Union ‘rights’ that aren’t - The Boston Globe

Union ‘rights’ that aren’t - The Boston Globe: "There is no “fundamental right’’ to collective bargaining in government jobs. Indeed, labor leaders themselves used to say so.

Arnold Zander, the Wisconsin union organizer who became the first president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, wrote in 1940 that AFSCME saw “less value in the use of contracts and agreements in public service than . . . in private employment.’’ Instead of collective bargaining, he explained,, “our local unions find promotion and adoption of civil service legislation . . . the more effective way’’ to serve the interests of government employees. As late as the 1950s, AFSCME considered collective bargaining in the public sector desirable but not essential, and viewed strong civil-service laws as the best protection for government workers.

In December 1955, in a New York Times Magazine essay on “Labor’s Future,’’ no less a union icon than AFL-CIO president George Meany wrote: “The main function of American trade unions is collective bargaining. It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.’’"

"Obama scolds Walker for trying to restrict collective bargaining by government employees to wages, yet the 2 million federal civilian (non-postal) workers Obama presides over can’t even bargain over that much: The wages, hours, and benefits of federal employment have never been subject to union contracts. The president appears to be perfectly OK with that. Last November he unilaterally announced a two-year pay freeze for all federal civilian employees, informing them — no negotiating — that they were going to “make some sacrifices’’ adding up to $2 billion this fiscal year."

"Wisconsin could abolish public-sector collective bargaining entirely, and its government workers would still be strongly protected from management abuse — and as free as they are today to join unions able to advocate on their behalf."