Public Employee Press

Public sector under seige

Business has almost wiped out the labor movement in the private sector, where 93 percent of the workers have no union representation.

Now they're targeting public employees.

The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and the resulting revenue crash have opened the door for right-wing interests to step up their nationwide attack on public-sector unions.

Struggling to protect members' jobs, public-employee unions face political isolation and a ferocious attack by conservatives, said Queens College labor historian Josh Freeman, who moderated a panel "Under Attack: The Future of Public Sector Unionism," on Sept. 24.

At stake are gains - health insurance, guaranteed pensions, improved wages, job security - built up over a half century, said Joseph A. McCartin, a Georgetown University history professor.

"This assault must be stopped. If we don't stop it, we will let open a free-market tide," McCartin said at the panel organized by CUNY's Murphy Institute.

Public employee unions must respond more aggressively, said Communications Workers Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes.

He pointed out that many members and their families buy into the anti-tax, anti-government ideology of the Tea Party and said his union has launched an education program to help activists understand the conservative thrust and encourage them to work in their communities to promote a pro-worker political agenda.

Teamsters Local 237 President Greg Floyd said the collapse of Wall Street and employers' failure to make contributions - not excessive benefits - had caused underfunding of public-sector pensions. He urged unions to address the public's impression that government employees are a privileged class of workers.

State Sen. Diane Savino, a former SSEU Local 371 officer, said she hopes the attacks on public-sector unions will lead the labor movement to overcome internal divisions. Without newfound labor solidarity, working people will likely continue to see their living standards decline, the panelists agreed.

—Gregory N. Heires