Staying on the subject of unions and struggling municipalities who have huge budget shortfalls because in the dramatic drop in property taxes, I ran into an interesting situation developing in the community of Plymouth, Michigan (next door to Canton) and their fire and emergency medical services.
I noticed a huge ad taken out by the Plymouth Professional Fire Fighters Local 1496. The ad stated how the firefighters / paramedics have been part of the community for many years and have served the community well but now, because of budget constraints, the community wants to do away with the service and contract out for the services to neighboring communities.
The firefighters encourage all who read the ad to come to a special meeting of the city commission, to ostensibly show support for the firefighters union?
This kind of reminded me of the Wisconsin situation where steps need to be taken to balance the budget but unions bring in supporters to impede if not block the necessary measures.
I looked up the details of this issue and found that the township has been working with the fire fighters union to somehow bring down the cost of maintaining a $4 million, 21 firefighters, one inspector and one chief department even suggesting a smaller, 12-hour (instead of a 24 hour) department but it appears that the union would have none of that.
The township supervisor said that the union thought he was bluffing when he said that he may do away with the entire department and farm out the services, but he was not; financial reality was the driving force.
My point is that unions and union supporters do not have a grasp on reality. They want to maintain their status quo even if that is fiscally unsustainable. They don’t care; just make it work or find the money somewhere because we don’t want things to change.
It is this stupid, intransigent union mentality that is leading to the demise of unions and not some stealth plan of eradication by the wealthy, powerful anti-union forces.
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