|
|
Article: Public employees deserve better: ; Private-sector labor and teachers have other interests
- Article from:
- Charleston Daily Mail
- Article date:
- May 23, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 Charleston Daily Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
I believe the state AFL-CIO is an obstacle to the public employee
labor movement in West Virginia. I cannot reconcile the political
power of this organization with the miserable wages of public
employees. Forget $60,000 appointees. I'm talking about the
employees raising one or two kids on their own and making less than
$15,000 a year - or perhaps the highways worker making about $7 an
hour who only boosts earnings above the federal poverty level by
working as much overtime as humanly possible.
Private sector and even teacher salaries rank in the mid-range
compared to other states. But non-teaching public employees never
rise above the bottom two or three in the country.
Why is that?
I ...