Unrest in the Middle East... and in the American Mid-west

Democracy seems intent upon breaking out across the Arab world: Egypt Libya, Morocco, Bahrain. George Bush and Dick Cheney no doubt will claim their "liberation" of Iraq is the catalyst. Many are saying that modern communication technologies --- the Internet and cell phones --- are the facilitators. Marshall McLuhan would probably endorse that theory, were the Canadian communications prophet still with us. The medium is the message, eh, Marshall?



If establishing democracy is the goal of a new generation of activists in the Arab world, as TIME's cover story this week suggests, then preserving workplace democracy is the mission of union members across middle America this week. In Ohio and Wisconsin, public employees are protesting attempts to take away their collective bargaining rights. And, while I am no expert on Arab unrest, this latter topic is one about which I know a wee bit.



In my view, it is false and unfair to lay the states' present financial problems at the feet of the collective bargaining process. Collective bargaining is the way employees are able to meet capital and management on relatively equal terms. This is why capital and management have never much liked collective bargaining. The wealthy and powerful would much prefer to be dictators, not unlike the leaders of Eqypt, Libya, Morocco and Bahrain.

In fact, to blame collective bargaining for their troubles is particularly inappropriate in those states where the public employee labor laws deny safety forces and teachers the right to strike. Since the strike has been the primary method for workers and their unions to force a favorable settlement in the face of impasse at the bargaining table, the fact that the majority of states that allow for collective bargaining limit the use of the strike means that management always enjoys a distinct advantage.

That being said, it's clear that in many states unfunded, defined-benefit pension plans, combined with retirement rights at 20 or 30 years of employment such other generous benefits as employer-funded health care, have placed untenable burdens on many state governments. It's also true that job security --- tenure for teachers, civil service rights for other public employees --- often make it damned near impossible to fire all but the worst workers, and equally difficult to motivate the marginally performing.

And, of course, short-sighted, autocratic managers see stripping away collective bargaining rights as the quickest and easiest way to rectify these problems. That may be so, but it is neither just nor fair.

It is ironic, indeed, that, as democracy seems to be blooming in the autocratic Middle East, here in America our government leaders should be pushing hard to strip away workplace democracy in the public sector.

Shame on them!