Labor & Employment Law

Public Employee Bashing ?More Like Class War?

By Mike Hall

Around the country, public employees are under attack by Republican governors, state legislatures and right-wing conservative commentators who are blaming them for state and local government budget problems. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is leading the charge.

The easy solution Christie and others claim is to cut to public employees? jobs, wages, health care and pensions and ?presto, we?re in the money again.?

But as Ed Ott, former executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council (NYCCLC), explained during a recent appearance on GritTV with Laura Flanders:

[Christie]wants to solve it completely on the back of the standards and wages and pensions of working people. And we?re trying to find a fairer solution. If we?re in crisis? it?s not the fault of the public-sector workers, but the collapse of the private sector.

Ott was joined by Fran Ehret, president of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 194, who said Christie?s constant blaming of public employees for the state?s budget problems ?seems more like a class war.”

Public-sector workers are middle-class families. They are citizens of our state. They are trying to be productive. They are trying to care for their children.

Ott said the orchestrated attack on workers and their unions:

has more to do with a political agenda and ideological point of view than it does with actual economics.

In a speech at the National Press Club Jan. 19, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in state after state, “politicians elected to take on the jobs crisis are instead attacking the very idea of the American middle class, the idea that in America, economic security?health care, a real pension, a wage that can pay for college?is not something for a privileged few, but rather what all of us can earn in exchange for a hard day’s work.”

Flanders plans future shows on the rise in public employee and union-bashing.  Click here to see the full segment and here to visit the GritTV website. GritTV is also available on satellite?Dish Network channel 9415 and DIRECTV channel 348?and on cable and public television stations. Click here for station information.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 20, 2011 (boomark / email).