I’m pretty torn on this one. The existence of unions is the reason most of us have 40 hour days, sick time, safe workplaces, etc.

That being said, the demands of a union are usually met by the realities of a business’ bottom line. Unions at a private company can never ask for more than the business brings in, or everyone goes out of business.

But public unions don’t have that issue. The money coming in is vague, and so is the money going out. And while labor at private companies typically has zero input into the top-level decisions, public labor unions have the power of the public vote to directly influence the makeup of public management.

So I have sympathy with public workers. I worked in education for six years. I think unions are a good thing in general.

But public unions have a great deal of power through multiple paths of collective negotiation already, including the public vote. And like private sector unions, they can’t ignore the realities of the bottom line forever. Abolishing them is wrong, but they do need reform.