Unions not for the workers anymore

We are hearing a lot of self proclaimed liberals, screaming that the right is against teachers, firemen and police as well as any public service employee.  Sounds more like some people are grasping at straws.  I think the real disdain is the unions that "work for their members".  Lets remember one thing, if you work in the public sector you work for the tax payers.  They should be the ones to decide if you get a raise or not, in theory.

In the past Unions have been the tool of protection for the working class.  Protection of workers rights, benefits and generally to keep working conditions and standards above minimal.  Unions also carried a stigma of being run by crooks, thugs and organized crime, and that was not to far from the truth historically, but in general it created a higher working standard for certain blue collar workers across the US.  Here lies the problem we are seeing today.

The public sector employees are all unionized, only a hand full of municipalities or counties across the US have union free police, fire, school, or other government employees.  While the burden of paying for these is on the tax payers and for years they turned a blind eye to the request for raises, often masked in behind closed door bargaining sessions, that result in a tax increase on the citizens.

Seriously, everyone knows the importance of fire and police and others in that area of work, but how much do they really get for what they do.  Well around my area a rookie cop gets $47000 a year, plus overtime.  A total compensation package worth $76000, pretty good for a rookie.  Hit your second year and base goes to $52000.  Benefits jump to about $83500.  Fireman start at around $40000 with a compensation at $15000.  Lets compare that to a non union police officer (Sheriff's department) locally.  A rookie Sheriff base salary is $52000, with a compensation package worth $83420.  The same after five years base jumps to $60000 and comp makes it $100,000.

I am not going to argue pro-con about their unions, but lets look the tax burden....The union police tax cost is  $3.00 per year per $1000 property value, so a $10000 property value would pay $30.  For the Sheriff the cost is $22 per year, flat.  Why the extra cost for the union, you are paying for the union.  It is estimated that over 15% of the money collected for police in tax revenue goes to the union, on top of the dues the officers pay to the union.  Our local police union president makes $295000/yr (2010) plus compensation.  The last report on the comp package was equal to $380000.  He is not a police officer and never was.  Where is the justice in that?

Although I use this as an example the top heavy unions often show that top officials are making far more than their members, and often far more than private sector.  This is all on the backs of the taxpayer.

Schools have already started to make the swing from union to non-union.  Many school districts that have made the change or started incorporating charter schools or "free" school districts have seen higher student performance often exceeding state and federal standards, this often resulted in higher performance standards from the teachers themselves.  A number of these school districts have also created incentive based pay or performance pay and many teachers seeing higher pay than their unionized peers, without putting additional burdens on tax payers just to cover teachers pay and not for school improvements, books or extracurricular activities like sports, music or art.