Frank Kollman

Today, it was reported that the International Labor Organization, an agency of the United Nations, found that New York State's law prohibiting public employees from striking was a violation of human rights.  I read parts of the report, and I was astounded.  Government employees, who are overpaid, underworked, and generally set for life if they hang in their jobs long enough, do not need another weapon to use to make their jobs cushier or more lucrative.  Already, elected officials who get elected using money contributed by public employee unions are more than willing to give government employees what they want, in return for more political contributions from their unions.  That public employees cannot strike is the only check on the corruption that plagues government employment.

Public employees are essentially overhead.  They do not produce a single product, and they do not make money for their employers.  I realize that it is necessary to have government employees, but it should never be forgotten that the money to fund government must come from private employers and employees who make profits, and consequently pay taxes.  If those private employers and employees fail to make money, they go out of business (unless they are too big to fail, have friends in government who will bail them out, etc.).  People lose their jobs.  The same thing, however, does not happen to government employees.

In the private sector, if employees strike, the employer can hire permanent replacements.  I cannot imagine that this would happen during a government employee strike.  I can only see the faces of those government workers in Wisconsin, occupying the capitol building, looking like they would kill anyone who tried to get in their way.  Imagine what they would do if they were on strike, and the State hired people to do their jobs.  We would need police and ambulances galore, unless of course, they were on strike too.

This is not an issue of human rights.  It is a matter of whether you are prounion or not.  I am not, especially when it comes to government.