Every state and local government worker should be able to retire at age 50!

I can’t claim authorship of this but I found it so interesting to be worth repeating. It is from the February 25th Wall Street Journal opinion page.

Innocent Americans assume that unions use collective bargaining solely to obtain better pay and benefits. Not exactly. The real game is to insist that the dough runs through the union—giving it power over the state.

In Wisconsin, for instance, the teachers union doesn’t just bargain for more health dollars. It also bargains to require that local school districts buy health insurance for their teachers through the union-affiliated health-insurance plan, called WEA Trust. That requirement gives the union (not the state) ultimate say over health benefits. It also costs the state at least $68 million more annually than it would if schools could buy the state-employee health plan—money that goes to a union outfit.

In New York the unions continue to blast the mayor.  A new ad says Mayor Bloomberg expects some city workers to stay on the job until 65 and he expects “you” to work to age 85. 

I don’t know about you, but I think every government worker should be able to retire at age 50 with 85% of their pay in a pension and full health benefits for life.  Sounds good to me.  Ah, but the trick is to not replace them when they do retire.  Now there is progress we can live with.

The idea that state workers need collective bargaining to assure they have good benefits is questionable.  A state that does not provide a competitive pay package will not be able to attract people to state and local government jobs, many of which are difficult and frankly hard and sometimes dangerous work.  But the key is “competitive.” I doubt many people will argue with paying competitive wages with competitive benefits, but you see, the issue is not that, the issue is preserving benefits that are far more than competitive.