It keeps rumbling around in gun forums where there's cops posting.
Every time contract time rolls around and there's even a whiff that The People want to spend a bit less on law enforcement, particularly on medical insurance and retirement payments, there's a reliable cadre who complains.
I'd be upset if I suddenly had to foot the bill for my own health insurance. I know I was when I was 20 and left the Army to discover that I would, in fact, be responsible for such things from now on.
I'd be upset, too, if I discovered that if I didn't put some of my paycheck aside for retirement, then there wouldn't be any retirement.
What they're complaining about is losing 100% paid medical with no out of pocket for them and a, by today's standards, a lavish retirement pension plan which they can avail themselves of as young as 38 which will pay them for the rest of their lives.
Here's the rub though... Florida has a balanced budget amendment.
What that means is the state cannot pass spending for longer than a year. You might think that it can, but it cannot. That means that your multi-year contract is voided by the constitutional amendment for a balanced budget if the state congress decides to not pay it and puts the money elsewhere.
I think we're going to be seeing some serious LEO and other public union haircuts next session because revenues are WAY down thanks to tourism being tanked.
The state is going to look at these people and their unions and say:
The voters are going to be VERY sullen about departments who went out and enforced some of these stupid closures and will be supportive of clipping some funding too.
There's been a growing resentment of teachers too.
Both cops and teachers have the same problem. There's the image in the voter and taxpayer's head about what teachers and cops should be that's conflicting far too often with what they actually are.
They feel that there shouldn't be any difference between what they want and what they get and if they aren't getting what they want then they shouldn't have to pay for it.
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Traditionally, amongst government-sector unions (of which, yes, I used to belong to, and was even a 'shop steward' for a while, till I got better) work in a tier method.
ReplyDeleteManagement and non-union high-rankers got first dibs of the available cash.
Cops second.
Firefighters third.
Peons and office workers last.
So by the time the various unions got done discussing how much of the pie was to be distributed to their people, well, usually the peons and office workers would get screwed, while the cops would be bitching that they only got a medium payraise instead of a large, huge, honking one.
And, inevitably, the people from the unions agreeing on the next union agreement would make sure the new contract featherlined their nests, right before the people bailed out of the system, leaving those below them screwed.
Now? After being in the process? There should be no government unions. None. Screw it. Everyone should be happy to have a job, and not be crowing that they make more money than private sector employees.
Like... Teachers. Private school teachers make scroat. Especially in comparison to Public School teachers. That line about the poor underpaid public school teacher? Yeah, not so much. Most PSTs make minimum at least 3 times the Federal Poverty Level at podunk school districts, where the cost of living is low. Those in more expensive places make a heckalot more. And it's not like getting a degree in education is difficult, as it only requires basic math and science and minimum real educational difficulty. The only degrees easier to get are jock degrees and social worker degrees.
It is past time to break the tyranny of government-sector unions. It's just one big scam, has been from the beginning.
I agree. For that matter, I like pointing out to my lefty friends (and yes, I do have them---friends, I mean) that government workers' unionization was opposed by such mad anti-labor activists as...Samuel Gompers and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Watching their brains short-circuit and melt is such fun.
ReplyDeleteWhich is really funny as FDR never met a union he didn't love, except ones that actually affected him directly.
DeleteGovernment Worker Unions need to go. 100% across the board. They are nothing but a blight on the neck of taxpayers. And I used to be one.
The union officials would use union money to support their candidates, not the ones the rank and file wanted.
The union officials would use union money for their own needs, but heaven forbid any union money be used to support the union workers.
A friggin scam.
By members of a certain political party. Almost like they purposely set it up as a giant power and money base for their own private use... But that would be crazy talk.