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Originally Posted by 742Dash
Then why is it so hard to get a federal civil service job?
Before you slam your fellow citizens with a Fox News talking point you should give some thought to the doctors and nurses at the CDC who travel INTO pandemics in order to stop them before they reach you. The agents at the FBI and IRS who go face to face with organized crime. The civil engineers at DOT who literally climb over our crumbling infrastructure. The researchers at the NIH whose work gives your kids better odds of making it to old age.
"SCE to AUX" came from one of your "weakest players".
To say nothing of wildland firefighters and hundreds of other positions that place demands of long hours, hazardous conditions, and serve critical functions to the tax payer and nation in general...as well as the many who live largely unknown, unrecognized, who keep the government running on a daily basis.
That said, there's a lot of dead wood out there, as well, and after a lot of years of working closely with a number of federal agencies and personnel, I've seen quite a few positions created and maintained specifically for one person, and just to keep that person employed. I've also seen a lot of hiring based strictly on points...not job qualifications. Sexual preference, handicap, ethnicity, veteran status, etc, which determined that the person who was hired got the job over vastly more qualified individuals.
The issue of collective bargaining should be different with public institutions. While the institution of collective representation is absolutely necessary at many companies, the same is not necessarily true of government service, and there is a significant difference between squaring off against a commercial entity and against the taxpayers whom the government serves. On the one hand, pilots vs. management is the dog negotiating with the hand that feeds it, for better living conditions and the nature of the food, while on the other the government employee squares off against the government, which is bankrolled by the taxpayer, while the employee serves the taxpayer. Entirely different environments. There's no question that the bureaucratic structure of the government opens opportunity for abuse, and with that comes some need of defense, and hence unions, but government unions also open the unique situation of the governing body being governed from the bottom up, by union direction.
I'm not a big fan of the government. I've spent a lot of years working very closely with various branches, agencies, offices, departments, bureaus, etc, and have known some exceptional people doing very good work. I've also known a number of *******s who had as much business being in their positions as a battle ship in a tea cup.
The ruling under discussion applies to the unions of public institutions, but it's not a far reach to see it find application beyond, to private industry. Back side of the slope, which is slick. This ruling wasn't settled on the grounds of labor law, but a constitutional challenge; the tight end passed the scrimmage line and ran straight for the end zone. In so doing, the grounds may be set for creation of a new free agent, rather than simply a player who gets paid but sits on the side for the rest of the game, drinking a pina colada.