Even FDR Understood: No Collective Bargaining for Public Servants
I just love a good cherry-picked quote! This one is all around the internet these days.
Here’s more from the FDR letter (which A.M Mallet above so kindly provides a link to) :
“The desire of Government employees for fair and adequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable working conditions, development of opportunities for advancement, facilities for fair and impartial consideration and review of grievances, and other objectives of a proper employee relations policy, is basically no different from that of employees in private industry. Organization on their part to present their views on such matters is both natural and logical, but meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.”
If you read the whole document, it’s clear that FDR didn’t believe that Government employees shouldn’t be represented by unions, he believed they shouldn’t strike.
But I bet the author knew that.
