Unions—heal thyselves
By Mark D. BernsteinWE can all hope that, as a result of last week's Star-Bulletin series, "State of the Unions," a dialogue with our public employees can truly begin. As those of us who have read your articles know, the heads of public unions echo a familiar refrain.
Each complains that public workers are being made scapegoats for the budgetary problems faced by state and county government. They complain that public employees are being depicted as the enemy. They bemoan the fact that every attempt to reduce government spending involves an attempt to reduce the wages and benefits of public workers.
On the other side are our elected officials, who manage the delivery of government services. They claim that any inefficiencies in government, and all our budgetary problems, derive from one source -- overly powerful public unions that continually demand excessive pay and benefits for inefficient, incompetent workers.
Yet in the middle of this cross-fire are the true employers of all of those persons engaged in this perennial snipers' shootout -- we, the people, who pay for and consume these services.
The saddest aspect of this war of words is that public workers are a part of our family. They are our mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters. They pay taxes, obtain and deliver public services, and strive to satisfy an ever-increasing and changing demand for government services.
Like many family squabbles, the principal problems result from the unwillingness to speak honestly to each other about the nature of the problems and potential solutions. Hopefully, the Star-Bulletin's series will start the dialogue that can lead to a resolution of these issues.
As a longtime supporter of organized labor, there is nothing I find more depressing and disappointing in the conduct of public union officials than their seeming unwillingness to try and solve any of the systemic problems existing in government employment.
Their rigid adherence to the style of adversarial collective bargaining has consistently prevented public unions from taking the lead in curing the inefficiencies in government. No one knows these inefficiencies better than the front-line public workers who confront bureaucratic nightmares every day of their working lives.
No one knows better the employment benefits that are most subject to abuse than the front-line public workers.
No one knows better the most expensive benefits and those least important to the front-line workers than the front-line workers themselves.
Yet, depressingly, despite the fact that they know our state is mired in a recession that has stretched through an entire decade, they have made no perceivable effort to correct government efficiency and cost. They, like everyone else, find it easier to point fingers, cast blame and seek scapegoats.
One of the best examples of the refusal of government employees to take control is in the area of work rules. Everyone -- including government workers -- knows that there has been a dramatic slowdown in the construction industry. Such as slowdown means a reduced need for government services and oversight related to the construction industry.
At the same time, and perhaps related, there has been a dramatic increase in drug use, specifically of ice or methamphetamine. This has elevated the need for government services related to child care and child protection, as well as other social services.
Every government department has clerks who process applications and paperwork. Is it truly impossible to move clerks from a department experiencing a downturn in services to one with an increased demand for services?
Is it too much to ask government workers themselves to devise a system under which they can quickly move from position to position to serve the public need?
Or is it really a requirement that government workers be left with nothing to do when the public's need for their particular department's services declines, either temporarily or permanently?
Government workers know how to best streamline processes, improve efficiency and reduce expenses, including unnecessary employment costs. If they take the attitude that the issues of increasing government efficiency and reducing costs are not their responsibility, they will wake up one morning to find they have become the enemy in the eyes of their real employers, the people of this state.
Public workers cannot wait for politicians to summon the courage to confront these problems. For this entire decade, our legislators have engaged in more prayer than governance, hoping that some magic will show up on our doorsteps to enable us to afford all the government services we want.
Clearly, local politicians are scared to death of offending the government unions. That is why they are reduced to bemoaning problems and promising to somehow reduce inefficiency and costs, without actually reducing services.
How they will achieve that, they won't and can't say. They are a pretty pathetic lot, and we need to help.
In the absence of leadership from our elected officials, our public workers -- our fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters -- must take on the leadership role and devise the systems and solutions to the problems they know best.
If they do so, they will find that they have something more than merely the support of the public. They will have our complete respect and gratitude.
Mark D. Bernstein is a Honolulu attorney.