There are actual areas of common ground that those of us in the pension/compensation reform movement can find with union officials. For instance, I was just talking to Nick Berardino, the president of the Orange County Employees Association, and someone who I recently debated in a public forum about unions. Obviously, Berardino and I are never going to agree about the core issues here, but he just contacted me to point out a news story from OC about excessive pay for management staff in the county. He argues that the worst abuses take place at the management level and he's basically right.
This is from a Voice of OC report (Berardino's union funds that news service): "Last week the Orange County Performance Auditor released a
scathing report on the county's human resources
department. It disclosed, among other things, that 75 of the
county's executives and managers were given raises -- in some cases
huge raises -- while services were being cut and other county
workers laid off."
In the union view, the managers are a separate caste that abuses the system to the extreme (along with public safety unions). I lump them together because the public sector managers are members of associations that basically are unions and they all are part of this system of plunder that makes up Public Sector Inc. In Orange County, 99 percent of county employees are members of unions or associations. But there's nothing wrong with recognizing the distinctions and working with one side against the other. Berardino is right -- the managers should not be exploiting the system.
Why not work with the unions to reform manager abuses? Berardino is more reform minded than most union presidents I've known, largely perhaps because he operates in a conservative county. He worked with the county board to reform the retiree medical system and helped sponsor a voluntary two-tier retirement system -- a largely symbolic reform that doesn't do much but does point in the right direction.
So there may be areas of common ground -- not many, but it's always good to keep an open mind.
In the union view, the managers are a separate caste that abuses the system to the extreme (along with public safety unions). I lump them together because the public sector managers are members of associations that basically are unions and they all are part of this system of plunder that makes up Public Sector Inc. In Orange County, 99 percent of county employees are members of unions or associations. But there's nothing wrong with recognizing the distinctions and working with one side against the other. Berardino is right -- the managers should not be exploiting the system.
Why not work with the unions to reform manager abuses? Berardino is more reform minded than most union presidents I've known, largely perhaps because he operates in a conservative county. He worked with the county board to reform the retiree medical system and helped sponsor a voluntary two-tier retirement system -- a largely symbolic reform that doesn't do much but does point in the right direction.
So there may be areas of common ground -- not many, but it's always good to keep an open mind.
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