In Praise Of Public Workers

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

It is a commonplace attitude among what is called "the chattering class" -- not to mention many politicians, especially Republicans.  They hate public workers, especially if they're unionized. "Incompetent," the politicians and pundits say.   "Overpaid."  "Paper-pushers."  And their favorite insult: "Bureaucrats." And then a disaster hits, like Hurricane Katrina, or the Haitian earthquake, or the successive snowstorms that almost paralyzed the cities of the Northeast. And guess who's keeping things running, stepping in, helping out, saving people, rescuing society itself? Right:  Public workers.  When Katrina struck, the Fire Fighters led the search-and-rescue operations and, with AFSCME, went in to tackle the hazards of leaking chemicals and poisonous substances.  When January's earthquake destroyed the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, several U.S. nurses unions airlifted thousands of their members to Haiti to provide needed medical care and the Fire Fighters, again, sent search-and-rescue teams to hunt for survivors and dig people out from under collapsed buildings. And when the blizzards almost -- but not quite -- brought Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York to a halt, look what happened: the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers kept the subways and buses running in the cities, AFSCME members operated sanders, plows and salt spreaders, usually round-the-clock. The nurses, again, were in the hospitals and emergency rooms, ready to treat those who succumbed to the snow.  Unionized ambulance drivers piloted their vehicles through the snow-clogged streets to get patients to the hospitals. When the patients were checked in, SEIU member staffers -- aides, orderlies, cafeteria workers -- joined those unionized nurses in caring for them. We're sure there are many other union workers who toiled above and beyond the call of duty to keep our lights on, our transportation running, our shelves stocked, our hospitals ready, and more.  And we say to them -- even if we didn't name them here -- a heartfelt "Thank you!" The next time you hear a politician, or a business owner, or an anti-union propagandist, denounce public workers as good for nothing, remember who kept our civilization going, however haltingly, in times of stress.  It wasn't those ideologues or parasites.  It was public workers.union public workers. - Mark Gruenberg/Press Associates, Inc. This is adapted from a longer report.