactics don't work, unions have been known to resort to violence, or whatever it takes to get their way. Public worker unions are fueling corruption, warping public perception on key issues, and pushing political agendas that don't support the good of the country as a whole.

Not only do they not represent the will of the people, they have lost the confidence of many of their members. The union is about the union and the preservation of the union, and many members are beginning to see it. There have been legal fights brought on by government employees. Not the government, not the Republicans, not the public, but by one of their own.

One of these cases was the Janus case. The case, Janus v. AFSCME, challenged the money that public unions can collect from non-members to cover their share of collective bargaining costs. Democratic candidates and causes rely on these unions for more than $100 million in annual contributions every election cycle.

The plaintiff, Mark Janus, was an Illinois state worker who declined union membership. He didn’t join the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the union that covers most government administration workers. He argued that the union dues he was compelled to pay violated his First Amendment rights. There was a similar case argued in 2016 brought on by a California teacher. That case ended with a deadlocked court. Janus was decided in favor of the plaintiff.

Leading up to the final decision, there were all kinds of opinions. Obviously, the plaintiff felt it was a violation of his right to free speech. He didn’t want his union dues being used for political purposes he didn’t agree with. Others argued this was a Republican attempt to take away the advantage Democrats have. Others argued it would destroy the unions once members realized they don’t need to pay dues but can still enjoy the benefits of the union.

The main argument should have been about fairness. Fairness to the tax-paying citizens first. This case made a little progress by putting control of whether to pay dues in the hands of the member. But, it did nothing to stop the political campaigning and contributions made by unions. In some ways, it accelerated it. The unions weren’t destroyed and it gave them a renewed sense of urgency. They stepped up their political efforts as a result.

Did you even know this was going on? Did you know the union was buying the politicians that it wants to serve its interests? The influence of some of these unions is mind-blowing, and most people don’t even know it’s going on.

Teachers' unions are some of the biggest players in politics. Open Secrets, a project of the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, ranks the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association — the nation’s largest teachers' unions — as the 9th and 11th most generous givers to Democrats out of more than 18,000 super PACs during the 2016 election cycle. They also provided more than 160,000 volunteers to go door to door and make phone calls. All that to back Hillary Clinton for president. They’ve partnered with other unions to form a new super PAC called For Our Future and they spend millions in campaign contributions. The four biggest unions combined spent $166 million on federal candidates alone in 2016.

The Janus case is not the solution to these issues. All Janus does is pave the way for the destruction of unions. That's not the solution to the problem and will likely cause a different set of problems. It should be illegal for ALL public workers' unions to engage in any political activities or political contributions. Election day should be on a Saturday, so everyone has a more equal opportunity to vote, not just government workers who have a guaranteed day off. Better yet, make election day over a two or three-day period. The Janus case has been criticized because it does away with "fair share" union dues contributions, but the people it benefits. The problem is unions aren't using the money for collective bargaining. They use it to hijack the political process. They rob us of the democratic process. It's almost completely political activity. The unions are doing very little to help their members in practical ways.

The unions weigh in on issues from abortion to gun rights. What business do they have lobbying for those issues? It's a massive portion of the corruption in this country. Politicians are bought and controlled by the unions they're supposed to be negotiating with. They warp public opinion on key issues with their instant propaganda pushed out to union members via text messages and emails. They even organize protests. All to support an agenda that DOES NOT REPRESENT THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE! This is the most underhanded hijacking of this country and it's happening in plain VIEW. It's bankrupting municipalities and states. They viciously attack anyone who opposes them. They'll do whatever it takes to push their agenda, no matter what the consequences.

Public worker unions are fueling corruption. How can it ever be fair that government workers enjoy so much control over the political process? How will we ever have a government that represents the will of the people? Do you ever wonder why some things seem so logically good or bad and the majority of people agree, but yet our government goes in a different direction? Like the debt. Ask anyone if they think the debt is a good thing. Not one person will tell you it’s good. So why does it continue to happen?

It happens in part because government worker unions keep pushing for more spending. The unions push political agendas that don't reflect the will of the people or the best interest of the people. It needs to stop. It needs to be illegal for public worker unions to engage in political campaigning, political activities, or political contributions.