[DonkeyBonker]

The employer is not forced to hire only union members, The State of WI hires contractors working through staffing agencies and tell the public that they are saving money. What actually happens is that the wages paid to the Contracting agency far exceeds the wages and benefits that a State employee makes, often multiple times what a State employee is making.

Let’s really save the State of WI money and allow contractors to become State employees.

[Vigilanteman]

Contractors can be hired for various reasons, two of the most common being that they current employees lack the expertise to do what the contractor is asked to do or the contractor supplements the workload which the existing staff cannot handle. Theoretically, at least, that is how it is supposed to work in the private sector.

When we talk about public employment, the reasons for using contractors multiply. To the common list, you can add such things as an end-run to hiring freezes or political payback and money laundering for campaign favors.

The bottom line is that most states and localities where public employee unions call the shots also have laws in place where these governmental units also have to pay prevailing union wages to these contractors. And somehow, mysteriously, non-union contractors seldom get selected.