
The Trouble with Public Sector Unions - runeks
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-trouble-with-public-sector-unions
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runeks
_When it comes to advancing their interests, public-sector unions have
significant advantages over traditional unions. For one thing, using the
political process, they can exert far greater influence over their members '
employers — that is, government — than private-sector unions can. Through
their extensive political activity, these government-workers' unions help
elect the very politicians who will act as "management" in their contract
negotiations — in effect handpicking those who will sit across the bargaining
table from them, in a way that workers in a private corporation (like, say,
American Airlines or the Washington Post Company) cannot. Such power led
Victor Gotbaum, the leader of District Council 37 of the AFSCME in New York
City, to brag in 1975: "We have the ability, in a sense, to elect our own
boss."_

