-By Warner Todd Huston
Our pal Billy Ritter, Governor of Colorado, was not so “august” enough as to allow either the legislature nor the people of his fair state to have a chance to vote on whether they wanted a union to gain a huge amount of power over the state’s public workers there. Instead of allowing the democratic process to reign supreme, Billy boy decreed his payoff to big labor by executive order not long ago.
Ritter has issued an executive order that will create a “bargaining partnership” between the state and its public sector workers. But, not to worry, Billy assures us, it has a “very clear” no-strike provision.
Color me unconvinced. After all, the existence of a union presupposes that they will have the power to strike and walk off the job in case their thuggish demands are not met. Otherwise, what teeth would any such organization have and why would it bother to exist?
Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman (a Republican) is not very happy and he and other GOP state office holders claim they will ignore the Guv’s Monarchical degree. “This effort is clearly not in the interest of Colorado’s taxpayers and will not lead to more efficient government,” Coffman said.
Naturally, the louts that work for the state are thrilled by this overstepping of their union beholding Guv.
“I’m extremely excited,” said Lance Christensen, a state archivist. “This is huge. This is really the first step that we’ve been able to take in actually improving government efficiency.”
No doubt he’s excited… but improving government efficiency? HOW? By giving workers even LESS reason to do their job?
Tony Gagaliardi, Colorado director of the National Federation of Independent Business, thought it wasn’t such a great idea though, and he uttered what is to be the understatement of the year.
“I’m surprised the governor would circumvent the legislative process to take this route.”
Who could possibly be surprised? The good Guv is a Democrat, after all. And the only thing Democratic about any American Democrat is the name. That’s where it begins and that’s where it ends.
As Mike Rosen says in the Rocky Mountain News:
In areas where government enjoys a monopoly, public-sector unions are worse than unnecessary, they’re dangerous. When they strike, they can hold the public hostage, shutting down entire sectors. Private-sector unions are constrained by a company’s ability to recover its costs from customers who are free to take their business to a competitor. Public-sector unions have no such constraint, knowing government can’t go out of business and has the power to tax its “customers.”
Dead on, Mike. A perfect explanation on why a union for government workers is not only dangerous, but is down right unethical and undemocratic.
Thanks for undermining state government, Billy. I’m sure the unions will fill your pockets with their “thanks.”
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston