"All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 1937

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15445



"It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government."

George Meany – First President AFL-CIO – 1959

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/02/18/the-first-blow-against-public-employees/fdr-warned-us-about-public-sector-unions



It used to be that if you didn’t want to take your chances with the potential boom or bust in a private sector company you would forgo those uncertainties and pay and instead go for the security of civil service. But now the financial situations are for the most part reversed.  When unions manage to negotiate with inept management deals that are good for themselves but bad for business, they eventually pay the piper (unless it’s GM of course). When that same inept management is the public sector, the government just borrows more money.

It seems like some areas of the private sector would probably benefit from stronger unions and the public sector should have none. As we have all come to realize by watching teachers that can’t teach and willywonkas that won’t work, we now see that FDR was right.

For additional info, history and more provocative viewpoints see this link.

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-trouble-with-public-sector-unions