[Vision2020] Stout Not Wrong on Union

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

I should be working on my conference paper "Was Gandhi a Tantric?", but I just have to weigh in, once again, on the police union issue. Councilman John, Tom, and Wayne have made good points, but Dan C. has gone out on a limb and saw it off. What were you thinking, Dan?  Did it occur to you that you should actually find out what our cops think of Moscow?

First and foremost, the right to vote for union representation is exactly the same right that any other democratic vote is.  Most nations in the industrialized world have recognized this and have supported their workers to the extent that large sections of their economies are unionized.  Critics of our police union support representative democracy in society at large, but inconsistently reject it in the workplace.  This is hypocrisy plain and simple.

I know one area of this unionized workforce very well: the 4 million teachers who are members of the AFT and NEA.  To those, such as Jack Wenders, who say that teacher unions have destroyed the American public education system, I simply offer the fact that the best student test scores in the world come primarily from countries with highly centralized education systems and fully unionized teachers.  I was able to counter Wenders with the fact that 90 percent of Danish teachers in private schools are unionized.

I believe it was Crabtree who claimed that the only winners for a Moscow police union will be fat cat union leaders.  All Idaho growers must join and pay a substantial fee to commodity groups that represent them in marketing their crops.  Bill Hall of the LMT once called this "coercive potatoism," the exact equivalent to union shops for workers where all pay their fare share for union representation.  We all pay extra for our food because of this, so what is wrong with a little more taxes to give our cops a decent salary?

Representative democracy is cumbersome and expensive, so is Crabtree prepared to give up on elections altogether?  Bush has assured us that he is against tyranny, and we all know that he is a political genius, so now is a good time to save billions of dollars (the last election cost a cool billion) and keep him and his Republican majority in office forever.  But let's wait at least until the next election so that one more genius can join the exclusive club--our own Bill Sali.

The way some people talk you would think that Moscow will have to pay the union fat cats directly, and that they will coerce the city in doing all sorts of horrible things.  That if course is absurd. 

Dickinson pointed this out already, but it is worth repeating: Idaho is a right-to-work-for-less state and that means that no worker can be forced to pay union dues.  And union dues will come, voluntarily, from policemen's pockets, not directly out of city coffers.  And if union representative does not serve them well, they can vote the union out.

One of my neighbors is a Moscow City policeman.  These guys have been very discrete and very civil about their reasonable demands.  Out of respect for his delicate position, I've not quizzed him about the situation.  But I can tell you, and especially Dan, one thing: this man is not bored with his job or with Moscow!  He has bought a very expensive house and his wife stays at home raising two small children. Grandparent visited on a regularly basis, indicating to me that they live in the area.  This man does not want to move his family, but it clear that he agrees with the rest of his colleagues that he wants to be treated with dignity. That means more than just getting higher pay, although that of course will help with his mortgage payments.

Let's cut out the BS and honor our cops' basic right to have representative democracy in their workplace, and all the other city workers, too.

Workers of America Unite!  All that you have to lose are your chains!

Nick Gier, President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO