Here’s a Wall St. Journal “must read” article concerning government employee labor unions. Trust me.
Technically, the federal employees CAN join labor unions. But they cannot negotiate either pay or benefits. And workers cannot be compelled to join, nor to pay dues.
The Wisconsin bill allows the employee labor unions to negotiate pay, but not benefits. So it turns out the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is more pro-union that Obama and the D.C. Democrats.
And remember, Wisconsin public employees have had civil service protection for over a 100 years — long before the state government unions got a stranglehold on the state by unionizing the state workers.
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WALL ST JOURNAL
Union Power for Thee, But Not for Me
Obama hypocrisy — Federal government prohibits U.S. employee union shops, mandatory dues, negotiating for wages, etc.
by Kimberly Strassel
25 February, 2011
The union horde is spreading, from Madison to Indianapolis to a state capital near you. And yet the Democratic and union bigwigs engineering the outrage haven’t directed their angry multitudes at what is arguably the most “hostile workplace” in the nation: Washington, D.C.
It will no doubt surprise you to learn that President Obama, the great patron of the working man, also happens to be the great CEO of one of the least union-friendly shop floors in the nation.
This is, after all, the president who has berated Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to limit the collective bargaining rights of public employees, calling the very idea an “assault on unions.” This is also the president who has sicced his political arm, Organizing for America, on Madison, allowing the group to fill buses and plan rallies. Ah, but it’s easy to throw rocks when you live in a stone (White) house.
Fact: President Obama is the boss of a civil work force that numbers up to two million (excluding postal workers and uniformed military).
Fact: Those federal workers cannot bargain for wages or benefits.
Fact: Washington, D.C. is, in the purest sense, a “right to work zone.” Federal employees are not compelled to join a union, nor to pay union dues.
Fact: Neither Mr. Obama, nor the prior Democratic majority, ever acted to give their union chums a better federal deal.
Scott Walker, eat your heart out.
For this enormous flexibility in managing his work force, Mr. Obama can thank his own party. In 1978, Democratic President Jimmy Carter, backed by a Democratic Congress, passed the Civil Service Reform Act. Washington had already established its General Schedule (GS) classification and pay system for workers. The 1978 bill went further, focused as it was on worker accountability and performance. It severely proscribed the issues over which employees could bargain, as well as prohibited compulsory union support.
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Read the Rest at Strassel: Union Power for Thee, But Not for Me – WSJ.com. (You must pay to read the full article, but you get the point from this introduction.)