We all know that sitting and talking things through can give insight. Usually doesn’t happen in a candidate interview, though.
Still, there I was at the table with a representative from the IBEW, and one from AFSCME. (Others were there, too, but they’re not really germane.) In the middle of answering a question, where I was describing how money making a round-trip through Denver didn’t really create jobs, I suddenly realized that AFSCME had no business being at the same table as the IBEW.
I know, I know, Solidarity Forever, and all that. But the white-collar shakedown artist sitting there asking me about the Taxpayer Bill of Rights had about as much in common with Joe Hill as I do. And in answering the question, it became clear to me that while we conservatives talk about the philosophical and practical implications of public employees unions being able to choose who sits across the table from them, they are just as vigorously taking bread out of the mouths of those electricians.
How long will it be before the private-sector unions, full of traditional, blue-collar employees, realize that their members’ futures are being endangered by the public sector employees’ guaranteed retirements, before the reluctance of Texas to bail out California is mirrored by a split within union ranks? Look for it soon, as CalPERS and other public-sector retirement funds begin to throw their weight around on corporate boards, to the detriment of those companies’ ability to pay good wages, reduce hours, and create flexible working conditions.
