Government Workers

The protesting public school teachers with fake doctor's notes swarming the Capitol building in Madison, Wis., insist that Gov. Scott Walker is hell-bent on "union busting. " Mr. Walker denies that his effort to reform public-sector unions in Wisconsin is anything more than an honest attempt at balancing the state's books. I hope the protesters are right. Public unions have been a 50-year mistake. A crucial distinction has been lost in the debate over Mr. Walker's proposals: Government unions are not the same thing as private-sector unions.

I've heard and read about the demonstrations of state workers whose salaries and benefits are being cut or at least kept from increasing. Through talk radio, many workers try to say that they have already suffered from quality of life issues, but I noticed a real disconnect. I don't think that government workers realize that the tax payers they are appealing to make about half as much salary, suffered from a lack of raises in direct income for at least six straight years, not to mention having seriously reduced benefits.

The New York Times reported this week that, faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials in many states are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining. These state officials, according to the Times report, are looking for ways to curb the salaries and pensions of government employees. We are told that in some states with Republican governors and Republican state house majorities, officials are seeking more far-reaching, structural changes that would weaken the bargaining power of unions, including private sector ones.

Sarah E. "Sally" Murphy, the first woman to serve as grand marshal of Baltimore's St. Patrick's Day parade and a retired city government worker, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at ManorCare in Ruxton. The Rodgers Forge resident was 77. "She was one of the greatest workers at City Hall," said former Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro III. "She practically ran her department and was its main cog. " Miss Murphy was born in Baltimore and raised on Cecil Avenue. She was the daughter of Jerome Murphy, a Hynson, Wescott and Dunning pharmacist.

Since the sole purpose of freezing federal pay ( "The call for civil sacrifice," Dec. 1) is to show fiscal discipline, if we freeze pay on all government workers we must include all employees of government contractors, and reduce contractors' pay to the equivalent government job they are replacing. It would make government more efficient. For those contractors that have overhead expenses like executive pay in excess of the equivalent government executive, obviously we cannot afford, with our budget deficit, to keep them on and would have to save money by bringing the jobs into the government.

In January 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, giving federal employees the right to organize. This little-known act, which effectively unionized the vast federal workforce, has had momentous consequences that nearly five decades later threaten to overwhelm our democracy. Prior to President Kennedy, it was widely considered inappropriate for public employees to have the same organizing rights as private workers. For one, it was accepted that while public workers received lower wages than their private-sector counterparts, they received in exchange valued intangibles such as job security and, as quaint as it sounds now, the honor that came from public service.

I would agree that there is some unethical behavior in both business and government. It may be true that, in some jobs, government employees are paid better than their private counterparts ("Business ethics' wrong focus," Commentary, Aug. 22). This wouldn't apply as much in professional positions. I worked for 38 years in the Library of Congress and retired in 2003. I currently work 20 hours per week in the library at CCBC-Essex. I would put my colleagues at LC and at CCBC up against any private sector employees and bet that they would compare favorably.

Rebecca R. Rosen, a former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission compliance officer and World War II veteran, died of heart failure Oct. 2 at her home in Boca Raton, Fla. She was 88. Rebecca Rosen was born in Baltimore and spent her early years in Mitchellville before moving with her family to Towson in the early 1930s. She was a 1937 graduate of Towson High School and earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1940. In 1980, Ms. Rosen earned a master's degree in sociology and urban studies from the University of Baltimore.