As pundit Steve Lopez admits, his fellow Golden Staters are fleeing in droves to Nevada so they can “live the middle class life that eludes them in California.” Why should Nevada emulate its Big Labor-dominated neighbor? Credit: Rogelio V. Solis/AP
Monopoly-Bargaining
Bill a Bad Bet For Taxpayers, Civil Servants
Early this year, Big Labor-backed Gov Steve Sisolak (D) announced he is eager to tighten union officials’ stranglehold over the provision of public services in Right to Work Nevada.
Mr. Sisolak
proposed that government union bosses, who already wield monopoly-bargaining
privileges over Nevada teachers and local employees, including police and
firefighters, be handed the same power over state government employees.
Now S.B.135,
legislation granting Mr. Sisolak’s wish that state employees be turned over to
union-boss control, appears to be headed to the state Senate floor.
More Coercive
Power For Government Union Bosses, Heavier Burdens For Taxpayers
If S.B.135 becomes
law, state government employees in Nevada who don’t wish to join a union will
be statutorily prohibited from dealing directly with their employer on key
matters concerning their jobs. This is an assault on civil servants freedom of
choice.
And the bitter
experience of citizens across the country since monopolistic government
unionism became widespread shows that the higher the share of a state’s civil
servants who are corralled into unions, the heavier the tax burden is for
people from all walks of life.
National Right to
Work Committee Vice President Mary King cited data furnished by the
nonpartisan, Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation and other sources to
calculate the price for taxpayers when government union bosses gain even more
power:
“Each April, the
Tax Foundation reports when ‘Tax Freedom Day,’ the day when the residents of a
jurisdiction have earned enough money to pay off their tax burden for the year,
occurs nationwide and in each of the 50 states.
“In 2017, there
were 16 states in which more than 50% of civil servants were under union
monopoly control, according to Unionstats.com, a website maintained by labor
economists Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson.
“The
Hirsh-Macpherson data also show there were 14 states (including Nevada) where
between 25% and 50% of public employees were unionized, and 20 states in which
government-sector union density was under 25%.
“In the 16 states
with the highest union density, Tax Freedom Day 2017 didn’t come until May 3,
on average.”
“That’s 14 days
later than the average for states with moderate government-sector union
density, and 17 days later than the average for low government union-density
states.”
Special
Privileges For Big Labor Ultimately Lower Civil Servants’ Job Security
The evidence that
monopolistic government unionism is costly to taxpayers is overwhelming, but
most unionized public employees don’t come out as winners.
Government union
kingpins typically focus their energy on jacking up noncash compensation,
especially pension benefits, rather than wages and salaries.
Public employees
who have government careers shorter than 20 years (and that’s most of them)
often don’t benefit at all from Big Labor pension deals.
By empowering union
dons to block reform of improvident pension schemes, comprehensive
monopoly-bargaining laws in states like Illinois, New York and California
actually lower public employees’ job security.
As Steven Malanga
of the Manhattan Institute recently noted, such “legal restrictions”
effectively leave “job cuts as the only option” in tough financial times.
Right to Work
Mobilizes To Stop S.B.135 From Reaching Steve Sisolak’s Desk
Monopoly bargaining
also “places additional burdens on the most effective and productive” employees
by “favoring and protecting the least effective” employees, according to
Massachusetts finance professor Ben Branch.
(Dr. Branch is the
lead plaintiff in a National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation-backed
judicial challenge to state monopoly-bargaining laws.)
Ms. King cautioned
Right to Work supporters that they face an uphill battle in Nevada.
“Since substantial
majorities of Nevada senators and assemblymen were elected with Big Labor’s
assistance, preventing S.B.135 from reaching Steve Sisolak’s desk won’t be
easy,” she acknowledged.
“But the Committee
and its Nevada members and supporters will do everything we feasibly can to
block this power grab.
“The last thing
ordinary Nevadans need is for their politicians to replicate the very pro-union
monopoly policies that are driving working people and their families out of
forced-dues California.
“As L.A. pundit
Steve Lopez admitted in 2017, his fellow Golden Staters are fleeing in droves
to Nevada so they can ‘live the middle class life that eludes them in
California.’
“Why should Nevada emulate its Big Labor-dominated neighbor?”
If you have questions about whether union officials are violating your rights, contact the Foundation for free help. To take action by supporting The National Right to Work Committee and fueling the fight against Forced Unionism, click here to donate now.
NRTW
Home » News » Big Labor Californiacation Takeover of Nevada?