Symptoms vs Problem
Excessive force and the death of George Floyd and others are symptoms of a problem that dates back to the late 1950s and early 1960s.
- In 1958 New York mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. issued an executive order, called “the little Wagner Act,” giving city employees certain bargaining rights, and gave their unions with exclusive representation (that is, the unions alone were legally authorized to speak for all city workers, regardless of whether or not some workers were members.
- On January 17, 1962, Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988 recognizing the right of federal employees to collective bargaining.
The Wagner Act of 1935 gave collective bargaining rights to private companies, but Wagner and Kennedy extended it to the public sector.
The Problem With Police Unions
Collective Bargaining and public unions are the real problem. They protect bad cops from discipline.
I have discussed this many times, but it is now in the national spotlight.
Today a WSJ Editorial discusses The Problem With Police Unions.
Remember the furor in 2011 when Republican governors tried to reform collective bargaining for government workers? Well, what do you know, suddenly Democrats say public-union labor agreements are frustrating police reform. We’re delighted to hear it—if they’re serious.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Sunday said police collective bargaining and arbitration have prevented the city from holding officers accountable for misconduct. Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with killing George Floyd, had at least 17 misconduct complaints against him in 18 years. But it appears he was disciplined only once—after a woman said he pulled her from a car and frisked her for exceeding the speed limit by 10 miles per hour. He received a letter of reprimand.
Minneapolis’s Office of Police Conduct Review has received 2,600 misconduct complaints since 2012. Only 12 have resulted in discipline, and the most severe punishment was a 40-hour suspension. “Unless we are willing to tackle the elephant in the room—which is the police union—there won’t be a culture shift in the department,” Mr. Frey said.
Why It’s Impossible to Get Rid of Bad Cops
Finally, someone gets it. The WSJ gave a number of examples and so did I.
Flashback June 6, 2020: Why It’s Impossible to Get Rid of Bad Cops
Last Friday, Philadelphia Inspector Joseph Bologna smashed a student on the back of the head and he now faces charges of aggravated assault.
The police union is outraged. And until it goes as far as kneeling on someone neck for 8 minutes until they are dead, police unions will always defend the police.
Public Unions are the Problem
It is nearly impossible to get rid of bad cops and bad teachers.
It takes outright murder caught on video before police unions don’t look the other way. Even then, the union tries to protect the others involved.
The same happens with teachers who abuse kids, Bad teachers cannot be dismissed.
Bad Teachers Protected by Tenure and Unions
If you search, you can find hundreds of stories like this one: Dirty Dozen: 12 Bad Teachers Protected by Tenure and Unions.
Matthew Lang was a band director at O’Fallon Township High School in Illinois in 2007 when administrators learned he was having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student. But instead of being fired, Lang was able to resign, and the relationship was kept out of his file so he could seek another teaching job.
“… we are asking that all information concerning the request for his resignation not be placed in his file,” read a letter from the teacher’s union rep to the O’Fallon school board that was originally obtained by education news site EAGnews.
The district complied and even provided a letter of recommendation that called Lang “an outstanding instructor.” Lang landed a job with Alton High School near the Mississippi River and about 15 miles north of St. Louis, Mo.He worked at the school until 2010, when he was convicted of molesting another female student and sentenced to six years in prison, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Jon White was sentenced to 48 years in prison in 2008 for abusing ten students at schools in the Illinois towns of Urbana and Normal. But those victims might have been spared their ordeals if White’s past had been revealed.
He had previously worked in McLean’s school district, where he was twice suspended for viewing pornography on a school computer and for making sexually suggestive comments to a fifth-grader. Instead of being fired, the union-protected teacher was allowed to resign – with a letter of recommendation that made no mention of the incidents.
There are 10 more stories like that in the one article above.
Letter by Franklin D. Roosevelt on Public Unions
Please consider a few key snips from FDR’s Letter on the Resolution of Federation of Federal Employees Against Strikes in Federal Service, August 16, 1937, emphasis mine.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations.
Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable. It is, therefore, with a feeling of gratification that I have noted in the constitution of the National Federation of Federal Employees the provision that “under no circumstances shall this Federation engage in or support strikes against the United States Government.”
Roosevelt was discussing strikes, but public unions threaten them all the times, especially teachers’ unions. They demand money “for the kids”. The school boards are padded with teachers demanding more money “for the kids”.
Collective bargaining cannot possibly exist in such circumstances. Unions can and have shut down schools. The unions do not give a damn about the kids.
Notice I said “unions” do not give a damn. Most teachers do care for the kids, but the union does not. The unions can, and do, protect teachers guilty of abusing kids. It is nearly impossible to get rid of a bad tenured teacher or a bad cop.
Unions also threaten to shut down mass transportation.
None of this is in the public interest.
Abolish Public Unions Entirely
Union leaders have a mandated goal of protecting bad cops, bad teachers, and corrupt politicians. Unions blackmail politicians and threaten the public they are supposed to serve.
Union leaders will do anything to stay in power, the kids and the public be damned.
The only way to deal with the situation is to “effectively” abolish public unions entirely.
The key word is effectively. What do I mean by that? Take away 100% of their power as opposed to ending their right of association.
Recommended Steps
- National right-to-work laws
- Abolishment of all prevailing wage laws
- Ending public unions ability to strike
- Ending collective bargaining by public unions
Consider Illinois’ prevailing wage laws: Prevailing wages are union wages. Municipalities and businesses have to pay prevailing wages. If they do not hire union workers, they get picketed.
Why bother hiring non-union workers if you have to pay union wages in the first place?
As a direct result, municipalities and businesses must overpay for services in Illinois.
Illinois is Bankrupt
Not only do public unions protect bad cops, bad teachers, and bad employees in general, Illinois is bankrupt after giving in repeatedly to union contract demands and pension spiking.
Fundamental Problem
Lost in the wake of the death of George Floyd is the simple fact that officers like Chauvin may have long ago been weeded out had corrupt union not protected bad cops.
The California Policy Center has a nice set of articles on the Problems of Collective Bargaining.
Trump’s Scorecard
President Trump had two years with a Republican Congress to pass legislation on right-to-work, collective bargaining, national bankruptcy reform and other related items.
His scorecard is a perfect zero.
It will be interesting to see if he cowers to the unions in the next 5 months in an attempt to get re-elected.
Police Unions Love Uprisings
The unions love these uprisings. They will use it to demand more cops, higher pay, and more prisons.
Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That
The unions are willing to hold the public hostage without police service, without fire service and without schools to get what they want.
The fact of the matter is simple: Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That.
OK Democrats That’s the Problem
Now, what will you do about it?
“When San Francisco police broke down a door inside a group home for mentally disabled people in 2008 and shot a 56-year-old resident, then-DA Kamala Harris didn’t charge the officers with a crime. Instead she prosecuted the schizophrenic woman”
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 11, 2020
I ask Republicans the same thing. But don’t expect either party to do anything
Trump Defends Immunity Laws that Protect Bad Cops
Please note Trump Defends Immunity Laws that Protect Bad Cops
In a Ridiculous Tweet, Trump Defends Police Who Crack a 75-Year Old Man’s Head
At the highest levels, both parties are willing to buy votes of the powerful unions.
Ronald Reagan smashed PATCO, he did not go far enough. He should have smashed all the public unions.
Mish
Unfortunately too many Democrats are still stuck in the mindset that the police are killing them because Jim Crow only ended 55 years ago.
You COMPLETELY missed the biggest source of the problem, which has allowed law enforcement and the intelligence agencies to get away with murder, as well as prosecutors and politicians to be except from the laws they pass for the rest of us. It’s called the US Supreme Court – link to armstrongeconomics.com.
Mish I know you’ve been kneeling to the pink hats lately but they will call you a racist white supremacist for suggesting any changes to public benefits and unions. That’s why many people will vote for Trump be default: they’re tired of being bullied for having “the wrong facts”.
GREAT. I wish this article could be sent to every citizen in the nation, along with the replies
Well yes. But there is a more important reason.
There is no political will to fix problems. The entire policy setting establishment is crippled, corrupt, bought, ineffective, judicially compromised, blackmailed by the secret police establishment, etc. Politics NEVER work in favor of what the people support unless it happens to coincide with what the Big Interests want.
Unions are part of the problem. I would argue that professional politics and by extension public jobs in general as a profession is the superset of that problem. Unfortunately at this point there are too many vested interests both individual and collective that make going back almost impossible without some sort of serious revolution in the country.
Public sector jobs should not have the ability to be self policed. The one thing the founders of America never accounted for is the professionalization of government.
Good point they could have never imagined the extremes of fiat currency. They did try to the dollar to silver.
I think another big item they missed is they assumed the leaders would be represented in the battle field where ever that may be. That’s what they had done they actually participated not just sat back and sent others off to die! If members of congress had to march off to war the US would have a bit of a different look.
The Founders of America wrongly assumed voters would make informed, rational, decisions at election time.
Politics was as ugly back then as it is now, from what i have read, so it was probably just as much emotional based then, as it is now, even though voting was limited to men.
Actually that’s not the case. The Founders were very concerned about what voters might do so they placed several checks on their power. For example, Presidents are elected through the Electoral college and not directly by voters (still an issue for some people). Senators were appointed by state legislatures until the passage of the 17th Amendment. Finally, Federal judges are appointed for life and never subject to voter approval. It is not a coincidence the Founders gave the power to confirm appointments to Federal offices and approve treaties to an unelected Senate. The Founders wanted a way for voters to be heard (House of Representatives), but also placed substantial checks on their power.
The scourge of public union corruption is even deeper than Mish lets on: DAs, Judges, and every elected office in city hall and county government is beholden to “police organization’s” endorsements to get elected.
The unions can put pressure on the prosecuting attorneys to drop cases and minimize charges. Judges will be influenced to be biased in court proceedings involving cops charged with crimes. The result is a culture of unaccountability.
City and county elected officials are dependent on union contributions and endorsements for their office.
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Mish, you nailed it on this one. Public unions are a scourge. If the smashing of public unions is the result of this then that would be a great outcome for America.
Really one just has to think about it to see how awful public unions are. In a private union, say Boeing’s machinists, if they demand too many protections, get too lazy or demand too much pay, there is push back from the managers and shareholders. If these managers do a bad job and sign a horrible contract the company can and will go out of business. The market will correct itself eventually like it always does.
However, there are no “checks” on public unions. There is no one on the other side of the bargaining table. The people who give the contracts are politicians who desperately want the union support for the next election. They just stick it to the tax payer that has no representation, over and over again.
If we could get rid of Qualified Immunity and all public unions it would be a massive start on getting this country heading back in the right direction again.
Looking at some of the comments I had to laugh…both Repubs and Dems trip over each other trying to get Police and Fire union endorsements…good luck getting rid of them. I agree all government job unions need to go, but the two that need to be prioritized are police and fire, then the public sector teachers union.
I’m with you but rank police first, then teachers, then fire. Honestly I might even put the teacher’s union first. If you want to talk about generational or systemic poverty the public school system is the first place I would look.
We need to get rid of the bad shit crazy Democrats who have created this divide ….the cops are not to blame they have bad leadership for many, many years from all these blue city majors who are destroying there own cities. This fish rots from the head down!
What is the motivation for unions to protect bad members?
That way they look out for 100% of their members.
10’s of millions of $’s every 12 months in the form of union dues and someone has to manage the pensions…10’s of millions of $’s in management fee’s. An awful lot of money moving around every 30 days and more is always coming next month. Just keep the members happy and safe and it keeps coming.
I read somewhere, maybe here, that if they made it possible to have police officers operate like surgeons and doctors (provide their own insurance in case of negligence or mis conduct) that it would go a long way in improving the situation. Bad cops would be forced out after 1 or 2 f-ups and I think the insurance industry would require body cams. If they didn’t the officers would almost certainly provide their own…just in case.
This seems like a very practical solution to the obscene acts of murder, planting evidence, false testimony and lack of professionalism. It wouldn’t solve all problems but it could solve the nightmare scenario of coming in contact with a bad cop.
Ending ALL public unions would be the best but seems very unlikely. They’re a political entity now.
Contractors are required to be licensed, bonded and insured. Make police contractors. And reduce their numbers by 90%.
I do not advocate any changes at this time. The country hasn’t sunk to the depths of panic, stupidity, loathing of any government necessary yet. Let the legislators of Congress and others, such as the state of Illinois, continue to prop everything up (the Fed) until it truly collapses. Let unions, the “underprivileged” and defined benefit devotees continue to demand moar and moar dollars until the dollar collapses. Then we will see how it goes.
In the meanwhile, I’m stockpiling gold, $100 bills, bullets, and keeping watch. Another few days of 6% declines should get some attention.
De-fund the politicians, their job is to manage OUR government
Just defund it, and them, all.
Jefferson presided over the greatest government in US, and likely anywhere, history; on $7Million/yr.
Hence, quite obviously to all who can think, more money for the tyrants don’t make the tyranny any better.
Private police companies is the only solution. They have to have the same rights and fair competition
Yikes change it.
Democrats will rage at the travesty of Republicans not supporting their “bipartisan” efforts to reform public unions. After November, they’ll quietly drag it out back, shoot it in the head, and dump it with immigration reform. Both parties will silently breathe a sigh of relief at having removed a real threat to campaign funding in every big city in America. On to immigration reform…again.
The public unions are girding for war. Which side will have the spleen to win?
You don’t have a personalized automobile license plate I hope.
Actually, I do.
GOT MISH
Just curious, who gave you the nickname?
First 2 characters of my first and last name.
I worked for banks and my userid was mishedlo
I used that as my userid on a stock message board on Silicon Investor
People truncated it to Mish
I liked that and adopted it
I’ll try to find the pic of my Got Mish? sign I made for tea party rallies, posted here many years ago. Unfortunately no, most people didn’t listen to a voice of reason about the Fed et Al and now we are here