On Public Workers and That Elephant: The current federal Administration is waging a sustained and widespread attack on public workers and their unions. In response, public employee supporters and their unions are pushing back with examples of the vital work many of those being dismissed, do for us. Many point to the lack of justification for these firings and the failure to provide any review or appeal. In all of this, no one seems to be talking about an underlying reason there hasn’t been a grassroots outcry over the way our employees (public employees do work for us) are being brutalized. It has to do with the success of the right wing, in playing to a sense that public workers are riding high, while the average person is falling behind. If we don’t address the sense of inequity, we won’t effectively address what’s going on. This is the elephant in the room.
First, we have to openly recognize that all too many Americans actually are either falling behind, financially, or don’t feel financially secure about their futures. This is a powerful emotional state that becomes the foundation on how people view their world and the issues we confront. And for many its not just a “sense”, its real. As the wealthy arrange our economy to make themselves richer and the rest of us poorer, those falling down the ladder rungs know it. “The share of Americans who are in the middle class is smaller than it used to be. In 1971, 61% of Americans lived in middle-class households. By 2023, the share had fallen to 51%, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data”. This is accompanied by a dramatic drop in private sector unionization, now standing at 5.9%. The amount of private sector unionization matters because it is the way Americans claim a fair share of the economic pie. This sense of economic insecurity is heightened by inflation and the generally unstable economic outlook. The reality is if people aren’t feeling they’re doing okay, their willingness to be generous to others drops.
The right-wing narrative is that our taxpayer dollars are being spent to provide very lucrative jobs for public employees, while the taxpayer is being stripped of that economic security. “Why should they have it, if we don’t”, says the political pot stirrer. The demand should be “good jobs for all”. But people haven’t built the political power to make that happen. Out of frustration, we are easily convinced to allow the “downward equalizing” of things. We stay silent, as public employees are stripped of their jobs, their union rights and their working dignity. This is yet another perversion that the wealthy have succeeded in inflicting on us, as they escape their responsibility to share the prosperity of this nation.
The American public isn’t naturally bent to be vindictive or punitive against other working people. One of the most amazing examples of that has been the support that even relatively poor communities have shown in coming behind their teachers, when they realize that teachers are being underpaid and are fighting for better education. However, by mixing economic uncertainty with a healthy dose of racism and demonization of public work, the public worker finds themselves somewhat defenseless and without adequate public support. Those who are in public workforces these days report the despondency of public workers right now, as they realize they are not valued and considered disposable.
There is a political reality here. Most public unions are the creation of legislation that was promoted and enacted as a result of private sector unions, when we were at the height of our political influence. Until public employees got the right to bargain, they were some of the most abused and underpaid workers in the country. Significant progress has been made since unionization. This progress has extended to other workers, whose wages are determined by government funding. Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement increases are key to fair wages for hospital and nursing home workers. Infrastructure funding is key to construction worker wages and working conditions. Study dollars determine the pay for many a researcher and scientist. Either wholly or in part, the public’s attitude toward those who work for us is critical to the quality of their jobs. That attitude has been turned against public workers in the current political and economic environment.
What do we do about it? We need to make a primary focus on stabilizing and enhancing the economic situation for private sector workers. Including the new emerging jobs in tech and knowledge work, that is also being reduced to low-wage work. That means higher minimum wage laws, stronger worker rights legislation, a demand that the wealthy give back what they have stolen from us and fair taxation of those who have gathered up most of the money. Unless that happens, we will continue to cannibalize each other.
Public workers would do well to prominently participate in the effort to regain private sector workers footing and prosperity. If public workers understand that their well-being depends on everyone’s prosperity, this is an easy sell. It's as simple as Senator Paul Wellstone put it. “We all do better when we all do better”.
We need to make the point with private sector workers that if public worker wage and work standards are broken, the chance of private sector workers regaining ground becomes less likely. Or as wise Ben Franklin put it, “"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately".
I know I sound like a broken record, but the overall answer is for working people to see their common interests and come together to take on organized wealth. We need to stop being distracted by those shiny objects that keep being put in front of us, and recognize its about greed and the control of insatiable people’s need for power and all the money. That will take guts and a whole lot of organizing. But as former USW International President George Becker told us repeatedly, “failure is not an option”.
Ihg 4-23-2025 If you like these commentaries, join my blog for free at:
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