re: #605 WindUpBird

votes in a campaign are not collective bargaining. This is a ridiculous notion.

No it isn’t.

Let’s look at the unsafe and exploitative working conditions that unions first sprang up to stop. The awful abuse of labor we saw centuries ago. The public couldn’t do anything about it even if they wanted to, because the private robber barons could pretty much treat people however they wanted. It took every employee banding together to make them listen.

You can’t do that to public employees even if you wanted to. The public outrage would be such that they wouldn’t allow it. Public employees are not alone in this. Many of us support them and vote in their interests consistently. Wisconsin Democrats are calling for some of these Republicans to be recalled. That’s power, and it won’t be only the public employees voting as a block who accomplish it.

Like I said, it’s not a black and white deal, and the public vote is not a replacement for collective bargaining on its own. Nor did I imply such. I don’t support their abolition, like this asshat does. But I do think they need considerable reform, because there are other ways their rights are protected already, and the financial impact of their demands can be fudged a lot more than they can in private companies.