Thursday, November 11, 2010

Governments and Unions Are A Toxic Mix

Toronto Transit Commission                                    Image via Wikipedia
"Government is simple provided two conditions are met: You do it locally, and you do it without unions." -- Mark Steyn, here.


Yes to that.


Governments don't care about taxpayers, except once-every-four years when taxpayers morph into voters, at which point governments give lip-service to keeping costs under control. 


Because governments are not profit-making, there are no checks and balances to say when a big wage is "too big". The path of least resistance is to cave to union demands and then stick the costs to future tax-payers.

The TTC union-leader, Bob Kinnear, cost me real money the last time he held Torontonians hostage. And, Toronto TTC patrons are now on the hook for those pending wage increases.


Government workers, and workers directly funded by governments, should not be allowed to unionize. If they don't like the way their government is treating them, they are already empowered to do something about it -- they get to vote just like the rest of us, don't they?


Let them exercise the same power we do.


And that's the way the non-unionized Ball bounces.
Enhanced by Zemanta

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

“If they don't like the way their government is treating them”….Then they can get another job.

The problem with government unions is they work for a monopoly. When the private sector has unions (unless the government subsidizes their industry, like auto) then when they hold the shareholders to ransom they tend to go bust and the competition wins. But when government unions hold us to ransom the 2-way stress on employee/employer competitive reality doesn’t kick in. So agreed, government workers should not be allowed to unionize.

Furthermore the Liberals/Democrats have utilized their implicit social contract with government unions to leverage their labour during an election. Government employees should not be allowed to openly back or support candidates, that's a conflict of interest and the support is de facto paid for by taxpayers.

nomdeblog

BallBounces said...

I wanted to mention something about their freedom to walk and take another job, but didn't quite know how to fit it in.

Thanks for articulating the point well, and bringing up another problem -- the government-supported ("too big to fail") auto industry.

Also your point about Libs/Dems is good.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"