This article was provided exclusively to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by the distinguished retired judge, John H. Wilson.
THE RISE OF PUBLIC UNIONS
“Public workers formed unions without waiting for legal recognition. For instance, letter carriers established the first postal union in 1889. The American Federation of Teachers formed in 1918, the same year that several independent unions of firefighters merged to form a national union. AFSCME was born in Wisconsin in 1932, the same year as the American Federation of Government Employees, a union of federal workers.”
It has been widely reported that President Franklin Roosevelt was opposed to the organization of public unions, however, his opinion was more nuanced than that. In fact, “in 1937, Roosevelt wrote to the President of the National Federation of Federal Employees…that employee organizations have a ‘logical’ role in government. Roosevelt believed that government employees should organize in order to ensure ‘fair and adequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable working conditions . . . and impartial consideration and review of grievances.’ However, Roosevelt…believed that collective bargaining agreements were incompatible with public sector work…FDR’s issue with government collective bargaining is that in our system of government, ‘we the people’ set public policy through the democratic process. Binding the people to a collective bargaining agreement takes authority away from the people.”
On the state and local level, these views of collective bargaining by public unions have been largely ignored. As long ago as 2010, one problem was recognized by Professors John O. McGinnis and Max Schanzenbach in an article published by the Hoover Institution – “State and local governments today are, with few exceptions, in deep financial distress…indeed, California’s travails began well before the recession, and warnings about the financial health of Illinois and New York predate the present crisis. It is no secret that the primary cause of the states’ long-term problems are their bloated public sectors — particularly their public pension obligations…Public employees unions have wielded huge influence to gain perquisites for themselves at the expense of the public. Early retirement, job tenure, high wages, and generous defined-benefit pension plans have gained increasing attention from commentators and voters, though many public sector perks are intentionally shrouded and confuse the public debate.”
Now there is an even greater issue involving public sector unions – the Marxist influence prevalent in these unions.
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Chloe Asselin’s 2019 Dissertation, referenced in yesterday’s article, is particularly instructive. In great detail, she provides proof that “caucuses form as a result of a small group of like-minded union members who come together because of dissatisfaction with the actions of union leadership…school activists, who demand the labor movement look beyond the collective bargaining process, with its narrow focus on issues of wages and working conditions, and instead partner with parents, students, and progressive social groups and organizations to engage in social justice struggles beyond the workplace, compose social justice teacher union caucuses. Educator activists, in partnership with other members of school communities, use their power as workers to be change agents in their public schools.”
There is nothing secret or hidden about these Marxist-inspired organizers – they operate in the open, and have clearly influenced groups like the Los Angeles Teachers Union, and other Public Unions, to turn their back on the “collective bargaining process” and seek to “engage in social justice struggles beyond the workplace.”
Yet, as Beth Baumann of Townhall writes in regards to the demands made by the Los Angeles Teacher’s Union, “things like defunding the police, providing financial support for illegal aliens and passing a wealth tax doesn’t have anything to do with what happens in the classroom. The teachers union is abusing the coronavirus pandemic to push their own political agenda.”
Much as American Trade Unions did in the middle of the 20th Century, it is time for Public Unions to recognize the Marxist “change agents” within their ranks, and expel them. Failure to do so will allow those agents to continue using these unions as fronts for their agenda of “social transformation.”
Illustration: Pixabay