Commentary: Tactics from the union playbook stay the same
The game has been rigged for years! Current public employees can typically retire at age 50 or 55 with as much as 90% of their pay and lifetime medical coverage after 30 years of service.
Some have nothing to do. So while the rest of us are still working toward retirement for another 10 or 15 years, they run for office and get appointed to boards, such as those for water and sanitary districts, schools, city councils and county offices, etc.
When contracts for services come up, board members award them to their public-employee union buddies because their buddies in Sacramento have passed legislation for general law cities that force the occasional nonplayers to award only prevailing-wage contracts with qualification requirements written by the “public employees unions.”
They falsely convince the nontechnical layman elected or appointed official that only the “best and brightest” can do these jobs, that only the public employee unions can provide these “best” individuals and that anyone educated from a different path is inferior. The unions collect members’ dues, which are automatically withdrawn from their paychecks by their employer, our government, and deposit them into union bank accounts.
The employees contribute a portion of members’ dues back to their buddies’ campaigns to run for office again. The cycle continues, and each year when contracts come up, they raise union pay and benefits as the issue.
As you could guess, public employee unions have a lot of money to throw at many campaigns. The uninformed go for their utopia smut promises instead of American ingenuity, hard work and self-reliance, the cornerstone of greatness for this country.
When money does not work to win, they sometimes use intimidation or criminal and civil lawsuits to gain control. Many of our brightest business people will not serve because of these risks. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy with fewer people from which to choose.
It’s right out of the union playbook, which has not changed for 100 years.
PHIL MORELLO is a Costa Mesa resident and longtime Republican Party activist.