First Terminate the Unions

Townhall.com ^ | August 12, 2003 | Rich Lowry

[LisaAnne]

If you weren't thrilled by Arnold Schwarzenegger's surprise announcement of his gubernatorial candidacy last week, you either have no heart or work as a lobbyist for a California public-employees union. His jumping into the race was an adrenaline shot for a recall effort that, if successful, will be the most bracing act of political hygiene since Theodore Roosevelt took on the meatpackers.

If you were to distill all that is worst about American politics into one man, he would have perfectly combed hair and he would answer to "Gray." A cautious political hack whose only strength is selling out to unions and trial lawyers, Gov. Gray Davis is Bill Clinton without the conscience, Al Gore without the charm.

It would be a mistake, however, to overpersonalize his failings. The populist upheaval in California is the result of a chapter in state government that will be compared to the robber baron era. It is a tale of how unions and trial lawyers can ruin a state's economy with assistance from a very willing governor.

Essentially a paid agent of the public-sector unions, Davis has increased the numbers of state employees and their wages and benefits. The $78 billion budget is up about $20 billion during the past four years. As indispensable Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub has reported, Davis and the legislature approved -- after 45 seconds of debate -- a pension giveaway to public employees a few years ago that is now costing the state another $500 million a year.

Davis has forced tens of thousands of university employees to pay union dues as part of a push to extend the reach of unionism in all areas. He has done the teachers unions' bidding on nearly everything, working to choke off experimentation with charter schools. He famously asked the union for a $1 million political contribution during a discussion of policy last year.

The prison-guards union so tightly controls Davis, it might as well have him in lockup. Some prison guards make as much as $100,000 a year. Last year, even with the state in fiscal meltdown, Davis gave them a 34 percent five-year pay raise, with plenty of other goodies attached -- and got a quick $251,000 union contribution in return.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the California firefighters union has devoted major muscle to defeating the recall, which would potentially deprive them of a governor in their back pocket. A Davis-controlled commission, stacked in the union's favor, recently approved a change in the building code that will cost businesses hundreds of millions, but make more jobs for firefighters, plumbers and pipe-fitters.

Right alongside the unions are the trial lawyers. Their favorite boondoggle -- out of many -- is California's workers' compensation system. Journalist Jill Stewart calls it "the most Byzantine, backward, corrupt and wasteful system in the country." Davis has made it worse. In the past year, workers' comp insurance premiums have increased by 50 percent for some employers. Attorneys for workers' comp applicants made $226 million in fees last year, a $31 million increase from 2001.

All this makes for an economic disaster. For business, it means higher taxes, higher insurance premiums, higher legal costs and higher costs of doing business generally. No wonder the core of California's economy is being gutted. For the past 31 months, manufacturing jobs have been disappearing at a pace of 10,000 a month. If Arnold or anyone else is going to bring them back, he must destroy the union trial lawyer complex in Sacramento, Calif.

If successful, this effort would be a lesson to the rest of the country. Just as Mayor Rudy Giuliani's reformism in New York City provided a model for urban government across the country, a reform movement in California could usefully demonstrate how an aroused electorate can beat back the economic parasites on its government.

Thus the urgency of chasing Gray Davis from Sacramento. If you're an Arnold fan, you can yearn to tell Davis, "Hasta la vista." But a simple "bye-bye" would suffice.

[LakeLady]

Gov. Gray Davis is Bill Clinton without the conscience, Al Gore without the charm. UGHHHH! What a great description. Wonder where his alert is. The libs might think he's serious; with their tunnel vision those are the only words they'd retain out of the entire article.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

calgov2002:

Gray Must Pay
Cruz Must Lose

calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

[Yasotay]

My local police department is a member of the Teamsters Union! Everyone should ask some really basic questions like:

Why would a law enforcement agency not just be associated or affilated with but a member of a known and corrupt criminal organization?

It should be illegal for any public servant to be a member of a union.

[snopercod]

bump!

[LetsRok]

Arnold's first act should be to put a freeze on all government wage increases for the next 5 years. All union contracts should have to be renegotiated with the "new" administration.

[MonroeDNA]

Prison guards making $100,000 a year; LA Longshoremen making an average of $120,000 per year.

No wonder businesses are leaving.

[Yasotay]

I'm in the wrong business ....

[1Old Pro]

I agree wholeheartedly that unions can bankrupt cites, they have, and entire states.....they have. Here in NY most of the cities are in financial crisis soley because the unions have them over the barrel and the Dem mayors and Dem city councils who generally get elected in the cities helped them do it.Our governor has also bought off many unions with taxpayer funds. People should open their eyes and see the disasterous effects unions have had on our cities and states. Notice how the suburbs are generally in good shape financially?? It's because there generally are no fire unions and the police are often times county sheriffs.

[headsonpikes]

"It should be illegal for any public servant to be a member of a union."

Public sector unions are indistinguishable from criminal conspiracies agaist the citizens - except that the unions have legal cover provided by higher-level poitical thugs.

Someone please show me how I am in error in this perception.

[tubebender]

I like your new logo :-) :-) :-)

[SierraWasp]

When I hear Arnold announce that he can't be bought by the "special interests" and that he's going to "clean out" Sacramento that is owned by "special interests," I hope and pray that he's talking about the unions. I also hope he's talking about the wealthy "Not for Profit" environmental/consumerism litigators, as well as the Trial Lawyers!!!

There are over 8,000 lobbying groups headquartered in Sacramento as of 1998!!! They were all turned against Prop. 226 in 1998, which would have merely limited the ability to use "closed shop" union dues for political action!!!

Watch for a repeat of the phenominal turn-around they accomplished to defeat that measure, to be applied to defeat the recall.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Comes from tailhappy and this thread:

Gray Must Pay, Cruz Must Lose

[aynrandfreak]

Outlaw public employee unions!

[Grampa Dave]

Great article and thanks to this line: "Gov. Gray Davis is Bill Clinton without the conscience, Al Gore without the charm." I have a new tag line for the total recall of Davis.

[Grampa Dave]

Unions for the so called public service/government thugs are far more dangersous to America each day than al Qaeda is!

Their numbers grow each day until we cut the budgets of the governmental agencies who hire these union thugs.

[SierraWasp]

Yep! It ain't just Davis... It's the Demonicrats and the militant Yoonyuns!!!

Public servant unions are an oxymoron!!!

[Grampa Dave]

This thread will send your waspy outlook on life into a frenzy of buzzing and wanting to sting the loser Davis!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/962621/posts

[For_God_and_Country]

I figure I can offer a different perspective here on this, since I am a Unionized Law Enforcement Employee in New York State. Basically as a union civil servant in New York we have NO ONE over the barrel, we have the Taylor Law here, which makes it illegal to strike or take a job action, no matter the circumstances. You must understand the politics of public service. Let me give you some examples, a couple of years ago a colleague of mine made an arrest of a subject wanted in a string of robberies in the lower Hudson Valley region, this particular subject happened to be of African-American descent, and the "Black Community" had a problem with the arrest and demanded the cop be fired. The local government that was democratically controlled, put pressure on the testically challenged Police Chief to have this detective fired or suspended, the Police Chief (who eventually sought higher office) attempted to appease his masters, had it not been for the PBA this highly decorated public servant would have been out on his butt, for doing nothing wrong but doing his job. We have FDNY brothers living and working in rat infested fire houses, with radios that dont work. We have NYPD Brothers working second and third jobs to support their families, we have New York State Troopers riding around in Crown Vic Interceptors that blow up when struck from behind, without the Unions these problems would never have been addressed. Instead of attacking Unions, why dont you attack the Mayor who tells firefighters, EMTs and Police Officers that the city doesnt have money for raises, or to provide better equipment, but somehow finds the money to renovate the building in the village to the tune of 3.5 million dollars for the all gay school.

We are proud of our jobs, proud of our Country and proud of our President. After 9/11 we were called heroes, now we are slugs draining our city and state of resources? All we ask for is a decent wage, and a little respect and our Union insures that for us. I have five years on the job, and I make about $32,000 dollars a year in base salary and maybe another 3-4 grand in OT (where I live the median price of a two to three bedroom house is $275,000). This is the profession I have chosen, and I understand that, but how many christmases have you missed with your kids? How many Thanksgivings have you had to eat and run leaving your family to protect someone else's? When you leave for work everyday, do you look into your kids eyes and see the fear in them, wondering if daddy or mommy is coming home at night? Our Unions protect us from unjust disciplinary procedures and BS from politicans and certain community leaders. Before you paint us with the same broad brush, look a little deeper than the surface.

[For_God_and_Country]

Actually you are wrong. It is exactly our Unions which gives us cover from the Higher Office thugs and their BS.