Not All Unions Are The Same

Polling data can be very informative and useful for decision- and policymakers, but be very wary if you see a newspaper story on the front page touting the latest results of a national poll.  You’re probably looking at an exercise in spin.

Case in point:  USA Today had a top of the fold front page story trumpeting the results of a 21 February USA Today/Gallup poll.  The story was headlined, “Americans favor union bargaining rights” and clearly suggested strong nationwide support for public employee unions. 

Really?

The actual polling question was, “Would you favor or oppose a law in your state taking away some collective bargaining rights of most public unions, including the state teachers union?”  The way this question is worded is clearly designed to elicit an unfavorable response.  No one wants to have “rights” “taken away”!  And why was the state teachers’ union specifically identified?  Was it perhaps to elicit some sympathy for those poor underpaid and overworked public school teachers?  Does the general non-union individual being asked this question even know what “collective bargaining” is?  Does the typical American really know what the phrase, “right to work” means? 

This poll was commissioned specifically to generate a result sympathetic to the union protesters in Wisconsin, not to actually gauge the public’s opinion on public employee unions.

If the goal of this poll was truly to find out what Americans thought about public unions, why not ask a slightly different question?   “Would you favor or oppose a law in your state allowing public sector employees to opt out of paying union dues if they so chose?”  Right now, in Wisconsin and many other states, public employees must join a union and pay dues as a condition of employment.  In Wisconsin, these annual dues can be up to $1,100 per member, and are typically deducted automatically from their pay.  This is nothing less than a cash-generating machine.  And after the union officers’ and staff salaries are paid, how do you think these funds are allocated?  For political purposes.  The overwhelming preponderance of these contributions are given to Democrats.  According to political analyst Michael Barone, “Unions, most of whose members are public employees, gave Democrats some $400 million in the 2008 election cycle. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the biggest public employee union, gave Democrats $90 million in the 2010 cycle”.   A citation from the Chronicle of Higher Education website shows that 99% of AFSCME contributions went to Democrats and zero to Republicans; Teamsters - 98% Democrat/2% Republican; International Association of Firefighters 83% Democrat/16% Republican.

If Americans knew that mandatory dues were being funneled into a machine funding a single political party that favors public unions, do you think the polling results would be a little different?  Of course they would.

In the private sector, the goal of management is to make a profit for the shareholders.  Private sector unions have been organized to protect labor from being exploited by management (being overworked or under-compensated or both).  The theory is that if the corporation or industry is profitable, some of those profits should be shared with the workers in the form of increases in benefits.  This makes sense and is defensible.

Governmental administration at the local, state and federal level is a non-profit enterprise.  Government employees are supposed to be "public servants".  The source of their income is not revenue from producing a product or service, it is taxes.  So when government unions, such as teachers, go on strike, they are striking against taxpayers, demanding an increase in taxes to fund their benefits.  A state in dire fiscal crisis must make hard choices.  But requiring state employees to contribute something to their retirement and health premiums is not an unreasonable way to control state spending.  The savings to state workers from not paying mandatory union dues would offset much of that contribution! 

Public unions have only been around since the 1950s.  Even FDR and George Meany (former president of the AFL-CIO) both thought public sector unions “unthinkable and intolerable”.  Now they exist as a mechanism, not to ensure management or shareholders do not exploit workers, but to perpetuate a protected stream of benefits paid for by taxpayers.

Not all unions are the same.  If more Americans knew this, some of the polling data would be quite different.