The growing conflict between public and private labor

City Journal reports:

The goals of public and private unions are diverging. Government employees, determined to hold on to their pay and benefits, are fighting to defeat political leaders and candidates advocating fiscal reforms, such as limits on tax increases. Private unions, by contrast, see the nation’s sluggish economic growth as a threat to their members and are increasingly encouraging politicians to focus on private-sector job creation. The disastrous debut of Obamacare and the ever-tighter alliances between public unions and the Democratic Party’s antigrowth factions—especially environmentalists—have further alienated private-sector labor leaders. These disputes have roiled Democratic primaries and even pushed some labor groups into the arms of Republican candidates. The face-off among labor groups could have significant long-term consequences if it becomes a struggle for the future of the Democratic Party—and judging by the battles among labor groups in last year’s elections, that struggle may be under way.

Today’s labor divide is actually a new twist on older conflicts. Decades ago, when public-sector workers first began to push for the right to organize, many private labor leaders were skeptical that collective bargaining could work in government employment; government officials tended to agree. Unionized public workers, they felt, could easily hold the public hostage. One consequence of that widespread attitude was the exclusion of public employees from many early federal labor laws, including the 1935 Wagner Act, which gives private workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. In an oft-quoted 1937 letter, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt explained to an angry Luther Steward, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, that, while it was acceptable for federal workers to organize into associations or trade groups to represent their interests, “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.”

Get educated, read this article about the union movement in America.