There are over 7 million people paid by tax dollars that are members of a union. Over 33% of all public employees are in a union. (https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm) Just who negotiates with those unions for the compensation and benefits packages they receive? Whoever it is, I would love to have them negotiate for me.
If you want to see how a deep state can be concocted and maintained, look no further than how public employees are treated with pay and benefits. If your pay, health insurance, vacation time, and other working conditions including terms of separation are determined by a political class, where would your loyalties lie? If the guy sitting across from you negotiating your labor contract says (obviously with a wind and a nod), I can give you everything you want but only if you vote for me, how would you vote? If your lifestyle (where you live, what schools your kids go to, the friends you’ve made, etc.) depended on him/her staying in office, would you support their re-election?
So, just how are federal public employee union contracts negotiated? I don’t know and haven’t been able to find out through my elected officials. I must be on the “do not reply” list. I do know how it is done here in CT after seeing it firsthand with our local school board. Blue state Connecticut law says that if the two negotiating parties cannot reach an agreement, the contract goes to binding arbitration. Each side gets to pick an arbiter and a third is picked by…the Governor! The arbiters then are directed to look at what other similar negotiated contracts have done and then based on “the ability to pay” and not what the job content dictates, a settlement is mandated.
The result of this law dictated process is each town has seen its school budgets explode with dozens of teachers in my town of 18,000 now making well over 6 figures. Which Governor do you think they favored?
So just who negotiates public employee contracts?
Asking for a friend.
Current Day Publius 