At the risk of alienating myself from my Left-leaning friends… I’m going to say it anyway: I’m deeply troubled that the Wisconsin state employees labor strife is considered the face of social uprising in America.  It must be said that there are two distinct groups that use the phrase “Union.”  The first is a group of workers who make a product, and were sick of being exploited for their labor while the owners kept 90% of the proceeds.  The NBA Players Association, the most highly paid group of predominantly Black men in the world, keep 51% of all revenues.  A very simple formula where each party respects they can’t make money without the other.

The second type of “union” are people who work for the government.  There is no material profits to divide up, and thus no real way to assess the monetary value of their work.  And their compensation comes from all taxpaying members of society, from the uber-rich (with their off-shore tax havens) to the low paid grunts who lose a quarter of their pay each week to the government.  The Wisconsin workers fighting for their jobs and benefits are this second type.

Government workers compose roughly half of the 15 million union workers in America. Consider this again: of over 300 million Americans, under 3% work in a union with a profit, bosses, and all the other components of capitalist dynamics.  To put this in perspective, Wal-Mart employs 2.1 million people (1.4m in the U.S.), who are not in a union, whose rank and file earn an average hourly wage of $11.75, while creating $595,000 of profit per employee.  And yet the uproar is over public sector workers.  After WalMart, the next largest employers in America (other than government) are McDonald’s, Kelly Staffing Temp Agency, UPS, Sears, Home Depot, Target.

Nearly one million of the public employees are police officers, with salaries ranging from 50-100k/year plus overtime and benefits.  Over 500,000 work as correctional officers, with a median salary over 40k/year plus overtime- this is about as many people as work in McDonald’s.  The annual list of highest paid state employees in RI consistently include some prison guards earning over $100k.  There are over 100,000 probation officers and correctional treatment workers (median 46k/year).  Over 25% of the public sector union employees are in the field that serves as the arm and face of government oppression.  When things are rosy, these cops on the beat are saving lives and promoting peaceful conflict resolution.  When things go foul, the image is a police baton, riot gear, pepper spray, and other such tools of destruction.  It is not accidental that public safety workers are exempted from the Wisconsin cuts, but loyalty to the state should not come via the mighty dollar.

With over 30,000 members, the California Correctional Officers are one of the largest unions in America.  They “find it offensive” that indigent prisoners are allowed to get a free stamp and envelope to write their loved ones… ironic, considering the number of activists, some of whom will be (or have been) arrested for protesting, who are struggling in solidarity with public employee unions.

The shout-out for justice is in reference to “union busting”, using rhetoric from a bonafide Labor Movement that fought against a resistant government to create and enforce workers’ rights.  But who are the “Bosses” in Wisconsin?  Elected government officials who are not feasting at the trough of their underlings’ labor.  The calls for solidarity seem to overlook the reality that “We The People” are paying these salaries, benefits, overtime, and pensions- be they school teachers or sanitation workers.  And some of the People, on unemployment or not, are wondering why public workers are getting all the solidarity.  State and city jobs are loaded with political patronage and nepotism, and like a kingdom, these royal offices are rewarded with as much as double or triple what the average peasant is earning to support their family.

Where has the public sector been over the past three decades as wages plummeted at the expense of wealthy elites?  Where are the government employees when it comes to Living Wage laws?  Where are they on universal health care?  On enforcing tax breaks for corporations (in exchange for some public benefit)?  Or when we consider solidarity with social justice movements in America: where is the public sector when it comes to policies that have prisons bursting with the mentally ill, physically addicted, and systemically impoverished?

It is difficult to see images of crowds across the Middle East and North Africa, demanding equality and democracy, without finding some connection to Madison, Wisconsin.  But they are polar opposites.  In America, the Left is being asked to support a state apparatus that has not been at the forefront of social movement; a labor sector which actually represents a status quo.  The Middle East is deposing the status quo.  The true union-busters, be they corporate elites or Tea Party rank and file, are as misguided as those who don’t differentiate between the two types of unions.  Those who advocate an increase of police, prisons, and military (at the expense of social improvement programs) will be faced with the same budget crises as those who would like school teachers to remain on the payroll.

Let us not pretend there are no actual budget issues.  There is no infinite pie to slice up.  If the public sector has to start earning what other folks are making, perhaps that will serve as an impetus for those workers to organize for the massive changes necessary for everyone to earn a living wage.  WalMart cannot function without the public sector subsidizing them, particularly when they have employees getting welfare.  If the public employees decide to shut down government, with a basic demand for corporations to pay their fair share, it would be a Movement worthy of massive sit-ins.  Imagine a world where police were earning the same $28k, without overtime, as the communities they patrol.

When people see earnings like those below, it is no wonder when the government does not seem responsive to the needs of working class people.  When half the Households (meaning all earners in the house) are pulling in less than $53,000 in Rhode Island, and over half the individuals earning less than $30,000… there is little sympathy for the plight of the public sector and their $80,000 salary, or a half-pay pension after 20 years ($40k to go live on their yacht).

Seeing Tom Morello (legendary guitarist and notable activist from Rage Against the Machine) singing songs on behalf of the Machine seems rather odd.  Where is the sit-in at WalMart headquarters?  This is not the 1870’s, the 1930’s, nor the 1970’s.  With outsourcing and the elimination of manufacturing jobs in America, it is time for a new discussion about “Jobs” and workers’ rights- the discussion many folks missed while Bill Clinton confirmed NAFTA would be great for America, and Ralph Nader (who predicted the next 20 years, almost to perfection) was dismissed.

To see the mass protest demands shift from the local factory to the local government is a clear sign that capitalism as we have known it is in the death throes.  Yes, there is money in America.  There are vast estates and luxury items and million dollar weddings and large shareholders diverting dividend payments into complex global financial structures.  The target should not be the Governor, on behalf of our civil servants.  Where were those civil servants when the taxpayers were giving Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and their kindred the Big Bailout?  Why should social justice and economic reform activists take their eye off of J.P. Morgan?

The public sector cannot be the “Labor Movement,” rooted in social justice and overall betterment of the community.  If this analysis makes me a pariah, so be it.

Total pay, with benefits, for highest compensated employees, by department

Related Articles

• And Now There Are 17 States Where Public-Sector Workers Are Protesting To Keep Their High Pay And Amazing Benefits… (businessinsider.com)
• Wisconsin Public Workers: Overpaid, Underpaid, or Just Right? (theatlantic.com)
• The Right Word: Warring over Wisconsin | Sadhbh Walshe (guardian.co.uk)
• Lincoln Mitchell: The Fight in Wisconsin (huffingtonpost.com)