When unionized police stage a collective job action and stay home pretending to be sick, it’s known as the “blue flu.” So what do we call it when hundreds of unionized teachers in the Boulder Valley public schools employ the same tactic? The Elmer’s Glue Flu?
Denise Johnson, a veteran Boulder Valley teacher, defended the sickout and asserted that it wasn’t about money, then went on to urge that the school board cough up more money. Of course, it’s about money. In this recession, government revenues are down and expenses are up. The state’s ability to pour more money into public schools is uncertain. Nonetheless, while private sector workers are facing layoffs or pay cuts, the unionized teachers are demanding increases, which will ultimately be funded by taxpayers who are having to tighten their own belts.
But beyond the financial dispute, this is about something far more important: an outrageous violation of the public trust. Whether it’s a mini-strike like this in the guise of a sickout (with the unspoken blessings of the union) or a full-blown strike officially sanctioned by the union, it’s ethically and morally wrong for government workers to hold the public hostage.
In 38 states and at the federal level, it’s illegal for government workers to strike. That’s why President Reagan was empowered to fire the striking air traffic controllers in 1981. Thanks to a 1992 state Supreme Court decision, Colorado is one of 12 states where public employees may legally strike under certain conditions. Republicans have tried to change that through unequivocal legislation. Democrats, in hock to labor unions, have blocked or watered down those attempts.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the granddaddy of all liberal Democrats, declared in 1937 that “A strike of public employees is unthinkable and intolerable.” Even Gov. Bill Ritter, whose executive order authorized unionization of 37,000 state employees, maintains that his order bars them from striking. Unlike private-sector workers, government employees like teachers, police and firefighters enjoy a monopoly on the delivery of the service they provide. If the employees of a restaurant go on strike, customers have ample competitive choices. If your house is on fire, you have no practical options. If public school teachers walk out, private school alternatives are limited.
So if private-sector workers can strike, does that make government workers who can’t or shouldn’t second-class citizens? No. They’re not second class, they’re just a different classification. They’re “public servants” by choice. That gives them some special benefits, like a captive market and enhanced job security, along with special responsibilities, like protection of the public welfare. The 92 percent of private-sector workers who don’t belong to labor unions also don’t strike, and most are able to fruitfully co-exist with their employers. If teachers and other public servants can’t abide by this restriction, they’re free, of course, to pursue other jobs or careers.
Public workers have other non- strike political remedies. Their unions, especially the teacher unions, have a great deal of influence with politicians in the state legislature, the source of the largest share of public school funding. And teachers chair key education committees in the legislature. The teacher unions also hand pick and bankroll candidates who tend to dominate metro school boards. Isn’t it revealing that just such a school board — in Boulder, no less — wrestling with real-world financial constraints finds itself unable to roll over for the union’s self-serving demands?
President Barack Obama and other liberal Democrat cheerleaders for ever-bigger government are certainly on a roll these days. But here’s an imponderable: If government is so good at solving all our problems, why do we have public-sector unions?
Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
