George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular commentary on KVMR-FM 89.5 that was broadcast earlier this 4feb2011 evening.]

In Nevada County Local 39 of the International Union of Operating Engineers AFL-CIO enjoys the membership of about 555 of the current 825 employees, or about 2 out of 3 county workers.  Our county, like most across the land, is suffering from a budget shortfall caused by the current, or if you will, ‘recent’ recession.  Our elected Supervisors have sought and received wage and benefit concessions from the Sheriff’s Department and county management level staff.  This was done in the spirit of understanding the signs of the times, and the desire to keep as many people working as possible to provide the county its needed services.

However the leadership of Local 39 has informed the county that it will make no such concessions for its membership.  The most likely result of this is that the county will have to lay off some union members.  And as usual, the layoffs will most likely be based on seniority rather than merit or utility to the people whom the county serves.  In short, for the sake of keeping the benefit packages intact for the union’s leadership and senior members, the union will instead sacrifice members’ jobs.  Job security was supposedly one of the benefits that attracted them to the union in the first place.  Or was it?

The impact of unions in the American workplace has been spotty.  Most certainly in recent decades, both public and private sector unions have had a negative impact on the companies and the jurisdictions where they have taken root.  In the public sector they have driven states, cities, and counties to the edge of bankruptcy.  Their ability to do that was first recognized by President Roosevelt in the 1930s, and they have lived up to his fears since then.  During his first go-around our current Governor Jerry Brown opened California state employees to union representation.  The state is now looking at almost one half trillion dollars of unfunded government employee retirement benefits.

Not all states have opened their doors to forced-union membership.  Over the years, twenty-two states have chosen to remain ‘right-to-work’ states where workers have the right to join a union or not.  As reported (here) by the Cato Institute, these states have done much better economically than the non-right-to-work states.  Moreover, the Wall Street Journal reports that “right-to-work states outperform forced-union states in almost every measurable category of worker well-being.”

The evidence on the negative impact of unions has become common knowledge among politicians not bought and paid for by these organizations.  Today Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin – three forced-union states – are considering reversing the trend and becoming right-to-work states.  They want this so that domestic and foreign companies seeking to expand and/or relocate don’t spurn them as did Colgate when it chose not to build a factory with hundreds of new jobs in Indiana.  Colgate chose a right-to-work state instead.

Returning to the intractable public service union members who contribute to California’s fiscal blight, a couple of questions about Nevada County’s problem come to mind.  What prevents the Local 39 membership from holding a vote to recall its leadership, or insisting that a membership vote be held on the wage concession issue?  And if not that, then remembering Reagan and the air traffic controllers, we may ask what prevents our Board of Supervisors from firing all of the Local 39 members?  After that they can open all those positions for rehiring under the new reduced benefit package?

It would be good to hear from the county on these alternatives before having to make the next critical budget decision.  Perhaps just the airing of these possibilities will motivate Local 39 leadership to reconsider their entrenched position.

My name is Rebane and I also expand on these and other themes in my Union columns, on NCTV, and on georgerebane.com where this transcript appears.  These opinions are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.