Have public sector unions in Michigan been serving all their members?
I read an interesting opinion piece in no other than the USA Today paper. It was written by Andrew Cline, who is president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in New Hampshire.
Whenever I read an opinion piece I always attempt to find out the background of the person writing the piece to see if there may be a bias. I looked up the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy and found that the mission of the center as they described it is as follows:
The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan, independent think tank focused on state and local public policy issues that affect the quality of life for New Hampshire’s citizens. The Center has as its core beliefs individual freedom and responsibility, limited and accountable government, and an appreciation of the role of the free enterprise system. The Center seeks to promote policy that supports these beliefs by providing information, research, and analysis.
The writer asked and answered a very simple question and that was “Public sector unions can serve either their members or the Democratic Party, not both”.
I would certainly have to agree with him. They need to serve the interest of their dues paying members or the Democratic Party, I do not believe they can do both.
In his piece he points out that not all teachers consider themselves democrats, apparently quite a bit less than 50% do. An Education Week survey last year found that:
- 41% of teachers said they were Democrats
- 30% said they were independents
- and 27% said they were Republicans
If only 41% consider themselves democrats then why did the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) feature speakers at their convention last year only from the Democratic Party? The prominent speakers where Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, no Republicans were there or invited.
Also all of the public sector unions through their leadership endorsed and funded Democratic politicians only. We also know that these public unions never stop advocating for a continuously growing government and fight every effort to control government spending or make government more accountable to the people.
There was a recent national survey by a group called the Educators for Excellence and they reported last spring that:
52 percent of teachers who were union members said their union represented their perspective only somewhat, and 20 percent said the union did not represent their perspective much or at all
The point of this piece is not to “bash” unions, although I do not believe in Public Sector Unions, I do not care about private unions. The point is to inform the union members who may not consider themselves as democrats and let them know that there are many in their unions who may think like they do. Also to encourage those members to pressure their unions to represent all of their member’s ideologues by not just advocating for less than have of their members.
These Public Sector Unions should be more concerned about all of their members and prove that they can offer their members and potential members a valuable service at a great price. Because, as Andrew Cline said “if they do that, the can not only survive, they can also grow”.
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