(Michael Chamberlain/Nevada Business Coalition) – How’s that “shared sacrifice” working for you? It seems to be working pretty well for Clark County employees who are members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
While the economy was collapsing, County revenues were plummeting and most of the rest of us were taking reductions in pay and losing our jobs and homes and businesses, members of the SEIU who work for Clark County were still receiving raises. According to a story in the Las Vegas Sun, the average County SEIU member’s pay increased 13% in the last 3 years.
Actually, when you consider that each percentage increase compounds on all the previous ones, the average pay increase was closer to 15%.
Good work, if you can get it.
The union believes that, since these raises were less than what it wanted, it should be congratulated and credited for having made concessions during this period of time. It is even willing to discuss some pay cuts now, in exchange for reduced managerial oversight of its members and cutting pay and benefits of managers and other nonmembers.
How very gracious of them!
The SEIU is willing to roll the dice in binding arbitration if the County doesn’t accept its proposal, even though the County has already gone out of its way to insulate these workers from the effects of this recession. As the Sun article reveals,
A year ago, at the urging of the union, the county transferred about $53 million intended for roof repairs, vehicle replacements and other maintenance to the general fund to save the jobs of its members.
The current recession has devastated the economy of the Silver State. Unemployment is officially around 14%; unofficially, it’s probably closer to 25%. Thousands of Nevadans are simply giving up looking for work every month, with a large portion of them leaving the state.
As the economy was crumbling, SEIU members continued to receive raises in 2008, 2009 and 2010. And they want the taxpayers to praise them because those raises weren’t as big as they wanted them to be – the very same taxpayers who had to pay for those raises while suffering the ravages of the current downturn themselves.
During that period county management froze its salaries. If union members had done the same, Pappa added, the county would have saved $75 million and would not need the 9 percent cuts, which are expected to save $41 million.
Looks like it worked for the union. Even if it gives up everything the County wants now, its members still will end up being paid tens of millions more taxpayer dollars than they would have by freezing pay years ago.
But the people it didn’t work for are the taxpayers – the people who don’t have a seat at the bargaining table, the people who don’t get to vote on the union contracts, the people who nevertheless have to pay for the wages and benefits that are negotiated. This is a perfect example of the danger of government unions and why they don’t work for the person paying the bills – the taxpayer, the forgotten man.
(Michael Chamberlain is Executive Director of Nevada Business Coalition.)
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