Governor Scott Walker's efforts to reform the laws governing public employee unions in Wisconsin created a national firestorm. Opinion has polarized on the issue, as is evident from the national parties' platforms. However, dealing with the problems posed by public sector unions has been and continues to be a bi-partisan. Just look at the most recent examples. State Treasurer Gina Raimondo pioneered pension reform in Rhode Island; Mayor Chuck Reed did the same in San Jose; Rahm Emmanuel is in a showdown with teachers unions in Chicago; former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown become a fierce critic of California's unions for inflating pensions; and Gloria Romero, California's Senate majority leader from 2001 to 2008, is now taking on the California Teachers Association. Granted some of these Democrats changed their minds about the union only after they left office. And, of course, they don't have the same verve as Christie and Walker in their approach to the unions. But maybe they'll end up encouraging productive reform. Some already have. All told, there is more agreement across the political spectrum that unionized government has some significant drawbacks.
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Copyright © 2013 Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017
phone (212) 599-7000 / fax (212) 599-3494
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