With legislators throughout the United States attempting to find ways to cut costs as the country slowly rises out of the recession, one of the primary debates has been over what should and should not be cut.
“Collective Bargains: Rebuilding and Repairing Public Sector Labor Relations in Difficult Times,” a talk organized by Thomas Kochan, co-director of the Institute for Work and Employment Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, was one attempt to understand and address this conflict. “Collective Bargains” was attended by about 20 Boston residents and students.
Recent legislative disputes over drug testing for firefighters and increased entitlements for public employees proved to be the tipping point for increased tensions between the public and private sector, Kochan said, and has left many people wondering if the public sector is being unfairly favored, with greater access to benefits, such as healthcare and pensions.
“When revenue declines, the first blame is laid on workers’ pensions,” said William Casey, a Harvard Masters Candidate and government union member. “It’s really easy to place the blame there, but I don’t think all the cuts should be from the workers.
Despite this assumption, when education and human capital variables are considered, Massachusetts public sector workers actually make 2.3 percent less than private sector employees, Kochan said.
“The public sector pays less for healthcare and pension benefits, and this needs to be brought to the table,” he said.
In order to solve these issues, the representatives suggested restructuring the current government to be more efficient and cost effective. One of the biggest components would be to cut down on extraneous departments of government and combine them, such as the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Department of Highways merger in 2009.
“I think we should look towards regionalizing, because I don’t know if we can get the whole state on one page,” said State Representative Martin Walsh.
With a small number of larger regional governments, tax dollars would go towards public concerns and not into public official’s pockets.
However, when organizations are consolidated, Kochan said it is important to keep equity between workers. This would often result in “red circling,” or freezing the wages of higher paid employees and bring up the salaries of some of the lesser paid employees.
You need to think about “how are you going to merge the jobs and have a classification system. You need to create an equity fund, partly through operational savings,” Kochan said.
The panel also stressed the importance of instilling trust between the public and the government.
There is a “fundamental lack of trust” between people and the government, and the first step is “recognizing that people don’t trust us,” said Jeffrey Mullan, MassDOT Secretary and CEO.
This mistrust between the public and the government began because of a lack of transparency as to how tax dollars were being spent, said John McQueen, an attendee of the discussion.
“There was a sense of ‘behind closed doors’ with government appeasement and a sense that all trees grew to the sky. [The public sector] felt entitled to healthcare and not a sense of the new reality,” McQueen said.
However, government reforms are hoping to increase the amount of knowledge the private sector can have about policies dealing with public sector benefits.
“The only way you can use this process efficiently and effectively is with great transparency,” Kochan said.
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