Regarding Public Union Rights:

“Bullies,” “minions of greed,” “pick your pocket,” the Left uses the language of oppression to demonize their freedom-loving opponents and hide an abuse of power by the Sequim City Council.

In their upside down world, bringing transparency to union negotiations and removing compulsory unionization from city employment violates union “rights.” Think about that. Without forced association and forced union dues, unions would have to continually earn the loyalty of their members and our elected officials would regain the ability to choose from the widest array of the most qualified employment candidates including those that don’t want to join a union.

Pay close attention when people write about “rights.” In all logic, there can be no right to violate the rights of other men. And it follows that no individual should be forced into an involuntary association with a public union as a condition of city employment, nor be forced to pay union dues to an organization they do not support.

Wrapping themselves in the glories of the American labor movement will not hide the fact that public and private unions are not the same. Back in 1937, FDR, no dope, wrote this: “The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.”

Public unions are not bargaining against capitalists for a fair cut of the cooperative surplus. Public unions are bargaining against everybody who pays taxes and/or benefits from government spending. Unlike private unions, public union officials have little incentive to care about the financial viability of their government employer.

Voters have entrusted the council to act for the benefit of the entire community. By refusing to address these legal initiatives, the council has abdicated its responsibilities to preserve the freedom, independence and legislative powers entrusted to them. Instead, the council has subverted the law to serve one special interest group at the expense of their ultimate employers … the taxpayers. Self-castration by the city council does not serve the entire community.

That’s why all the citizens of Sequim should be allowed to vote on how they want their Sequim City Council to operate. Transparency and worker choice. The real bullies are trying to kill the opportunity to vote on these initiatives.

Leonard Hirschfeld

Sequim