No, No, No; It Is Just Not True

Time to debunk another lie about public unions: It simply isn't true that if a union has bargaining power then they are not answerable to the taxpayers and can just raise their salary any time they want. It is a lie.

See, it's called bargaining power because they have to .... wait for it ....... BARGAIN. As in negotiate. And with whom do they negotiate? Why, with elected officials. Taxpayers' representatives. And since public unions are almost always prohibited from going on strike, guess where the upper hand often sits at that table?

OK, so they don't have to ask each and every taxpayer for a raise. Their salaries aren't put up for a vote every two years. What kind of quality employees would you end up with if that were the case? Who would want a job with pay and benefits changing from year to year depending on how generous taxpayers felt at the lever?

But they DO answer to taxpayers through elections.

It is similar to the way that every other government contract is negotiated. You may vote for someone who does or does not support a bill to build an off-ramp from the interstate in your neighborhood. But once that service is decided on, taxpayers really don't get much say in how much it's going to cost. That's why it's called representative government.

So don't let anyone tell you that the unions are running roughshod and are all powerful with no recourse to the voter. It just isn't true.