The Economist is running yet another attack on public sector trade unionism.
Its blog ‘Democracy in America' makes the case from a neo-liberal (and arguably neo-fascist) perspective, that ‘Government workers don’t need unions’!
The economic and moral case put forward to support ’public employee union busting’ is that in the absence of company profits to bargain over, public sector unions bargain against taxpayers and the needs of service users, thus they are not in the public interest. http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/02/budgets_and_bargaining_power
So intensive is the ideological barrage in the US against public service workers, unions such as AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) are running campaigns to counter the lies:
http://stopthelies.afscme.org/?utm_campaign=StopTheLies&utm_medium=referral
In any event, the neo liberal attack on public services trade unionism reduces its raison d'être to economic self interest. Whilst the securing of decent pay and employment conditions for public service workers (employed by the state or private businesses) is of course the primary purpose of their trade unions (and in the austerity era of pay cuts and job losses that role is needed more than ever before), public service unions world wide are a progressive force for social justice - campaigning for fair employment laws, quality public services, safe working environments, equal rights for all and a world free of poverty.
