Employment/Jobs: 37% Of Unions Are Now Government Workers
By James Fox on February 15, 2010, 8:19 amOn Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual survey of the workforce for 2009. One statistic that surprised no one was that the private economy shed jobs in 2009, but the Federal government added jobs. In fact, today there are more people working in the Federal government than at any time since Bill Clinton left office.
Unions May Be The Downfall
Union representation has also increased in the public sector. Today, 37% of all government employees are unionized, and over half of all employees represented by unions work in the public sector. This poses a problem in that unions realize that public service employees work for the perfect employer. In the private sector, if an employer refuses to acquiesce to union demands, it can either go out of business or face an expensive strike. Not so with the public sector, which always has the capability to raise funds by taxation and never goes out of business.
So Just How Good Is That Government Job
For this reason alone, an extreme disparity has developed between the private and public sector. The average public sector employee is paid $39.83 an hour versus $27.49 for his private sector counterpart. Over 80% of public sector employees have pensions compared to 50% of private sector employees. And as anyone who has ever worked around government employees can attest, government employees are often given gold-plated insurance and vacation packages. Not to mention that it’s next to impossible to get fired or laid off once a government employee gets seniority.
It would seem that unions have found the ideal cash cow in its public sector employees. Unions have long sought to increase their worker base, be able to increase dues, and get political influence. By actively unionizing government workers, the labor unions may have found the ideal way to succeed.
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