Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Union yes

Economist:

In the United States several rising Republican governors are keen to turn the short-term struggle over pay and benefits into a bigger battle about trade-union power. New Jersey’s Chris Christie and Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty have both eagerly taken on the new “privileged class” of public-sector workers. Do the public exist to serve public-sector workers with their high pay and inflated benefits, they ask, or do public-sector workers exist to serve the public?

Unions and their extravagant compensation! Good pay, health benefits and time off from work! Being able to retire! What a drain on the economy, that people should be able to live at the same time they are employed -- not to mention after! Unionized industries are out of step with the private sector, where no such thing is guaranteed. This, we are forever reminded, is their gravest error.

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