Union-Busting Cons Have No Shame! Their Full-Scale Attack on First Responders

[Cowpunk]

Cross-posted at New Nebraska Network.

Military Veterans Are a Millstone Around the Taxpayer's Neck
by: Don Kuhns


If you, dear reader, are deeply offended by the title of this article, as I hope you are, then you should be equally incensed at the treatment that police officers and firefighters are currently receiving in our Omaha community. The Omaha World-Herald's Andrew Nelson gave us a prime example in Thursday's Midlands section, a comment hardly uncharacteristic of the ones I've been hearing on local talk radio as of late:

Omaha city officials held a public forum Wednesday on the proposed police contract, and many taxpayers questioned the accuracy of the city's financial projections and complained about the pensions that police officers earn....
One man questioned why police officers simply didn't realize they were public servants who should take pension cuts for the good of the public.

"Why don't our civil servants recognize what they are?" he said. "They are a millstone around the taxpayer's neck."

Let me start this off by stating the obvious: That guy's a dick.

Also: Soldiers risk their lives protecting us, their fellow citizens. They are exposed to hazards and situations that few of us in the private sector can imagine. The same is true of police officers and firefighters, our first responders.

Like first responders, soldiers are employed by the government.

Like first responders, soldiers can retire at a younger age than most of us working in private business.

Like first responders, soldiers can expect a healthy pension when they retire.

Like first responders, soldiers receive generous health care benefits before and after they retire.

Unlike first responders, the health care benefits and pensions of soldiers are paid entirely by us, the taxpayers.

Unlike first responders, soldiers receive their benefits through a vast socialist government bureaucracy, the Department of Veterans Affairs.


So why do we hear not a peep from our conservative friends about soldiers and veterans bleeding them dry, while first responders are maligned as the greedy scourge of honest taxpayers?

The answer, in a word, is unions. Our brave firefighters and police officers have just become the latest targets in the conservative war on labor unions. The reason for this blinding double standard among conservatives is that first responders have the audacity to collectively bargain for their livelihood, and conservatives just hate that.

It's not hard to understand why conservatives have such a huge blind spot when it comes to soldiers. For those fighting to protect the "owner class", soldiers must exemplify the ideal employee. They follow orders without question, they don't talk back, and they never ask for raises.

It's also easy to understand why conservatives would want to attack unions. Labor unions and political progressives are natural allies. Democrats and unions have a long history together. And yet, the war on unions is a self-defeating one for those who seek smaller government. Unions once served as the private sector's bulkhead against socialism.

As unions have grown weaker, economic divergence has risen. The underclass has grown, and the need for the government to redistribute wealth has increased. While this all may seem obvious to progressives, conservatives think they can have their cake and eat it too. They think the American people are ready to accept a "new paradigm", as Glenn Beck puts it, of lower wages, less benefits, poor health, insecurity and fear.

Who knows, maybe they're right. Maybe too many Americans believe they are helpless to stem this tide of despair. Personally, I doubt it. I think America's working class will get what's coming to it, one way or another. And I hope conservatives realize that trade unions are what stand between the guys sporting monocles and the guys carrying pitchforks.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. The vast majority of civil servants are not first responders nor soldiers/sailors/airmen

and make easy targets, think DMV employees and the Bell city council. However,even military benefits are under attack.

Feds transitioned off defined benefit to a hybrid plan that is mostly 401K like in the mid 80s. They retrofitted some newer employees on to it, but allowed the more senior ones to remain under the defined benefit plan. State and localities should have done the same and still need to.