The “reform” which is needed is for the government to get out of setting the rules for election speech. When politicians set rules for what can be done, spent, and said during election campaigns – you know they are looking out for their own re-election.

It would be different in that if someone quit his job at a corporation for that reason, he’d still be able to get a job in the same field at another company. If you quit the union in a union town, you’ll have to find a new career altogether.

If they were honest, they wouldn’t fear an audit, and this should be our mantra when we push for them all to be audited. But they aren’t, and we know they aren’t, and they know that as well. They’ll fight tooth and nail to avoid it, they’ll try to get Democrats in the Senate to filibuster it and Obama to veto it.

Let them.

We can hang their obstructionism around their necks like a millstone. Let them fight tooth and nail against transparency. Then let them try to explain that in 2012, when the next election comes along.

Think about it.
1) Would you perish immediately?
2) No one would take your money for nothing?
3) there would be no contrived news stories?
4) Ms Obama would have to pay for her own staff of 30?
5) No one would miss it? (except Police/professional Fire)

I think this is why they have never done although it has been promised during many budget debatess. If they did, it would make no difference to the lives of working folks.

Thank you for posting the different salary figures in the manner which compares similar jobs. The salary differential may be explained by the longevity of government employees vs private sector people changing employers with some frequency.

And thanks for stating that some third of government employees are competent and dedicated. I counted myself as one of those. I’ve been retired for some years, but in my last full year of work I returned $125 million USD in fines, restitution and recoveries to the taxpayers. I would have been fairly happy, at that time, to have a salary equal to 0.1% of that amount for the year.

I don’t know what the benefit packages are for state and local employees, but Federal employees contribute significantly to much of their benefits package (vacation/leave being an exception, but “informal” days off are not unknown in private employment and require use of leave in Federal employment). Quasi-governmental entities such as the USPS bargain for at least some of their benefits and contributions, which may have a distinct impact on the calculation (USPS being the large employer it is).

As for the ability to fire an employee, the unions have little to do with the rules for firing in the Civil Service. They will fight a firing tooth and nail for those covered by a union, and can bargain “around the edges”, but the ability and procedure for firing are set in statute. Most managers are, frankly, too afraid (or lazy) to do the work necessary to compile the evidence needed to fire. The argument (from outside the government) that employees can’t be fired” seems to have had an effect on government management. The rules and requirements date back to the elimination of the “spoils” system and the institution of a “Civil Service”. They were designed to protect employees from being fired when an election brought in a new Administration by requiring proof of malfeasance, misfeasance or generally bad conduct or work habits.

Rob Reiner is and always has been “Meathead” to me. He played an uber-liberal on “All In The Family” along with Sally Struthers … perhaps not surprisingly they are both still “Uber-Liberals”

Expat … Really, I can’t believe that you would even waste the tiny amount of enrgy it takes to watch “Meathead” in reference to anything outside of fantasy movies … and even then … I gotta wonder … if you look over his film credits they’re all pretty lame.

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!!?

I worked my way through college on the GI Bill ($125 per month for married folks) and the night shift for the US Post Office Department. We had an Assistant Post Master who used to lecture us that we should get down on our knees daily and thank God that we had a job (the Great Depression had a great effect on him), and how when he was a Clerk the POD didn’t supply paper towels in the rest room and he was required to furnish his own towel, and there were locker inspections to make sure the employees took their towels home to be washed. I had a Superintendent of Mail who informed me that he “…didn’t give a f*** what the union contract said, you will do exactly what I tell you to do and like it!” Further, he also told me he didn’t give a da** what the law and regulations said about who could handle first class mail (he had female part time school kids handling and canceling first class mail when they were supposed to only be used to load and unload trucks [admittedly the boys were doing just that] and anyone not a regular employee was not supposed to handle individual pieces of first class mail),

Obviously that was many, many years ago. I don’t know what the situation is today, though those managers who survived the Depression are long ago retired, if even still with us. The managers of the POD routinely lost grievance appeals. So much so that I later read that the then new USPS informed the Postmasters that if they lost 3 Grievance Appeals, they should be looking for a new job. The “message” was not that you had better cave in, but that you had better be right if you let it go beyond the initial grievance process. In my day, in my PO, no filed grievance was settled at the local level, despite union local attempts to do just that. The Postmaster actually suggested to the local President that documentation (from another person not involved in that conversation) included in an appeal be altered, without the originator’s knowledge or agreement, before being sent to the Regional Office. At that time, in that PO, management seemed somewhat amazed that employees would “challenge” their decisions in any way. I can’t say that this was a pervasive attitude across the USPOD, though I suspect that it was outside of states with a strong union presence in the private sector.

Government … Government Employees … Unions …

As Government expands and slowly becomes the #1 Employer, do you really think that there is any way that they will “reasonable employers”? Can you imagine the cronyism that would run rampant with every new election (look at Obama’s raft of new “Czars”) ? Can you imagine how many politicians would basically tell the employees that voting for someone else will cost them their job?

Unfortunately, unions do have their place. In some industries and workplaces they are almost a necessary evil.

I don’t like unions or what they do in general. Sometimes though, you can see where workers need one. The problem is that they do an excellent job of solidifying the workers into a coherent force to bring the owners or … business operators to a bargaining table and forcing them to treat the workers with some equity. BUT then they become the “help” that never stops giving but instead just continues to grow and from a 2 pound monkey you get a 500 pound gorilla.

Workers would be better of if they could gather themselves together and present their grievances as a group … but they can’t (or can’t find the will) to do it themselves. Unions provide that … “will”.

As for all those out there who come up with statements like … just quit … no-one makes you … you need to get a bit “real” many places where corporations have power, the power is almost absolute. They “own” the town, the county, the authorities. The only thing to do is move away … many people do not know how to do that, are not capable, have lived their entire lives in one area …

Today, in these economic times, Employment Agencies are becoming the new abusive corporate entity. You can’t get a job because employers only hire through the Agency. The Agency buffers the corporation from all sorts of liabilities and sundry costs and make workers easily replaceable. The Agencies, knowing that they have the job market almost totally locked up have created a “regulated” wage structure that runs from $9 per hour to a high of about $14.50. Many of the jobs aren’t worth more. Many are though.

These Agencies aren’t trying to get you employed, they ARE the employer.