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Teacher Unions: General.....................................................................................2


Teacher Unions: Unfairly Attacked.......................................................................3
Teacher Unions: Protect Education......................................................................4
Teacher Unions: Protect Teachers........................................................................5
Peer Review Is Effective......................................................................................6
Teacher Unions: More Effective Teachers.............................................................7
Teacher Unions: Higher Quality Schools...............................................................8
Teachers Don’t Get Paid Enough..........................................................................9
Public Employees More Efficient/Motivated........................................................10
Public Employees Have Sense of Duty................................................................11
Unions Protect Rights: General..........................................................................12
Unions Protect Rights: Employee Voice..............................................................13
Unions Protect Rights: Women/Minorities...........................................................14
Unions Protect Rights: Immigrant Labor.............................................................15
Unions Protect Rights: Prison Labor...................................................................16
Unions Protect Rights: Right to Unionize............................................................17
Unions Increase Safety Standards......................................................................18
Unions Protect the Poor....................................................................................19
Public Sector Unions Help Develop Small Business..............................................20
Public and Private Sector Have Same Unions......................................................21
Public Sector Unions Make Government Efficient................................................22
Government Contractors Are Not Reliable..........................................................24
Public Sector Unions Share Information.............................................................25
Benefits Higher Since no Social Security............................................................26

INDEX
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TEACHER UNIONS: GENERAL

(__) Unions have given teachers a voice in policy making, which has been dominated by politicians in the past.
Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy1:
Similarly, as American public education has become larger and more standardized, the rise of the teacher labor movement in the 1930s was understandable in major urban centers, although it was not until the 1960s that

unions helped to
teachers—working with other public employees—got 32 states to start passing collective bargaining legislation. The great irony of teacher unionization, as we shall argue, is that these

institutionalize the teacher role, giving these professionals parity at the bargaining table and a greater voice in
school policy making and implementation. Unions, it seems, are ultimately at work to support and defend public
education, not to destroy it as many opponents of unionization and unions have been arguing since the 1850s when industrial labor began to grow. Now the question becomes, where and how can teachers’
unions help keep public education public—and slow down the charter school and voucher movements that create schools where collective bargaining is not as likely to occur?

(__) Teachers work to make society better. Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy2:

People do not go into teaching for the money but to make a contribution to society. Therefore, teachers operate on two levels:
Personally, they hope to prepare themselves to make a difference and to act as educational professionals with their

students; collectively, they long ago abandoned worrying about professional identity and worked to improve their
political status as active union members at all three levels of government. Nationally, the NEA and AFT have become one of the strongest, most
active, fastest-growing unions, and if and when they merge, they will become the largest public sector union in the nation.

(__) Organized teachers use their unions to create better schools. Pantuosco and Ullrich write in the Journal of
Education Finance3:
Our investigation overlaps at least two strands of literature—teachers unions' impact on productivity and the affect of labor unions on productivity. The impact of teacher's unions on productivity can be addressed through

the collective voice of organized teachers can


the literature known as the "two-faces" of (teachers) unions. The proposed positive face of unions highlights how

enhance the educational production function through their internal insight of student and school needs. With
the student in mind, organized teachers lobby for smaller class sizes, lucrative compensation packages to
attract and retain better quality teachers, and greater classroom resources of technology and supplies. The state hopes
their financial commitment to education will yield a harvest of productive citizens who contribute to society in measures of professionalism, social awareness, and diversification, and, we propose, a greater gross state
product per employee.

(__) A litany of studies4 have shown that teacher unions have increased performance in schools:

, Eberts and Stone (1987) claim the decline of test scores would be worse without the teachers'
While this result sounds disheartening

unions.9 They posit that unionized districts are seven percent more productive for average students than non-union
districts. Freeman and Medoff (1979) explain that teachers unions improve productivity by inspiring higher
wages that maintain and attract faculty. Stone (2000) calculates that teachers unions improve teacher salaries by
5.1% over non-unionized teachers of comparable education and experience.10 Other researchers add that unions champion
smaller class sizes, and that these smaller classes benefit students. They reference the four-year longitudinal Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR)
project which shows average per pupil performance increases when class size is diminished.11 The National Education Association (NEA) concurs that the

unions' objective to limit class sizes and lobby for state-of-the-art resources improves students' educational
experience.

1
Cooper, Bruce S., and John Sureau. "Teacher Unions and the Politics of Fear in Labor Relations." Educational Policy 22.1 (2008). SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.
2
Ibid
3
Louis J. Pantuosco and Laura D. Ullrich. "The Impact of Teachers Unions on State-Level Productivity." Journal of Education Finance 35.3 (2010): 276-294. Project MUSE. 21 Feb. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.
4
Ibid

2
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TEACHER UNIONS: UNFAIRLY ATTACKED

(__) Teacher unions are not to blame. The attacks on teachers come from political pundits that wish to draw attention
away from the failure of politicians. Bob Zaslavsky of the Sunday Times5 writes:

One of the favorite whipping boys for the political right is the teachers union.
Blaming teachers unions for the ills that beset our educational system is like blaming the EPA for global pollution or the cop on patrol for an increase in shoplifting.

Nonetheless, repeatedly, we hear complaints that teachers unions stand in the way of meaningful change. Are unions flawless? They certainly are not. However, we should never make the mistake of condemning a whole
because of the corruption of some of its parts. We do not conclude from the vast numbers of badly written sonnets that Shakespeare’s sonnets are written badly.

In particular, teachers unions have moved teaching from a job with a subsistence income and no benefits to a
job with at least a lower‐middle‐class income and well‐deserved health and pension benefits.

While one might argue that unions need to do even more for teachers, one cannot deny that their failure to do
so is less their fault than the fault of an intransigent education system and insensitive legislators.

(__) The corporate elite attacks teacher unions disproportionally since they are the most organized and effective
unions. Shamus Cooke of Workers Action6 writes:

U.S. unions are strongest in the public sector, making them a special target of the organized corporate
Additionally,

elite. Amongst public sector workers, teachers are the best organized and most cohesive. The corporate cross‐hairs are thus
steadily aimed at the head of the teachers’ unions, with Obama’s Race to the Top acting as a high‐caliber rifle.

5
Bob Zaslavsky [Retired Humanities Teacher]. “Teachers Unions Not to Blame.” The Sunday Paper. September 16, 2007. Accessed March 27, 2010.
6
Shamus Cooke [Social Service Worker, Trade Unionist, and Writer for Workers Action]. “Why Teachers’ Unions Matter.” CounterPunch. March 16, 2010. Accessed April 4, 2010.

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TEACHER UNIONS: PROTECT EDUCATION

(__) Without the safeguards set by teacher unions, teachers who strive to protect the standards of education are at risk
of being attacked by ignorant community members. In order to avoid another Scopes trial, teachers must be protected
by unions and fix what politicians and the Texas Board of Education have brought upon students.

(__) Private school teachers are not held accountable to Constitutional standards like public school educators.
Whereas private institutions may integrate religious texts as education, public schools and unions have been
committed to providing a neutral, secular lens to education. The proliferation of opinions that erode the spirit of
scientific inquiry, such as intelligent design, have been halted thanks to public education.

(__) Teacher unions protect the quality of education that students receive. The American Prospect writes7:

But abolishing unions would hardly catapult the interest of students to the top. Instead, it would increase the
power of other adults in the system -- superintendents, who sometimes jettison promising educational programs
for which they cannot personally take credit; principals, who sometimes are lax on discipline because they don't want their

suspension numbers to look bad; and parents, who usually look out for the interests of their own children
rather than what's good for all kids.

7
American Prospect, September 2007, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_world_without_teacher_unions

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TEACHER UNIONS: PROTECT TEACHERS

(__) Without the safeguards set by teacher unions, teachers who strive to protect the standards of education are at risk
of being attacked by ignorant community members. In order to avoid another Scopes trial, teachers must be protected
by unions and fix what politicians and the Texas Board of Education have brought upon students.

(__) The NEA has protected teachers’ right to free speech by defending whistleblowers in legal cases. Michael
Simpson from the NEA Office of General Counsel, writes:

For NEA member Bob Posey, it was always about student safety. As “security specialist” for Sandpoint High School in Sandpoint, Idaho, making sure kids
are safe is—or was—his job.

But Bob Posey got fired. For what? For blowing the whistle on dangerous conditions at his school.

His sin—unforgivable in the principal’s eyes—was writing a 13-page letter to his superintendent detailing
problems at the school: student discipline, alcohol and tobacco use, weapons, and other issues. He wrote the letter and met
with the superintendent during off-duty hours.

His principal, Jim Soper, wasn’t happy about the letter or the meeting. So, when the school district “reorganized” in
June 2004, Posey’s position was eliminated. After nine years of dedicated service and excellent evaluations,
he was out of work.

As an education support professional, Posey didn’t have any tenure or “just cause” protection, so his only
legal recourse was to sue in federal court for a free speech violation. With assistance from NEA and the Idaho
Education Association, he did just that.

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PEER REVIEW IS EFFECTIVE

(__) Instead of unilateral action, cooperating with unions on firing bad teachers creates a productive environment for
actual reform. Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law8, writes:

Peer review has been successful in large part because of teacher involvement through their unions in
developing the evaluation standards. Teachers are forced to reflect on what constitutes good teaching and express those
standards in terms that are accessible and acceptable to their peers. Having actively participated in developing the standards, the union is more

likely to view its role as protecting the standards of teaching instead of protecting individual teachers from evaluations
unilaterally imposed from above. Peer reviewers spend considerable greater time than administrators with the teachers under

review, and when reviews are negative, they generally produce a record that is very compelling. Although the teachers remain
contractually or statutorily entitled to union representation to challenge negative results, the thoroughness of the peer review record makes it unlikely that such challenged will succeed.

(__) Incorporating teacher unions into the firing process with peer review is more effective than unilateral action.
Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law9, gives an empirical example:

When the union serves as a vehicle for collective employee voice in the evaluation and discipline of
employees, the union can be transformed from an impediment to effective government into a contributor. Such has
been the case with teacher peer review. One of the earliest and most notable examples of teacher peer review was in the Toledo,

Ohio Public Schools. The Toledo system employes an Internal Board of Review (IBR), consisting of five union and four district representatives. New teachers participate in a two-year intern program
with an IBR consulting teacher. The IBR also oversees a plan for tenured teachers whose substandard performance led to a joint referral by the teacher's principal and union building representative. Evidence

suggests that more probationary teachers and tenured teachers with performance problems leave the system
than under a system of review and discipline unilaterally controlled by management. A similar system in the
Cincinnati, Ohio Public Schools was examined by the Secretary of Labor's Task Force on Excellence in State and Local Government Through Labor-Management
Cooperation and found to have led to a greater percentage of probational teachers and teachers in remediation

leaving the system when reviewed by peers than when reviewed solely by administrators.

8
Malin, Martin H. [Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Law and the Workplace, Chicago–Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.] "The Paradox of Public Sector Labor Law." Indiana Law Journal 84 (2009).
Springer. Web. 16 Apr. 2010.
9
Ibid

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TEACHER UNIONS: MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHERS

(__) As teachers are compensated more for their efforts, they become more effective teachers. Pantuosco and Ullrich
write in the Journal of Education Finance10:

State and local governments dedicate a large percentage of their financial and human capital toward education.
In general, the pledge of resources is more pronounced in states where teachers unions thrive. In 2000, average per pupil spending was

over $7,500 in states where teachers unions were allowed to bargain. In states where unions do not have bargaining power, per pupil spending was only $6,450.1 Teachers unions espouse that higher

compensated, organized teachers better prepare students for the challenges incumbent on the modern workforce. They rationalize that in
return for the states' investment in schools, the union will help produce a well-rounded, socially informed
student who makes a positive contribution to society.

(__) Unions have given teachers a voice in policy making, which has been dominated by politicians in the past.
Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy11:
Similarly, as American public education has become larger and more standardized, the rise of the teacher labor movement in the 1930s was understandable in major urban centers, although it was not until the 1960s that

unions helped to
teachers—working with other public employees—got 32 states to start passing collective bargaining legislation. The great irony of teacher unionization, as we shall argue, is that these

institutionalize the teacher role, giving these professionals parity at the bargaining table and a greater voice in
school policy making and implementation. Unions, it seems, are ultimately at work to support and defend public
education, not to destroy it as many opponents of unionization and unions have been arguing since the 1850s when industrial labor began to grow. Now the question becomes, where and how can teachers’
unions help keep public education public—and slow down the charter school and voucher movements that create schools where collective bargaining is not as likely to occur?

(__) Teachers work to make society better. Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy12:

People do not go into teaching for the money but to make a contribution to society. Therefore, teachers operate on two levels:
Personally, they hope to prepare themselves to make a difference and to act as educational professionals with their

students; collectively, they long ago abandoned worrying about professional identity and worked to improve their
political status as active union members at all three levels of government. Nationally, the NEA and AFT have become one of the strongest, most
active, fastest-growing unions, and if and when they merge, they will become the largest public sector union in the nation.

10
Louis J. Pantuosco and Laura D. Ullrich. "The Impact of Teachers Unions on State-Level Productivity." Journal of Education Finance 35.3 (2010): 276-294. Project MUSE. 21 Feb. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.
11
Cooper, Bruce S., and John Sureau. "Teacher Unions and the Politics of Fear in Labor Relations." Educational Policy 22.1 (2008). SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.
12
Ibid

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TEACHER UNIONS: HIGHER QUALITY SCHOOLS

(__) Organized teachers use their unions to create better schools. Pantuosco and Ullrich write in the Journal of
Education Finance13:
Our investigation overlaps at least two strands of literature—teachers unions' impact on productivity and the affect of labor unions on productivity. The impact of teacher's unions on productivity can be addressed through

the collective voice of organized teachers can


the literature known as the "two-faces" of (teachers) unions. The proposed positive face of unions highlights how

enhance the educational production function through their internal insight of student and school needs. With
the student in mind, organized teachers lobby for smaller class sizes, lucrative compensation packages to
attract and retain better quality teachers, and greater classroom resources of technology and supplies. The state hopes
their financial commitment to education will yield a harvest of productive citizens who contribute to society in measures of professionalism, social awareness, and diversification, and, we propose, a greater gross state
product per employee.

(__) A litany of studies14 have shown that teacher unions have increased performance in schools:

, Eberts and Stone (1987) claim the decline of test scores would be worse without the teachers'
While this result sounds disheartening

unions.9 They posit that unionized districts are seven percent more productive for average students than non-union
districts. Freeman and Medoff (1979) explain that teachers unions improve productivity by inspiring higher
wages that maintain and attract faculty. Stone (2000) calculates that teachers unions improve teacher salaries by
5.1% over non-unionized teachers of comparable education and experience.10 Other researchers add that unions champion
smaller class sizes, and that these smaller classes benefit students. They reference the four-year longitudinal Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR)
project which shows average per pupil performance increases when class size is diminished.11 The National Education Association (NEA) concurs that the

unions' objective to limit class sizes and lobby for state-of-the-art resources improves students' educational
experience.

13
Louis J. Pantuosco and Laura D. Ullrich. "The Impact of Teachers Unions on State-Level Productivity." Journal of Education Finance 35.3 (2010): 276-294. Project MUSE. 21 Feb. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.
14
Ibid

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TEACHERS DON’T GET PAID ENOUGH

(__) Teacher unions limit the competitive market by requiring certification. This has a twofold benefit in both
increasing the quality of the teaching pool and wages and benefits of those employed. Cooper and Liotta write in the
journal of Education and Urban Society15:

unions realize that like doctors, teachers should control the number of teachers certified--limit the
And, in part,

market--and thus drive up salaries and benefits. As Ballou and Podgursky (2000) explained, "By limiting the number of
practitioners, licensing boards restrict competition and put upward pressure on salaries. This is a strategy that
has been followed successfully by many professions, the most notable (and widely emulated) being physicians" (p. 77).

(__) Teachers don’t receive security benefits, and already have a low middle class income. Unions have significantly
improved the living conditions from low pay and no benefits to a decent income with deserved health and pension
benefits. Large pensions are also deserved since teachers often spend decades in their jobs.

15
Cooper, Bruce S., and Marie-Elena Liotta. "Urban Teachers Unions Face Their Future: The Dilemmas of Organizational Maturity." Education and Urban Society 34.1 (2001): 101-18. SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.

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PUBLIC EMPLOYEES MORE EFFICIENT/MOTIVATED

(__) Public employees participate in their work as a form of public service. Morely Gunderson writes in the Journal of
Labor Research16:
Voice can also be encouraged by loyalty--the third part of the exit-voice-loyalty trilogy, Loyal employees may use voice to improve the workplace and the institution to which they are committed out of loyalty.

Public sector employees may have entered "public service" in part out of loyalty to their clientele (as in the teaching, health
care, and "caring" professions in general). They may also have a stronger sense of public duty and civic responsibilities and have

entered public service in part since it provides the opportunity to "do good" (Reder, 1975: 28). All of these loyalty-related attributes may increase
the use of voice either directly (because loyalty fosters voice to improve the work environment) or indirectly (because loyalty reduces exit and hence increases the demand for voice).

(__) Public employees are more aware of their costs and how they affect their organization, leading to greater cost-
savings and efficiency. Brendan Martin writes in the Review of Labor and Research17:

when a decision has been taken to setup a project in a work- place, all the employees are
Under the Komanco approach,

informed and then divided up into groups of between 8 and 12 people, each with an appointed leader. Then the groups spend as long as 10
months analysing their organisation, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and finding ways to build on the
former and eradicate the latter. Komanco’s brochure stresses that ‘creativity needs elbow room’ and that ‘work for change takes time’. Almqvist explains:

The members become researchers in their own jobs. They discuss how to improve quality, where responsibility lies and should lie,
what are their training needs. They measure the costs of specific tasks, so that each person knows the costs associated with

their own job.

(__) See: TEACHER UNIONS: MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHERS

16
Gunderson, Morley. “Two Faces of Union Voice in the Public Sector.” Journal of Labor Research XXVI.3 (2005). Springer-Velag. Web. 25 Mar 2010.
17
Martin, Brendan. "Delivering the goods - trade unions and public sector reform." Review of Labour and Research 3.14 (1997): 14-33. Print.

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PUBLIC EMPLOYEES HAVE SENSE OF DUTY

(__) Public employees participate in their work as a form of public service. Morely Gunderson writes in the Journal of
Labor Research18:
Voice can also be encouraged by loyalty--the third part of the exit-voice-loyalty trilogy, Loyal employees may use voice to improve the workplace and the institution to which they are committed out of loyalty.

Public sector employees may have entered "public service" in part out of loyalty to their clientele (as in the teaching, health
care, and "caring" professions in general). They may also have a stronger sense of public duty and civic responsibilities and have

entered public service in part since it provides the opportunity to "do good" (Reder, 1975: 28). All of these loyalty-related attributes may increase
the use of voice either directly (because loyalty fosters voice to improve the work environment) or indirectly (because loyalty reduces exit and hence increases the demand for voice).

(__) Teachers work to make society better. Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy19:

People do not go into teaching for the money but to make a contribution to society. Therefore, teachers operate on two levels:
Personally, they hope to prepare themselves to make a difference and to act as educational professionals with their

students; collectively, they long ago abandoned worrying about professional identity and worked to improve their
political status as active union members at all three levels of government. Nationally, the NEA and AFT have become one of the strongest, most
active, fastest-growing unions, and if and when they merge, they will become the largest public sector union in the nation.

18
Gunderson, Morley. “Two Faces of Union Voice in the Public Sector.” Journal of Labor Research XXVI.3 (2005). Springer-Velag. Web. 25 Mar 2010.
19
Cooper, Bruce S., and John Sureau. "Teacher Unions and the Politics of Fear in Labor Relations." Educational Policy 22.1 (2008). SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.

11
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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: GENERAL

(__) Without unions to protect workers, labor rights have been exploited; particularly those of women and minorities.
Wade Henderson, a professor of public interest law20, writes:

By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws that


Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace.

allow businesses to coerce workers with virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a union.
As a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in the
workplace. Today I would like to focus on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCR co-
founder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leader of the African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essential to
promoting racial equality in our nation. Following in Randolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudice
alone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination and economic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer to a

Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom of
society where all Americans enjoy economic opportunity.

the economic ladder, who disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer and
more humane through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues like sick leave and workplace
safety - measures which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our nation, Eleanor Roosevelt,
recognized that the right to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundation for

.
international human rights standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need unions now more than ever

The current economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers. Indeed, whatever modest economic gains women and
minority workers have garnered in recent decades may be wiped out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to be introduced
soon in the 111th Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our best
chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.

20
Wade Henderson, President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, professor, public interest law, March 10, 2009, Testimony, p. online

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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: EMPLOYEE VOICE

(__) Unions serve as a vehicle to represent the collective voice and will of employees. Without unions, employees are
left without an effective organization to push for better working conditions, wages, and benefits.

(__) Since public employees often do not have alternative jobs in the private sector, they deserve increased voice and
representation that unions provide. Morley Gunderson writes in the Journal of Labor Research21:
The addition of a union wage premium (when unions are present) over and above the pure public sector wage premium discussed previously, further enhances the lower exit from the public sector compared to the private

Exit from the public sector is reduced even further because many public sector jobs do not have alternatives in
sector.

the private sector--at least the range of alternatives is reduced. Since reduced exit increases the desire for voice,
employee demand for voice should be greater in the public compared to the private sector. This is true for both the communication
form of voice to deal with their working conditions and issues, as well as the muscle-flexing and influence-peddling form of voice to protect the rents.

(__) Greater employee voice leads to greater productivity in the workplace. Morley Gunderson writes in the Journal
of Labor Research22:
In contrast, in the public sector, employees appear to have been fairly successful in using their influence form of voice to have a prominent impact on managing the organization. Freeman and Medoff (1984) argued that

the positive effect of voice depends on management co-operation. They and others have also documented that management
resistance to unions is much less in the public sector compared to the private sector, suggesting that
management willingness to work with unions on other aspects of organizational governance and performance should also be greater in the
public sector. This in turn suggests that, in theory, any potential positive voice effects on performance and
productivity should also be greater in the public sector.

21
Gunderson, Morley. “Two Faces of Union Voice in the Public Sector.” Journal of Labor Research XXVI.3 (2005). Springer-Velag. Web. 25 Mar 2010.
22
Ibid

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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: WOMEN/MINORITIES

(__) Without unions to protect workers, labor rights have been exploited; particularly those of women and minorities.
Wade Henderson, a professor of public interest law23, writes:

By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws that


Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace.

allow businesses to coerce workers with virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a union.
As a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in the
workplace. Today I would like to focus on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCR co-
founder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leader of the African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essential to
promoting racial equality in our nation. Following in Randolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudice
alone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination and economic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer to a

Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom of
society where all Americans enjoy economic opportunity.

the economic ladder, who disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer and
more humane through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues like sick leave and workplace
safety - measures which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our nation, Eleanor Roosevelt,
recognized that the right to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundation for

.
international human rights standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need unions now more than ever

The current economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers. Indeed, whatever modest economic gains women and
minority workers have garnered in recent decades may be wiped out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to be introduced
soon in the 111th Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our best
chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.

(__) Public sector unions were vital to the passage of comparable worth legisation. Morley Gunderson writes in the
Journal of Labor Research24:

Public sector unions are also a main force behind the passage of comparable worth legislation in both the
United States (Evans and Nelson, 1989; Wesman, 1988) and Canada (Gunderson, 1995; Hart, 2002). Such initiatives have been applied mainly in the public sector and invariably through union complaints or
initiatives which are viewed by unions as ways of injecting additional funds into the "pot" over and above those achieved through collective bargaining. For that reason, public sector unions have

tried to keep comparable worth settlements separate from bargaining settlements, so that comparable worth
settlements are not subject to the give-and-take of the bargaining process where, for example, higher settlements in
female-dominated jobs would have to come from lower settlements in male-dominated jobs. Public sector unions have also tried
to have comparable worth settlements not advertised as such so that employees may think they are settlements won by the union. In Iowa in the 1980s, public sector unions effectively lobbied for alterations in comparable
worth awards that were initially announced but that would have led to pay cuts to male union members. The lobbying led to an infusion of additional public funds as well as a reallocation of the awards towards male union
members (Orazem and Mattila, 1990). Unions have also been able to obtain exemptions for seniority in comparable worth legislation (Weiner and Gunderson, 1990:112), effectively allowing male-female wage differences
if they are the result of seniority. In Ontario, they have even obtained an exemption for "bargaining strength." That is, after comparable worth has been achieved, pay differences between male and female jobs are allowed
if they result from differences in bargaining strength (Gunderson, 2002).

23
Wade Henderson, President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, professor, public interest law, March 10, 2009, Testimony, p. online
24
Gunderson, Morley. "Two Faces of Union Voice in the Public Sector." Journal of Labor Research. XXVI.3. (2005) Springer. April 29, 2010.

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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: IMMIGRANT LABOR

(__) Unions have supported the rights of the commonly disenfranchised, such as immigrants. Jack Fiorito writes in
the Journal of Labor Research25:

unions maintained a strong emphasis on union rights and workers’ rights to form unions. A
In terms of political issue orientation,

secondary, but still strong, emphasis was on other worker rights (e.g., minimum wage, workplace safety, privacy vs.

drug testing) and more general social and economic rights such as health care and voting rights among the
“have nots” (e.g., minorities, immigrants, pensioners, and unemployed workers as well as the working poor). There were notable changes in union political orientation on three broad public policy issues in the
1980–2005 era. First, unions became more supportive of immigrant rights, recognizing that employers often use illegal

immigrant workers’ vulnerabilities to divide and conquer, and to suppress organizing efforts by calling in
immigration authorities to deport “illegals” who threatened unionization. Second, the 1980s roughly marked the end of an era in which union
foreign policy stances centered on anti-communism. The collapse of the Soviet Union meant the end of its support for communist labor unions and their perceived threat to “free” unions that long concerned U.S. unions.

Finally,union political orientations shifted from outright opposition to trade liberalization, after repeated defeats, to an emphasis on “fair trade,”
trying to ensure that trade agreements included meaningful labor provisions to protect U.S. workers from foreign
competition that exploited foreign workers and hastened a “race to the bottom.”

25
Fiorito, Jack. "The State of Unions in the United States." Journal of Labor Research XXVIII.1 (2007). Springer. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: PRISON LABOR

(__) Texas Prison Labor Union helps prisoners26.

The Texas Prison Labor Union (TPLU) was established in 1995 by Texas prisoners and outside supporters.
The state had just completed a $1.5 billion prison expansion program, and it now incarcerates close to 150,000 prisoners in a vast network of
more than 100 prisons. One-hundred percent of Texas prisoners are forced to labor for the state and none are
paid. Not a cent.

The TPLU seeks to organize Texas prisoners and their supporters into a single body to promote social justice,
human rights, and workers' rights. Among their basic goals are:

(__) Mississippi Prison Labor Union helps prisoners27.

The Missouri Prison Labor Union was organized by prisoners and supporters in the hope of bettering the
living and working conditions in the state of Missouri prison system. One of our goals is to establish minimum
wages for all prisoners in Missouri and to stop all prison abuse. We were lawfully given recognition by the Secretary of state in Missouri on August 3rd of
1998 and since our arrival on the scene, members have been subjected to all forms of abuse and harassment by the Missouri Department of Corrections and the prison officials of Potosi Correctional Center, Jefferson City
Correctional Center and Crossroads correctional Center.

The MPLU is an organization that fights against oppression, repression, torture, brutality, rape, corruption and
exploitation of prisoners both male and female. In this struggle we seek to regain our human dignity. We will seek to remove legislation which acts as a barrier to a prisoner's
right to vote. We'll work to procure the minimum wage pay scale for all prisoners - to abolish all abuses of prisoners throughout the US and around the world.

(__) California Prisoners’ Union helps prisoners28.

California’s prisoners and parolees have formed their own union. Under the auspices of Voters
In an historic turn of events

Corrections Reform Coalition the membership of this statewide organization has voted nearly nine to one in
favor of the formation.
At $5 per month per member, the target is a $78 million per year budget to educate voters and influence public policy. Presently 1 in every 116 Californians is either incarcerated or on parole and under the jurisdiction of

Most of those 308,700 inmates, parolees, and wards have several family members who are
the Department of Corrections.

also permitted to join the union and contribute dues.


“We opened up membership to the 1.5 million inmates and family members because they remain the least represented and most oppressed segment of
our population,” says Matt Gray, a Lobbyist for VCRC. “Together we hope to provide meaningful reform and rehabilitation within a malignant correctional system, while also funding prevention and
intervention programs for our youth.”

26
Prison Legal News. "US: Texas Prison Labor Union." CorpWatch. (1998). April 29, 2010.
27
Williams, Sidney. "Missouri Prison Labor Union." MPLU. (2003). April 29, 2010.
28
Voter Corrections Reform Coalition. "California prisoners form union, statewide representation." (2005). April 29, 2010.

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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: RIGHT TO UNIONIZE

(__) Unions have supported the rights to unionize. Jack Fiorito writes in the Journal of Labor Research29:

unions maintained a strong emphasis on union rights and workers’ rights to form unions. A
In terms of political issue orientation,

strong, emphasis was on other worker rights (e.g., minimum wage, workplace safety, privacy vs.
secondary, but still

drug testing) and more general social and economic rights such as health care and voting rights among the
“have nots” (e.g., minorities, immigrants, pensioners, and unemployed workers as well as the working poor). There were notable changes in union political orientation on three broad public policy issues in the
1980–2005 era. First, unions became more supportive of immigrant rights, recognizing that employers often use illegal immigrant workers’ vulnerabilities to divide and conquer, and to suppress organizing efforts by
calling in immigration authorities to deport “illegals” who threatened unionization. Second, the 1980s roughly marked the end of an era in which union foreign policy stances centered on anti-communism. The collapse of
the Soviet Union meant the end of its support for communist labor unions and their perceived threat to “free” unions that long concerned U.S. unions. Finally, union political orientations shifted from outright opposition to
trade liberalization, after repeated defeats, to an emphasis on “fair trade,” trying to ensure that trade agreements included meaningful labor provisions to protect U.S. workers from foreign competition that exploited foreign
workers and hastened a “race to the bottom.”

29
Fiorito, Jack. "The State of Unions in the United States." Journal of Labor Research XXVIII.1 (2007). Springer. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

UNIONS INCREASE SAFETY STANDARDS

(__) Unions have had a strong emphasis on workplace safety. Jack Fiorito writes in the Journal of Labor Research30:

unions maintained a strong emphasis on union rights and workers’ rights to form unions. A
In terms of political issue orientation,

strong, emphasis was on other worker rights (e.g., minimum wage, workplace safety, privacy vs.
secondary, but still

drug testing) and more general social and economic rights such as health care and voting rights among the
“have nots” (e.g., minorities, immigrants, pensioners, and unemployed workers as well as the working poor). There were notable changes in union political orientation on three broad public policy issues in the
1980–2005 era. First, unions became more supportive of immigrant rights, recognizing that employers often use illegal immigrant workers’ vulnerabilities to divide and conquer, and to suppress organizing efforts by
calling in immigration authorities to deport “illegals” who threatened unionization. Second, the 1980s roughly marked the end of an era in which union foreign policy stances centered on anti-communism. The collapse of
the Soviet Union meant the end of its support for communist labor unions and their perceived threat to “free” unions that long concerned U.S. unions. Finally, union political orientations shifted from outright opposition to
trade liberalization, after repeated defeats, to an emphasis on “fair trade,” trying to ensure that trade agreements included meaningful labor provisions to protect U.S. workers from foreign competition that exploited foreign
workers and hastened a “race to the bottom.”

(__) Unions have worked to protect workplace safety. Wade Henderson, a professor of public interest law31, writes:
Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace. By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws that allow businesses to coerce workers with
virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a union. As a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in the workplace. Today I would like to focus
on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCR co- founder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leader of
the African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essential to promoting racial equality in our nation. Following in
Randolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudice alone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination and
economic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer to a society where all Americans enjoy economic

Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder,
opportunity.

who disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer and more humane
through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues like sick leave and workplace safety - measures
which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our nation, Eleanor Roosevelt, recognized that the right
to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundation for international human rights

. The current
standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need unions now more than ever

economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers. Indeed, whatever modest economic gains women and minority workers have
garnered in recent decades may be wiped out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to be introduced soon in the 111th
Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our best chance to preserve
recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.

30
Fiorito, Jack. "The State of Unions in the United States." Journal of Labor Research XXVIII.1 (2007). Springer. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.
31
Wade Henderson, President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, professor, public interest law, March 10, 2009, Testimony, p. online

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Bettendorf HW Tournament of Champions
AFFIRMATIVE FILE

UNIONS PROTECT THE POOR

(__) Unions have worked to protect low income and minority workers. Wade Henderson, a professor of public
interest law32, writes:
Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace. By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws that allow businesses to coerce workers with
virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a union. As a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in the workplace. Today I would like to focus
on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCR co- founder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leader of
the African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essential to promoting racial equality in our nation. Following in
Randolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudice alone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination and
economic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer to a society where all Americans enjoy economic

Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder,
opportunity.

who disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer and more humane through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues
like sick leave and workplace safety - measures which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our
nation, Eleanor Roosevelt, recognized that the right to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which laid the foundation for international human rights standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need

. The current economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers. Indeed,
unions now more than ever

whatever modest economic gains women and minority workers have garnered in recent decades may be wiped
out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free
Choice Act, a bill to be introduced soon in the 111th Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a
union, we will lose perhaps our best chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.

32
Wade Henderson, President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, professor, public interest law, March 10, 2009, Testimony, p. online

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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS HELP DEVELOP SMALL BUSINESS

(__) Public sector unions and small businesses have a mutual interest in each other. David Hess writes in the journal,
Anthropological Quarterly33:

the petite bourgeoisie may be drifting away from a


One of the unforeseen implications of the unraveling of the social liberalism of the New Deal and Great Society is that

half-century of alliance with conservative politics, states' rights rhetoric, and opposition to centralized government represented by

social liberalism. There is already some evidence that public employee unions see their fate tied to the success of the

local business sector and that the entrepreneurs of the BALLE organizations are concerned with employee ownership, living
wages, and other traditional labor issues. The potential to connect small capital and labor, as well as the
environmental and social justice movements, provides some political opportunities for a new era of
progressive politics. Theorists of neoliberalism would do well to pay attention to possibilities for political reconfiguration that decades of privatization, deregulation, and devolution have engendered.

33
David J. Hess. "Declarations of Independents: On Local Knowledge and Localist Knowledge." Anthropological Quarterly 83.1 (2010): 153-176. Project MUSE. 2 Mar. 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

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PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR HAVE SAME UNIONS

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of Public
Personnel Management34:

the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)—originally chartered as the “Building Service Employees International Union” by the AFL
In addition,

in 1921 to represent such private sector workers as janitors, elevator operators, and security guards—also represents a high percentage of

public employees (16.4%). The SEIU is the largest and fastest growing union in North America, and it is the
nation’s largest union of health care workers (Service Employees International Union [SEIU], 2005).
As seen in Table 2, traditionally private sector unions such as the Teamsters (IBT), the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the
Communications Workers of America (CWA) also are representing a growing number of public employees. Although
the IBT, for example, only represents 2% of public employees, it is the type of worker that the union represents, which indicates the breadth of private section representation. The IBT represents not

only police, fire, and corrections officers but also nurses, court officers, architects, clerical and nonsupervisory
university workers, and general state workers and administrators.

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of Public
Personnel Management35:

Finally, as seen in Table 2,traditional teachers’ unions such as the National Education Association (NEA) and the American
Federation of Teachers (AFT) represent close to 25% of state and local government employees. The NEA’s and
AFT’s constituents here are not teachers but rather white-collar county workers, general unit workers in such
departments as Parks and Recreation, and other types of general municipal employees. In addition, the NEA, which historically has been seen as the
“professional” counterpart to the AFT, represents such workers as school cafeteria employees.

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of Public
Personnel Management36:
Table 3 provides data on union membership of teachers and professors. It is not surprising to note, the preponderance of these employees at public institutions is represented by the NEA or the AFT (67%). However, the

Historically private sector unions such as the Teamsters, the UAW, and
array of other unions representing teachers and professors is quite interesting.

the Transport Workers Union (TWU) account for close to 10% of union membership by teachers and professors.
The SEIU, CWA, and AFSCME represent about 25% of the teachers and professors at public schools and universities
throughout the nation. Finally, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and police and fire unions—including the FOP, the

International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA)—are now
representing teachers and professors.

34
Riccucci, Norma M. "The Changing Face of Public Employee Unionism." Review of Public Personnel Administration 27.71 (2007). SAGE. Web. 6 Apr. 2010.
35
Ibid
36
Ibid

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PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS MAKE GOVERNMENT EFFICIENT

(__) Cooperating with unions, government has become more efficient. Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent
College of Law37, writes:

giving employees, through their unions, an institutional voice in the initial decision making
There is good reason to believe that

will increase the likelihood that they will become agents of, instead of obstructions to, effective change.
Studies in the private sector show that when unions are strong and have a cooperative relationship with management,
they provide independent employee voice that plays a crucial role in the successful development and
sustenance of high performance workplace practices. These findings are consistent with the general social-psychology procedural justice literature which finds
positive outcomes associated generally with employee voice, that is, having an opportunity to be head concerning decisions that affect them, even
when the outcomes are not what the employees desired.

(__) By competing with private sector workers, public unions unite and become more efficient workers. Martin
Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law38, writes:

An alternative to public employers avoiding collectively represented employees by contracting their jobs to the private sector is to empower those
workers to compete against private contractors for the work. One example of such empowerment, highlighted by the
Secretary of Labor's Task Force, occurred in the Massachusetts Highway Department. When the state decided to subcontract

highway maintenance, the unions who represented the employees who had been performing those duties formed a coalition and bid against the
contractors. They were awarded the job and assumed responsibility for organizing and managing it. The
resulting improvements included a sixty percent reduction in workers' compensation claims, a seventy percent
reduction in overtime and a 49.5% reduction in sick time. Improved efficiency saved the state more than $7.8
million. Road sweeping and cleaning of gutters became more regular. Worker suggestions for improved
maintenance of equipment enabled the purchase and lease of new equipment. As with teacher peer review, the role of the union changed
dramatically. The Secretary of Labor's Task Force quoted one union official involved, "My job used to be to go around and ask people what grievances they had. My job is now to go around asking people what ideas they
have to improve this job."

(__) Here are seven examples of how public sector unions have increased government efficiency. Martin Malin, a
professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law39, writes:

• Partnering between the Internal Revenue Service and the National Treasury Employees Union to
modernize and restructure the IRS, resulting in measurable improvements in customer service and job
satisfaction.

• A partnership between American Federation of Government Employees Local 3973 and Defense Contract Management
Command’s Raytheon Missile Systems facility resulted in an overwhelming improvement in customer service ratings as

workload increased 100% and the workforce downsized, with $900,000 saved from the reduction in labor-
management litigation.

• The U.S. Mint and the AFGE Mint Council engaged in joint strategic planning, resulting in the U.S.
Mint’s consistent ranking near the top of the American Customer Satisfaction Index and its production of
record numbers of coins and return of record profits to taxpayers.

37
Malin, Martin H. [Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Law and the Workplace, Chicago–Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.] "The Paradox of Public Sector Labor Law." Indiana Law Journal 84 (2009).
Springer. Web. 16 Apr. 2010.
38
Ibid
39
Ibid

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• The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the AFGE partnership reengineered practices related to SSA’s
toll free number, resulting in SSA outscoring all other organizations for 800 number customer satisfaction in
1995 and in a 1999 customer satisfaction rating of eighty-eight percent.

• Partnerships between the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and the AFGE Local 547, the Florida Nurses
Association, and the Tampa Professional Nurses Unit reduced delivery time for critical medication from
ninety-two minutes to twenty minutes, cut turnaround time for x-ray reports from eight days to one day, and
reduced processing time for pension and compensation exams from thirty-one days to eighteen days.

• A National Treasury Employees Union and Customs Service partnership designed a seven-step
strategy to increase seizures of illegal drugs. During the six-month life of the joint action plan, narcotics seizures
increased by forty-two percent and drug currency seizures increased by seventy-four percent.

• A partnership between the Defense Distribution Depot in San Joaquin and AFGE Local 1546 saved
$950,000 per year by reducing workplace accidents by twenty percent and ergonomic injuries by forty
percent, reduced overtime expenses from $9.8 million to $1.4 million, and reduced production costs from
$25.42 per unit to $23.48 per unit.

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GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS ARE NOT RELIABLE

(__) Without unions, there is no political force pushing for regulation and accountability, enabling contractors to work
without any oversight. Richard Kearny writes in the Review of Public Personnel Administration40:

One of President Bush’s first official actions


The George W. Bush administration will probably go down in history as many things, including as one of the most antilabor of all.

on taking office was to revoke President Clinton’s Executive Order 12933, which mandated Labor–Management Partnerships in all
federal agencies. The President’s Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget pursued Bush’s “freedom to manage” doctrine
in attacking union rights, membership, and resources along a variety of fronts (Masters, 2004; Thompson, 2007), including an effort to hand

off some 425,000 federal civil service positions to firms (Tobias, 2004). As Bush and his cronies exited in January 2009, they left behind them for
the next administration a depleted, beaten down federal civil service that was less unionized than eight years before. In the words of public
administration scholar Paul Light (2008),

the appointment process is nasty, brutish and not at all short; departments
President Obama “is about to inherit a deeply dysfunctional government:

are clogged with red tape and reporting chains to nowhere; the civil service system fails at nearly every task it
undertakes; and contractors roam freely under the loosest oversight.”

(__) Public sector workers are held accountable by the government. Private contractors have near zero oversight and
perform the least work for the lowest price. Public sector workers take pride in their work and feel that they have a
responsibility to the nation in their work.

40
Kearney, Richard C. "Public Sector Labor Management Relations: Change or Status Quo?" Review of Public Personnel Administration 30.1 (2010): 89-111. SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.

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PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS SHARE INFORMATION

(__) Information is shared on a vertical and horizontal level in public sector unions, as opposed to the private sector.
This creates greater in-organization efficiency. Without unions as a level of organization, we lose this valuable
resource to make government more effective.

(__) Public employees are more aware of their costs and how they affect their organization, leading to greater cost-
savings and efficiency. Brendan Martin writes in the Review of Labor and Research41:

when a decision has been taken to setup a project in a work- place, all the employees are
Under the Komanco approach,

informed and then divided up into groups of between 8 and 12 people, each with an appointed leader. Then the groups spend as long as 10
months analysing their organisation, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and finding ways to build on the
former and eradicate the latter. Komanco’s brochure stresses that ‘creativity needs elbow room’ and that ‘work for change takes time’. Almqvist explains:

The members become researchers in their own jobs. They discuss how to improve quality, where responsibility lies and should lie,
what are their training needs. They measure the costs of specific tasks, so that each person knows the costs associated with

their own job.

41
Martin, Brendan. "Delivering the goods - trade unions and public sector reform." Review of Labour and Research 3.14 (1997): 14-33. Print.

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BENEFITS HIGHER SINCE NO SOCIAL SECURITY

(__) Benefits of public employees are not overly generous since they often stay at their jobs for a long period of time,
like teachers, and they do not receive other benefits such as social security. John Kilgour writes in the Compensation
Benefits Review42:

It must be
The remaining issue is that public sector pension benefits are overly generous. When compared to what has happened in the private sector, this point has considerable appeal.

remembered, however, that most public sector employees pay for a large portion of their retirement benefit and
that they tend to stay with their employer for a long time. Furthermore, many public sector employees,
especially teachers, police officers and firefighters, are not covered by Social Security. Their employers are
not subject to the 6.2% tax on payroll, and the employees do not get the Social Security retirement benefit
available to almost everyone else.

42
Kilgour, John G. "Public Sector Pension Plans in California: How Big Is the Problem?" Compensation Benefits Review 39.16 (2007): 16-26. SAGE. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.

26

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