FDR on Collective Bargaining by Public Employees

At Intellectual Takeout, we believe individuals should read multiple perspectives on various ideas and policy proposals. Additionally, we believe primary documents are critically important to understanding. As is often said, you should get things “straight from the horse’s mouth.”

In light of the ongoing saga in Wisconsin regarding collective bargaining by government employees, we thought the best horse to hear from today would be President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Here is a man who is not enormously popular with the staff of Intellectual Takeout, but  who we applaud for his stance against collective bargaining by government employees.

“FDR was against collective bargaining by government employees?” It appears so.

Here’s one excerpt of a letter President Roosevelt wrote to Luther C. Steward, President of the National Federation of Federal Employees in 1937:

“All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress.”

If you think his position isn’t clear from that quote, consider this one:

“Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.”

The whole document is available here at Intellectual Takeout if you would like to confirm the context of the two quotes above.

As the fiscal health of federal, state, and local government is not well, we are likely to see public employee union unrest spread to other states and ares of government.

Consider that the federal government has a total national debt roughly the size of the entire country’s economy. Worse, the deficit for FY 2011 is estimated to be more than 10% of GDP. For FY 2010, 48 of the 50 states had budgets in the red. For 33 of those 48, the deficit represented 20% or more of the budget.

Simply put, the spending promises made in the past are unsustainable. It is time for a serious discussion about the role of government and what is economically realistic as well as just to future generations. At Intellectual Takeout, we will continue to provide helpful and unique resources that will add to  that discussion and hopefully further liberty and the potential for prosperity.