Among other advantages, unions serve to give workers some protection, and government unions are not excepted. Civil service, which is often invoked as a sufficient protection for public employees, was not created for that purpose. Rather, it came about to prevent political corruption – to ensure that new political brooms couldn’t sweep public services clean by appointing their friends and relatives. But as a safeguard, civil service for workers is not very successful, nor is it universal. It doesn’t even exist in many states and municipalities.

Because of the high turnover of “managers” in government (elections, political fluctuations), the workers who make government run need stability and continuity. The head of General Motors or Ford might be in charge for 20 or 30 years. No governor in Maine has ever been in office for more than eight; cabinet officers much less.

It is claimed that state financial crises have resulted from unwarranted state worker salaries brought about by union bargaining, but there are many states without collective bargaining that still face their own debt crises. It is, however, likely that the funding for pensions may be the snake in the garden. To approve raises that will be paid by someone else is a bargainer’s dream. In both public (and private, as well) bargaining, promises have often been made without sound plans to pay for them (think General Motors, whose pension and long-term health costs were adding significant amounts to the price of every car by 2000).

The shame of today’s attacks on public unions is that they are chosen by opponents as poster children for other financial ills – and the true picture fails to emerge. The cost level of worker pensions is not the problem; the problem is that states and municipalities have generally failed to fund the pensions from current dollars. There has been no savings plan. And such shortsighted planning in government is common. For example, no state in the union levies a sufficient amount in gas taxes to pay for the costs imposed by the automobile, such as highways and bridges or safety and police service – to say nothing of long-range costs such as pollution or disposal of waste. For years now, the state of Maine gas tax has not even paid for current transportation operations. The state has been drawing money from the general fund. But no politician who wants to remain in Augusta’s warm embrace will advocate a $1 gasoline tax; it’s easier to hide the cost of automobiles and to blame employee unions for long-term shortfalls.

Public-sector unions and private-sector unions are different creatures. Private-sector bargainers had the ultimate arrow of bankruptcy in their quiver – a luxury unavailable for government. Also, private-sector unions deal with managers whose goal is profit, while public-sector unions deal with “managers” to whom profit is not a consideration. Private-sector unions deal with employers who can be driven out of business; public-sector unions have no concern for such possibility. Private-sector unions confront managers who have an earnest incentive to push back against their demands; public-sector unions confront managers whose “push back” motive is far less earnest. Private unions have no say in the selection of management; public unions help choose those with whom they negotiate.

Both unions may pull wagons, but there can be no question that they are horses of different colors.

However, these differences do not prove – or even imply – that public unions are not desirable or do not serve valuable purposes. They may need some adjustment, but they should not be the scapegoat for other failures.

The claim that public-sector unions cause inefficiency and waste is not true. As an example, due largely to postal employee union analyses and suggestions, since 1992 the productivity of postal service workers has increased 114 percent. It now costs less (in constant dollars) for a first-class stamp than it cost in 1933. Without such union voice, these improvements would be far less effective.

Public unions should accept some restrictions of member benefits; politicians should return to their traditional occupation of supporting God, Motherhood and Apple Pie.

Devil’s Dictionary ?quote of the week

Labor: One of the processes by which some acquire property for others.

Rodney Quinn, a former Maine secretary of state and university history and government instructor, lives in Westbrook. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.