I was extremely surprised and disappointed (disgusted and perplexed, actually) at Washington Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial favorite, Rob McKenna's recent declaration that "collective bargaining is a right". A right? A constitutional right? Hmmm.

FDR's "Second Bill of Rights", which closely mirrored the 1936 Soviet Constitution, would have guaranteed new "rights" such as a job (not just any, but a "useful and remunerative" one), food, clothing, a decent home, protection from the "economic fears" (not the fear of big government, however) of old age, a high enough income to afford "adequate recreation", and all kinds of other invented new rights no government on this earth could ever guarantee.

Mysteriously absent from the pro-union (National Labor Relations "Wagner" Act) FDR's new, imagined rights was the "right to collective bargaining". In fact, the liberal-progressive god, in a letter (my emphasis) to the president of the National Federation of Federal, said:

"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. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress."

Believe me, if collective bargaining were a right, FDR would have been the very first to declare it. To the contrary, FDR clearly understood the differences between private and public unions.

In a private collective bargaining situation, employees push for a higher percentage of the business's profits through greater wages and/or benefits. The owners of the business (or management hired by the owners) negotiate with workers individually or with their union representatives. In a government union scheme, there are no profits to be distributed and the owner of the business, i.e., the taxpayers who have seemingly deep pockets, are not represented. It's government workers (politicians and bureaucrats) negotiating with government workers.

Private businesses have customers that do business with them by choice. The customer indirectly, yet ultimately, pays those wages and benefits to the workers. They have the freedom of choice as to whether they want to give their money to ABC Company or XYZ Company for whatever services or products they offer. If the prices are too high, due to labor costs, they have the freedom to look elsewhere. Governments take money from their "customers" (taxpayers) by force. The only alternative are fines or imprisonment.

Who represents the taxpayer in this perverted arrangement? In a private sector union, if so much is conceded to employees by management as to cause the company financial harm (see: City of Detroit and the bailed-out auto industry), the employees end up harming themselves as they may not have a job at all. In a government union, there is no such check or balance in place. The "stick" of bankruptcy is never felt by government since the answer to all government failures is always a lack of funding, i.e., more plundering of the disadvantaged taxpayer. Union dues are then virtually automatically transferred from the government workers paychecks, directly to the politicians who made their hefty packages possible. This grotesque process is a right?

FDR wasn't the only one who understood the distinction of public vs. private unions:

"The main function of American trade unions is collective bargaining. It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government." -- Former AFL-CIO President George Meany

Years of government union abuse of taxpayers have resulted in the precarious, unsustainable, and unethical position where the taxtaker's earnings, including bloated benefit and pension packages, are 100% more than the taxpayers who pay them (see: USA Today: Federal Workers Earning Double Their Private Counterparts). The Feds aren't alone. City, state, and local municipalities across the nation are facing their financial day of reckoning.

Under the U.S. Constitution, citizens have the "right" for individuals to assemble. Nowhere is there a "right" to be bargained with or to be recognized as a union. A privilege at most, but not a God-given or constitutional right. Our rights are uniquely "individual". There are no "collective" or group rights. This is not the USSR.

One can be "pro-union" but against government sector unions. FDR and George Meany certainly were. There is no constitutional right to rape taxpayers. Attorney General McKenna should reconsider his position.

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flickr photo credit: by superk8nyc