Quote:
Originally Posted by Sieg
I'm sorry, but I have to challenge.
Public employees unions are killing us. The average annual compensation for fire/emt department of 204 employees here is $102,000, a large percentage as the trade unions would say are scabs with their side businesses. The police are 192 employees and average $98,000. I have worked very closely with the local police thanks to a severly broken criminal justice system and realistically there are only 20% of them that are really commited to public service. The majority are in it for themselves...........period. Their medical benefits are at a level I can only dream of for myself and my employees. They're putting in 25years of 40 hour weeks and retiring with $5,000+ a month for the rest of their lives.
My company's labor force (floor covering) was union for 39 years (1960-99) I started there fulltime in '76 and my father served 10+ years on the pension board. My wife's side of the family is 3 generations deep in teaching (8 individuals) at middle and high school level. I have a reasonable understanding of fair and equitable.
IMO the public sector is blatently raping the private sector especially considering their level of job commitment. Plan and simple the public sector cannot sustain itself. They are constantly under funded and under staffed, we hear the rhetoric every year.
Sorry
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I normally don't get involved in conversations such as this, but I would have to challenge your challenge. I am not sure if you are aware but public employee's pay into their own retirement system (at least in California). So that alleged $5,000.00 a month for retirement is paid into by the police officers and firefighter/EMTs. It is true, in this day and age police officers and firefighters are very well compensated as they should be. I would also have to challenge your made up statistic that only 20% percent of police officers are commited to public service. I find it hard to believe that the other 80% are risking something as valuable as their LIFE just to "be in it for themselves.....period". Now I know absolutly nothing about the floor covering business but I would find it hard to believe that when you leave for work, you wonder if you are coming home. In the first 26 days of the new year, 15 police officers have been killed in the line of duty, 12 have been shot in the last 48 hours. Again, I must plead ignorance because I am not privy to the statistics of individuals in the flooring industry but my guess would be that none have been murdered this year while at work. I don't know you at all, but if you or one of your family members life was in danger and you needed immediate police assistance I think you should pray that the officer responding is one of the 20% that is committed to public safety. I am just glad that the 12 of my friends who have been killed in the line of duty, including my partner were all commited to public service.
Greg Rickman
www.inmemoryofthefallen.org