IL unions get offered 14.5% raise, go on strike

[Nebe]

what if the employees are being paid at a current level that is 30% lower than in neighboring counties?

Not everything is black and white.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Nebe

what if the employees are being paid at a current level that is 30% lower than in neighboring counties?

.

If that's the case, if the public decides to pay wages that are lower than the average....than the folks in that town live with the consequences, that they may get fewer, or less qualified, candidates. That's fair, and it's exactly what happens in the private sector.

That's why I cannot stand unions in the public sector. In the private sector, if a company wants to give its employees insane benefits, that does not impact me at all, unless I freely choose to purchase the product or service of that company. It's very easy for me to avoid those consequences.

Not so in the public sector. If the police union or teachers union in my town gives huge campaign contributions to politicians who reward them with insane pay, I cannot choose not to pay my property taxes. I am forced to fund those benefits, or they take my house and put me in jail.

And that's the rub. No company in the private sector could ever survive while offering these benefits, because no one would choose to pick up the price tag. In the case of public unions, those people take from us, with force of law, that which no one would ever freely choose to pay for.

What could be less democratic than that?