Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind

by Mallory Factor

  29 Mark Mix, “Public Unions Seek National Monopoly,” Washington Times, September 3, 2010.

  30 Reed Larson, quoted in “Passage of Civil Service Reform Reconfirms Union Clout,” National Right to Work Newsletter, October 13, 1978, p. 5.

  31 Quoted in Neil MacNeil and Amy Wilentz, “I Will Veto Again and Again,” Time, March 18, 1985.

  Chapter 1. Meet the Shadowbosses

  1 As we discuss elsewhere in this book, some government employee unions don’t have the power to negotiate over wages and benefits. For example, unions cannot generally bargain for increased wages for most federal employees, which are set by Congress according to government pay schedules, and the same is true in some states. These unions, however, do lobby Congress (for federal workers) or the state legislature (for state workers) to increase the compensation of their members, and the unions handle workplace evaluations and grievances and provide other worksite representation.

  2 Donna Wiesner Keene, e-mail to the author, January 30, 2012.

  3 Byron York, “Michelle Obama: ‘Don’t Go into Corporate America,’ ” National Review Online, February 29, 2008, http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/159678/michelle-obama-dont-go-corporate-america/byron-york, accessed January 2012.

  4 Chris Edwards, “Overpaid Federal Workers,” Downsizing the Federal Government website, February 2012, http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/overpaid-federal-workers, accessed March 2012. This report states, “In 2010, federal worker compensation averaged $126,141, or double the private-sector average of $62,757.”

  5 “Mitt Romney Says 500,000 Federal Workers Earn More Than $100,000 a Year,” Tampa Bay Times Politifact.com, September 3, 2011, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/03/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-500000-federal-workers-earn-more-/, accessed April 2012; Dennis Cauchon, “Some Federal Workers More Likely to Die Than Lose Jobs,” USA Today, July 19, 2011, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-07-18-fderal-job-security_n.htm, accessed January 2012.

  6 James Sherk, “Inflated Federal Pay: How Americans Are Overtaxed to Overpay the Civil Service,” Center for Data Analysis Report #10-05, Heritage Foundation, July 7, 2010, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/07/inflated-federal-pay-how-americans-are-overtaxed-to-overpay-the-civil-service, accessed December 2011. See also Andrew J. Biggs and Jason Richwine, “The Public Worker Gravy Train,” Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2011.

  7 Sherk, “Inflated Federal Pay: How Americans Are Overtaxed to Overpay the Civil Service.”

  8 For a thorough analysis of studies of government versus private sector compensation, see Daniel DiSalvo, “What’s the Evidence on Comparative Compensation?” Public Sector Inc., February 13, 2012, http://www.publicsectorinc.com/forum/2012/02/whats-the-evidence-on-comparative-compensation.html, accessed February 2012. See also Jason Richwine, James Sherk, and Andrew Biggs, “Federal Pay is Out of Line with Private Sector Pay: CBO Supports Heritage, AEI Conclusions,” Backgrounder #2653, Heritage Foundation, February 15, 2012, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/02/federal-pay-is-out-of-line-with-private-sector-pay-cbo-supports-heritage-aei-conclusions, accessed March 2012.

  9 Chris Edwards, “Employee Compensation in State and Local Governments,” Cato Institute Tax and Budget Bulletin, January 2010, http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb-59.pdf, accessed January 2012; Chris Edwards, “Public Sector Unions and the Rising Cost of Employee Compensation,” Cato Journal, Winter 2010, pp. 87–115, http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj30n1/cj30n1.html, accessed February 2012. Other reports show the state and local employees don’t necessarily make more in salary alone than private sector workers, but when both salary and benefits are considered, they can make as much as 30 percent more than private sector workers. See Biggs and Richwine, “The Public Worker Gravy Train.”

  10 Tad De Haven, “Federal Employees Continue to Prosper,” Cato @ Liberty (blog), August 10, 2010, http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/federal-employees-continue-to-prosper/, accessed April 2012.

  11 Cauchon, “Some Federal Workers More Likely to Die Than Lose Jobs.”

  12 See Edwards, “Public Sector Unions and the Rising Cost of Employee Compensation.”

  13 Edwards, “Employee Compensation in State and Local Governments.”

  14 DeHaven, “Federal Employees Continue to Prosper.”

  15 Lachlan Markay, “CFPB ‘Invitations Coordinator’ May Get More Than $100,000 Per Year,” The Foundry (blog), Heritage Foundation, January 6, 2012, http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/06/cfpb-invitations-coordinator-may-get-more-than-100000-per-year/, accessed March 2012; “Job title: Invitations Coordinator,” USA Jobs, http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/306225500, accessed March 2012.

  16 Edwards, “Employee Compensation in State and Local Governments.”

  17 Barbara A. Butrica et al., “The Disappearing Defined Benefit Pension and Its Potential Impact on the Retirement Incomes of Baby Boomers,” Social Security Bulletin 69, no. 3 (2009), http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v69n3/v69n3p1.html, accessed March 2012.

  18 Only one in ten private sector workers receives employer contributions to his pension exceeding 6 percent of his salary. Andrew Biggs and Jason Richwine, “Why Public Pensions Are Too Rich,” Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2012.

  19 Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, “Fire Department Pensions Near $90,000, Data Show,” Crain’s New York Business, October 6, 2011, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20111006/POLITICS/111009924, accessed January 2012.

  20 “Calculate Your Public Pension,” http://www.calculateyourpublicpension.com/.

  21 See Frederic U. Dicker, “Andy Rocks the ‘Bloat,’ ” New York Post, March 19, 2010, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/andy_rocks_the_bloat_with_budget_lNwYmtYfeNXlApwskbEV7J, accessed March 2012.

  22 Edwards, “Employee Compensation in State and Local Governments”; Brad Heath, “States Act to Curb Double Dipping,” USA Today, December 3, 2009, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-12-03-states-double-dipping_N.htm, accessed March 2012.

  23 Paul Van Osdol, “Team 4: See How Govt. Employees Waste Time On Web,” WTAE.com, February 1, 2008, http://www.wtae.com/r/15197025/detail.html, accessed January 2012.

  24 Lily Garcia, “Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Federal Job,” Washington Post, June 4, 2009; Lily Garcia, “Uncle Sam Is a Boss You Can Rely On,” Washington Post, June 21, 2009. The union approach to sick days is that they represent extra paid time off. For example, the NY-NJ Port Authority Police Union forced an agreement that management could not check on “sick” employees until after several days.

  25 Steven Greenhut, Plunder! (Santa Ana, Calif.: Forum Press, 2009), p. 101.

  26 Performance awards were changed under the Obama Administration to be limited to 5 percent of salary for senior executives and professionals, and 1 percent of salary for other employees. See “Administration Limits Performance Award Spending,” Federal Computer Week, June 13, 2011, http://fcw.com/articles/2011/06/13/administration-announces-limits-on-performance-award-spending.aspx, accessed January 2012.

  27 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Affiliation of Employed Wage and Salary Workers by Occupation and Industry,” table, January 27, 2012, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t03.htm, accessed January 2012.

  28 Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson, “Union Membership, Coverage, Density and Employment by Occupation, 2010,” chart, Unionstats.com, http://www.unionstats.com/Occ_U_2010.htm, accessed January 2012. See also Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Percent Distribution of Workers in Service Occupations by Bargaining Status, 1997,” chart, January 27, 2012, http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/tables/cm20030623ar01t3.htm (the latest data available are from 1997).

  29 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Members—2011,” press release, January 27, 2012, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm, accessed January 2012.

  30 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Affiliation of Employed Wage and Salary Workers.”

  31 “Some Postal Jobs Open,” Federal Jobs, http://www.jobsfed.com/fjdpaper/Jumps4_11_03
/JumpSpec1_4_11.htm, accessed January 2012.

  32 Eighty-five percent of career postal workers are unionized. Postal workers are represented by different unions depending on their job function, but their rate of unionization is very high across the board. The American Postal Workers Union represents clerks, maintenance employees, and motor vehicle service employees; the National Postal Mail Handlers Union represents mail handlers and processors; the National Association of Letter Carriers represents letter carriers; and the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association represents rural mail carriers.

  33 Douglas A. McIntyre and Charles Stockdale, “America’s Ten Largest Employers,” 24/7 Wall Street (blog), April 24, 2011, http://247wallst.com/2011/04/24/americas-ten-largest-employers/2/, accessed March 2012.

  34 “Postal Facts,” U.S. Postal Service, http://about.usps.com/future-postal-service/postalfacts-2011.pdf, accessed January 2012.

  35 A recent report on privatizing the Postal Service notes, “Although the USPS is structured to operate like a self-supporting business, this model is on borrowed time.” Tad DeHaven, “Privatizing the U.S. Postal Service,” Downsizing the Federal Government (blog), Cato Institute, November 2010, http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/usps, accessed March 2012.

  36 U.S. Government Accountability Office, “United States Postal Service: Strategy Needed to Address Aging Delivery Fleet,” report no. GAO-11-386, May 17, 2011. The report states, “Over the past 4 years, capital investments declined from $2.7 billion in fiscal year 2007 to $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2010. According to USPS officials, most capital expenditures since fiscal year 2008 have been for investments that are expected to provide cost savings, such as automated mail sorting equipment…” http://www.gao.gov/htext/d11386.html.

  37 Bill McAllister, “Postal Service Seen as Crippled by Animosity,” Washington Post, October 28, 1994.

  38 Tad DeHaven, “USPS Sinking under Union’s Weight,” Downsizing the Federal Government (blog), Cato Institute, October 19, 2010, http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/postal-service-sinking-under-unions-weight.

  39 Tad DeHaven, “Postal Union Wants More,” Cato @ Liberty (blog), September 7, 2010, http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/postal-union-wants-more/, accessed January 2012. And the postal union demands for greater compensation for postal workers seems to have borne fruit. James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation concluded that in addition to earning 15–20 percent more than comparable workers in the private sector, postal workers earn greater benefits than other federal workers in some regards. Sherk, “Inflated Federal Pay: How Americans Are Overtaxed to Overpay the Civil Service,” p. 30.

  40 Iain Murray, “Air Traffic Control Reform: Good for You, Good for the Planet, Bad for Bureaucrats,” Washington Examiner, May 15, 2009, http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/examiner-opinion-zone/2009/05/air-traffic-control-reform-good-you-good-planet-bad-bureaucrats, accessed January 2012. While this book was being written, the President signed a bill authorizing conversion of some existing radar-based systems of air traffic control to GPS at some of the nation’s busiest airports, but this is just a modest step down the path toward a national GPS-based air traffic control system.

  41 And apparently, NATCA has also done a great job for them in negotiation—the contract that union negotiated for the air traffic controllers was so rich that the president of NATCA gloated, the contract “is such thievery we should all pick up our pay checks with a mask and a gun.” Quoted in “FAA Responds to NATCA’s False Claims about Controller Pay,” Aero News Network, aeronews.net/ANNTicker.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=c5e2958f-2329-4057-8f2f-a2c94774c78a, January 27, 2006.

  42 Murray, “Air Traffic Control Reform.”

  43 Marcus Baram, “FAA Launches New Plan to Keep Air Traffic Controllers from Sleeping on the Job,” Huffington Post, July 14, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/14/faa-air-traffic-controller_n_898830.html, accessed January 2012.

  44 Steven Greenhouse, “The Labor Movement’s Eager Risk-Taker Hits Another Jackpot,” New York Times, February 27, 1999.

  45 Kyle Olson, “Sunlight on SEIU Part I: Marxist Andy Stern’s Compensation Would Have Karl Marx Spinning in His Grave,” BigGovernment.com, April 12, 2010, http://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/04/12/sunlight-on-seiu-part-i-marxist-andy-sterns-compensation-would-have-karl-marx-spinning-in-his-grave/, accessed January 2012.

  46 All union official salary figures are from the Center for Union Facts, accessible at http://www.unionfacts.org, which summarizes data from union financial disclosure.

  47 “Public Employee Pay, Pensions and Collective Bargaining,” AFSCME, http://www.afscme.org/issues/workers-rights/resources/document/AFSCME-FactSheet_PublicEmployeePayPensionsBargaining.pdf, accessed November 2011.

  48 See James Sherk, “What Do Union Members Want? What Paycheck Protection Laws Show About How Well Unions Reflect Their Members’ Priorities,” Center For Data Analysis Report #06-08, Heritage Foundation, August 30, 2006, footnote 7, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/08/what-do-union-members-want-what-paycheck-protection-laws-show-about-how-well-unions-reflect-their-members-priorities, accessed January 2012.

  49 Mark Brenner, “Bloated Salaries Limit Organizing, Leave Members Cynical,” Labor Notes, January 25, 2007, http://labornotes.org/node/513, accessed November 2011.

  50 Technically, the union is not operating either a closed shop or a union shop over government workers, but this is really a distinction without much of a difference. A closed shop is when the employer agrees to hire only union workers and was made illegal under the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. Similarly, a union shop, which is a workplace requiring employees to join the union when they are hired, is considered to violate the U.S. Constitution. But in reality, government employee unions in non-right-to-work states are usually basically union shops. The slight difference is that the workers are not required to join the union—just to pay agency fees more or less equivalent to union dues for representation. And they can be fired for refusing to pay them.

  51 The federal government and thirty-four states expressly allow unions to create monopoly bargaining arrangements over some or all of their government workers and require the government employer to negotiate with the union in good faith. Nine additional states allow the government employer to certify a union to represent government workers, but do not require the government employer to bargain with the union.

  52 Forced-dues collection is expressly prohibited only in the twenty-three right-to-work states, but for various reasons it is also not practiced in several of the remaining states.

  53 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Members—2011.” From official figures, we know that half of all union members, public and private, come from these six states. It follows that at least half of all union dues comes from these states. In fact, since salaries are higher in these states than in the other forty-four states and dues are based on income, probably much more than 50 percent of dues income is collected from these states.

  54 For example, bathroom breaks are covered on page 24 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement Between Stockton Unified School District and Stockton Teachers Association, 2002–2005, on file with the authors.

  55 When union members vote to ratify their employment contract, they will also generally confirm their union’s representation of them at the same time. Once a group of workers is unionized, they almost never organize themselves to decertify their union. When a union is decertified, it is usually because a well-funded and well-organized rival union comes in and poaches workers, causing a union turf battle. Sometimes, the upstart union will be able to replace the existing union through decertification.

  56 James Sherk, “Who Pays for ‘Official Time’ and Why Americans Should Be Concerned,” WebMemo #3447, Heritage Foundation, January 12, 2012, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/01/official-time-of-federal-employees, accessed January 2012.

  57 Ibid. Figures for 2010 can be found in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s “Official Time Usage in the Federal Government Fiscal Yea
r 2010 Survey Responses,” http://www.opm.gov/LaborManagementRelations/OfficialTime/OfficialTime2010.asp, accessed March 2012.

  58 We are not aware of any comprehensive accounting for “official” time at the state and local level, although individual cities and states have made calculations. For example, the city of Phoenix has estimated that the city pays for 73,000 hours of “release time” for city workers annually, at an estimated cost of $3.7 million each year. Mark Flatten, “Phoenix Sued over Paying for Union Leaders’ Release Time,” Watchdog,org, December 7, 2011, http://watchdog.org/12289/phoenix-sued-over-paying-for-union-leaders%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98release-time%E2%80%99/. To estimate the total amount of official time at the combined federal, state, and local levels, we used data for union representation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010, and we assumed that the rate of official time per union member is the same at the state and local levels as it is at the federal level (for which we have official time data for 2010). See Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Affiliation of Employed Wage and Salary Workers,” http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2011/ted_20110125_data.htm.

  59 Vincent Vernuccio and Trey Kovacs, “Official Time: Government Workers Perform Union Duties on the Taxpayers’ Dime,” Labor Watch (blog), Capital Research Center, November 1, 2011, https://www.capitalresearch.org/2011/11/official-time-government-workers-perform-union-duties-on-the-taxpayers%E2%80%99-dime/, accessed March 2012.

  60 Sylvester Petro, “Sovereignty and Compulsory Public-Sector Bargaining,” Wake Forest Law Review 10 (1974): pp. 79–81.

  61 Ibid., p. 47.

  62 It’s already happening around the country. In Englewood, New Jersey, an arbitrator ruled in January 2012 that the borough would have to give raises to police officers—even though in order to do so, the borough would need to raise taxes. Amanda Baskind, “Englewood Cliffs Appealing Arbitration Decision to Raise Police Salaries,” NorthJersey.com, January 5, 2012, http://www.northjersey.com/news/136718013_Borough_appealing_arbitration_decision_to_raise_police_salaries__.html, accessed January 2012. In Roscoe, Illinois, arbitrators have consistently favored unions. “Arbitrators are binding the village to long-term debt, and their attitude is that we can just raise property taxes to pay for it,” lamented village president Dave Krienke. “Well, guess what: A lot of families can’t afford any more taxes.” Between 2006 and 2010, arbitrators in Illinois ruled on 433 issues between unions and the state municipalities; they found for the municipalities 217 times and the unions 216 times. But from January to October 2011, arbitrators ruled on 83 contract issues—and ruled for the unions 73 percent of the time, and 80 percent of the time on wage disputes. Greg Stanley, “State Interest Arbitration Favoring Unions in 2011,” Rockford Register Star, October 22, 2011, http://www.rrstar.com/news/x888174344/In-Sundays-paper-State-interest-arbitration-favoring-unions-in-2011, accessed January 2012.