In the mail today:

Yep, I called it. Read on….

And I’m not the only one who noticed the fun and games have started. The Chronicle said, in an unbylined article (edit: an editorial, my bad!) that won’t be copyrighted for another 54 years (unless they’ve corrected that, heh):

The campaign is headed toward a possible employee election to determine which union gets to represent them at the bargaining table. However, if City Council were to submit the question of collective bargaining by city workers to a local referendum, collective bargaining could suffer the same fate as a minimum wage proposition that went down to defeat. In that event, all of AFSCME’s efforts to secure the meet-and-confer legislation could go down the drain.

Ok, this part just kills me. Apparently, the reporter for the Chronicle does not know the difference between an internal election among city employees only and a local referendum for all voters. I totally fail to see where an issue that is specific to the employees (“who do we choose to represent us”) is something that would be voted on by the general public. If there is some way, the writer needs to explain it. What I strongly suspect happened here is that Powell engaged in some fearmongering as a part of “explaining the issue,” and the writer bought it. This wouldn’t have happened back in the day when reporters were expected to be experts about their “beat,” but no one has those anymore.

Powell says his union supported SEIU in its groundbreaking efforts to organize Houston janitorial workers.

Read that: “We couldn’t figure out any way to stop them.”

According to SEIU spokesman Chris Coil, city employees deserve the right to a union of their choice, and the fact that fewer than 10 percent have joined AFSCME to date indicates dissatisfaction with its representation.

Add “utter indifference” to that, and I’ll agree. They have been pretty damn useless.

He said the attempt to “raid” the city of Houston is a stab in the back by a union brother. . . . At times, the struggle has taken on comic overtones. SEIU organizers attempted to piggyback on an AFSCME lunchtime rally downtown by setting up a nearby barbecue stand. Powell admits he impersonated a restaurant owner in order to get guards to force the interlopers to close it down.

Brian: “Can’t we all just get along?”

Play nice now, children.

Lovell says she welcomes the competition between the two unions. She says the rivalry will bring better representation for city workers.

Riiiiiiiiiiight. What it’s going to bring is months, years even, of very public gridlock, along with heaps of public derision as the two unions continue making complete and utter fools of themselves.

Perhaps she is right, but it seems equally possible that in a city noted for antiunion sentiment, organized labor’s biggest enemy at City Hall could well turn out to be itself.

Like that’s a surprise. Organized labor has always been its own biggest enemy, because it’s too damn greedy. It can’t get its head wrapped around the fact that what’s good for the overall health of the city is good for the employee, whether it’s a private business or public entity. Of course, on its part, the city has never recognized that what’s good for the employees can be good for it, either.

It takes a careful balancing of the interests of both parties to produce the effect that maximises results for both. The Germans try to create this by giving the employees a say in the business, a practice called mitbestimmung. It works about like you’d expect; poorly. German companies have a hard time laying off employees, which means they’re reluctant to hire them. That keeps unemployement high and tax revenue low. Combined with the generational effort of upgrading the former East German economy to western standards, it’s one of the reasons that U.S. businesses are much more agile and adept at handling market change. (And then there’s Chrysler being bought by Daimler, but we won’t go there.)

In any case, such a practice cannot work for a government. Just look at California for proof; the unions (and enviro-whackos) grabbed control of the levers there, and it’s been a complete mess. The only thing that can and will work is for the citizens of Houston to wake up and start taking an interest in their own government.

I’m not holding my breath.

(Tip of the hat to All Things Beautiful, a site I keep finding and then somehow forgetting about.)

Edit: Whoops, color me embarassed. I got confused while looking at my incoming links, it was Isolated Desolation! Ok, I’m just going to blame this one on my illness and slink off now. . . .