The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board was enraged Friday that the Utah Republican Party backed down from its war on public sector unions, and on Friday, the editors made their thoughts clear.
This comes after the Utah GOP, having passed a law to outlaw public sector bargaining earlier this year, capitulated as unions gathered enough signatures to place the policy up for a vote next November.
“Government unions negotiate rich salaries and benefits. Then lawmakers invariably have to raise taxes to pay for them. Rinse and repeat,” wrote the board. “Government unions, unlike those in the private sector, don’t have to worry about driving their employers out of business if they make excessive demands. Public officials also have an incentive to roll over to government unions to win their support in the next election. This is why Wisconsin Republicans in 2011 limited collective bargaining” — a controversial policy that is currently under litigation.
“The reforms didn’t prevent unions from advocating for anything,” the board raged. “They simply couldn’t negotiate labor agreements that bound all employees, including those who don’t want to be part of the union. In this way, the reforms ensured that public workers could advocate for themselves in negotiations with employers — and that unions couldn’t impede the success of teachers and students.”
Yet “rather than defend their reforms, Republicans folded,” the board wrote. “Unions turned up the heat and peddled falsehoods. Surrender tells union leaders they can bully Republicans the next time.”
The board took a swipe at Utah Gov. Spencer Cox for trying to strike a conciliatory tone with the unions, saying his main goal is “to refocus this conversation to ensure government is doing its best to support our first responders, educators, and all those who serve our state.”
“Mr. Cox’s pleas for civility in public discourse have been welcome. But repealing the reforms is a show of political weakness, not civility,” wrote the board. “Public unions don’t want to sing kumbaya with Republicans. They want to dominate the state’s politics. The teachers union has sued to block the state’s education savings accounts. Now that unions know they have Republicans on the run, what other salutary state policies will they try to undo?”
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