While there are endless interesting narratives woven into the now-infamous Wisconsin budget plan, the facts, motivations, and implications impelling the legislation have become vastly distorted.
Scott Walker’s budget plan does not touch public employees’ right to organize. Teachers will still be able to join Madison Teachers Inc, prison guards will still be able to join their local AFSCME, and nurses will still be able to join the local SEIU. The budget does, however, eliminate monopoly bargaining rights for most public employees—firefighters, police officers are exempt—when negotiation everything but wages.
This is an important distinction, and one that union advocates have gone to great lengths to conflate. So what does this mean for the average public sector worker in Wisconsin? As it stands today, anyone who wants to teach in a unionized Wisconsin public school is required to join the union as a condition of employment. While this teacher, technically, can leave the union, they are still forced to financially support the union in the form of monthly dues and are still covered under the union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement.
Even in many right-to-work states teachers who do not join the union are still covered by the union’s collective bargaining agreement. So while workers do not have to financially contribute to the union, they are still subject to its whims and contract. Public sector unions derive most of their power from the ability to monopoly bargaining for workers. Monopoly bargaining inflates a unions numbers and influence—most importantly, though—it prohibits choice. Wisconsin state officials are forced to negotiate with unions—there is no one else to bargain with. And forced negotiations are never fair ones. This explains why unions, via monopoly bargaining, consistently extort inflated wages and benefits from the state of Wisconsin, and thus its taxpayers.
Equally important, public sector employees are not allowed to negotiate the terms of their contract with their employers—an amazing concept when you think about it. The only party that benefits from this exchange is the labor union. Taxpayers ended up propping up maleficent contracts and public employees end up with contracts that do not take into account their preferences. Unions retort saying that their members have a large say during contract negotiations, but it is impossible to account for hundreds of people’s preferences.
Even without monopoly bargaining, public employees can still lobby their state representative, schools boards, and city councils, just like every other group of citizens. In exchange for this legislation which injects choice into a broken system, Governor Walker has promised there will be layoffs or furloughs when tackling the state’s shortfall.
Union power will now be predicated on its ability to win support and recruit members—not political influence. Apart from balancing Wisconsin’s budget, no minor externality, Governor Scott Walker’s plan gives workers the ability to determine what is best for themselves and state officials what is best for Wisconsin.
Christopher Prandoni serves as a Federal Affairs Manager of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). He is also the Executive Director of the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF), an organization that combats anti-worker legislation and promotes free and open markets.
