"The desire of Government employees for fair and adequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable working conditions, development of opportunities for advancement, facilities for fair and impartial consideration and review of grievances, and other objectives of a proper employee relations policy, is basically no different from that of employees in private industry. Organization on their part to present their views on such matters is both natural and logical, but meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.
"All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. …
"Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable. It is, therefore, with a feeling of gratification that I have noted in the constitution of the National Federation of Federal Employees the provision that "under no circumstances shall this Federation engage in or support strikes against the United States Government."
–– President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, letter to Luther C. Steward, President of the National Federation of Federal Employees, of August 16, 1937. [LINK]
In other news, the Good Guys are on the lam from the Bad Guys somewhere in North America.
1 comment:
Having worked in the Teamsters Union, I can say that the primary reason unions have become like sour milk in the mouthes and minds of the public (non-union) was the depth of which unions were driven to an arm-in-arm mandate with organized crime, the Mafia. Most unions are tainted from the Hoffa era and before Hoffa. But public employee unions are just as vulnerable to "organized crime-like" behavior because they operate outside the halls of government, which pays them, yet they use government cars, clothing, and other items to attend union meetings and to represent themselves and not the public, while being paid by the public. The discourteous police officer, the haughty fireman, and others know they can sluff you off because they can't be fired. If any unions should not exist, it should be public employee unions. Police, Fire Departments, City workers, electric authorities, water works, etc. should be banned from bargaining away the publics' money and holding government to a lower standard than private enterprise.
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