The point I'm trying to make is that there are many public/state/city/county employees that work hard for the little that they earn. If you don't think I earn what I work for, open a backed-up lift station at 1:30am and get it working before it overflows (15 minutes or less). I work with some very conscientious people who do understand it's the taxpayers we work for, not the county commissioners. I do get upset when comments are made that 'all public employees' are crooks.
“for the little that they earn”
Try telling that to the good people of Bell, California...
Unfortunately, there is no denying the fact some public employee unions have tainted the waters with corruption and greed. If unions and politicians work together to transfer wealth from taxpayer to government to union to politician who gains the funds and votes of union members, what is the effective recourse for the non-union citizen? Public employee unions are an inherent danger to our civil society.
These bad actors are ruining your reputation by association. What are you going to do about it?
If FR had a like button, I would use it on your post. We do paint with a broad brush at times.
You do more than one person's work load and get paid like the rest of us.
Union workers average 2 people to do the work of one and get paid many times more than, and with better benefits than, non-union workers.
Oh, and let's not refer to teachers as ‘workers’ - THEY are “Professionals”, they'll have you know.
Well, so are YOU. And many of us.
Agreed, but for everyone that works there are ten that don’t. Just watch the Virginia dot, aways has six watching and one working.
“I’ve seen too many people using a very broad brush when blaming public workers for the financial woes of the cities and states. I would be the first to say some of it is justified, but much of it is not. I do get upset when comments are made that ‘all public employees’ are crooks.”
I don’t think you realize how much of your department’s woes are caused by other public employee unions that have sweeter deals; the teachers union is #1; they’ll practically shut down the water & sewer division before laying off a single teacher. Police & fire are in a heated race for #2; here in NJ (particulary Newark & Jersey City), it appears Fire got #2 (the layoffs hit Police, trailing at #3). These 3 groups are competing with each other for the tax revenues raised, and beyond that the senior members in each group are basically shutting out any new blood by refusing concessions to permit hiring to cover retirements. As these municipal budgets tighten, you can see the established pecking order: “town hall” administrative workers are booted quickly, as are other non-unionized workers across the spectrum. Public works seems pretty low on the totem pole as well.
The public sector employees that aren’t bleeding the taxpayers dry like teachers are being prevented by the teachers from doing so. The salary you earn must be closer to a market rate than what the others are looting from us; if it wasn’t you’d be in the private sector (where things are bad enough). At this point in NJ, a public school teacher is earning twice what a private school teacher brings home (which would be the market rate for 180 days of work, from 8:30 - 3:00 with an hour lunch).
Same situation in our city. Pay cuts, hiring freezes, layoffs and the work load is the same or greater, but not for the unions.
In our city, all employees took a 3 percent pay cut...EXCEPT the unionized police and fire. They wanted a raise and didn’t want to negotiate. I think they came away with a pay freeze instead. Point is, they expected different treatment than other municipal workers.
While I am not a state employee, I am a contractor working for the state. The new governor is about to take office on a platform of killing the state worker unions, reducing the number of state workers, reducing or eliminating the retirement benefits of the state employees, and "creating jobs". We'll see.
The state has, since mid-November had more than four times the number of retirements it normally does. No surprise there. And of course, no new hires.
All that said, it is going to be interesting to hear how the "public" responds to reduced or eliminated services in the near future.
Here's an idea....cancel all - repeat all - private/commercial business benefits. No more health insurance, no more vacations, no more "sick days", no more anything! If you don't work, you don't get paid. Buy your own medical/dental/vision coverage for yourself and your family. You want a vacation? Fine...take one, but pay for it yourself. Job security? Sure...as long as your contract lasts.
I'll bet I don't get any takers!
Ya know, MOST people here say Public sector Union employees.
We know the difference.
I'm glad that you said that. We, myself included, do tend to paint with too wide a brush sometimes.
I think that there's a LOT of room for scrutiny, but it needs to be pinpointed and aimed at areas where it is deserved.