Public workers deserve bargaining rights

According to Jonah Goldberg (Feb. 28 column), public-sector unions have to go.

Teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, social service providers, judges and all of the state and local workers who are manning the plows at 3 a.m. with ice, flooding rains and snow all around. Goldberg feels these people do not deserve the right to collectively bargain. He states that only private-sector employees ever have been treated or worked under conditions that entitle them to be able to negotiate with their employers.

Need I mention Columbine, Virginia Tech and the University of Iowa? What about the firefighters rushing into the doomed World Trade Center to sacrifice their lives, or the firefighters in Cedar Rapids who answered our call when a loved one was having a heart attack? Or the social workers facing Gov. Terry Branstad's ax, overwhelmed with cases?

And finally, law enforcement officers across the country and in Cedar Rapids who have faced a dangerous job with courage. You should be well aware of some of the tragedies right here in our midst, our friends and neighbors. If you ask whether I give much credence to Goldberg's take on public employees and their right to unionize and collectively bargain, my response would be, “You have to be kidding me!”

Jack Pilling

Cedar Rapids