that is because when elected officials didn t cooperate the public sector unions that fdr warned about declared those unthinkable strikes. the most memorable case, the summer of 1975 when new york was close to bankruptcy. sanitation workers let garbage pile up in the streets while laid off police marched and shut down the brook le brookly. public employee unions demonstrated nationally when they helped senator ted kennedy challenge to a sitting democratic president they didn t like, jimmy cart. the public sector unions become the get out the vote machine that the old democratic party machine once was. carter was renominated but lost to ronald reagan who had the is support of at least one public is sector union, the air traffic controllers. that wouldn t last. months later the controllers rejected a government contract
different for public workers because their boss is really on their side. lies extensively on the roots of america s economic problems. they don t want to pay the union mihms too much because it comes out of their own pockets at ford, but that is not true of the government. strikes by public employees would be quote the unthinkable and intolerable. but it was within a couple of decades that democratic heirs decided the political upside of public sector unions was worth the risk. the euro caucuse eureka momentd right here in new york city. municipal workers granted the right to bargain collectively. three years later those unions organize today s reelect
him. wagner s unexpectedly strong showing caught the attention of another democrat worried about reelection. president john f. kennedy. he sees how this carried wagner to victory and issues an executive order allowing for the unionization of federal employees. state and local governments picked this up as a cue and you have the rapid growth from there on of public sector unions across the country. historian fred siegel of the manhattan institute says the new unions almost invariably worked to elect democrats. pay increases and pension increases and healthcare increases. meanwhile the union takes some of the money it gets from the city and invests in local elections. so it continues to elect people who will give the unions what it wants. and they also became a political force unto themselves. you can t act without their cooperation.
welcome back. as you have seen, cities with big dreams and big bills have come here to wall street for the cash to finance them. but even more towns are going broke not by issuing bonds is but by issuing promises to public employee unions. that story has a new york angle, too. fox business network s lou dobbs explains. but it is a good natured sort of labor battle. it was in 1935 that president franklin roosevelt made it easier for workers in the private sector to create unions. when signed the wagner act he see he meanted and deepened political ties between organized labor on the democratic party. it doesn t pool enthusiasm for picketing. even fdr didn t think public sector unions made any sense. collective bar gaining is
catapult their man to the white house. but it would also bring those dire warnings about public sector unions from fdr s era. union. yes! back into focus. and one other thing, bret. in 2009, public employee unions absolutelily eclipsed the membership of private sector unions. thanks a lot. we will see you a bit late. up next, i go across the country to one of those [ male announcer ] whether it s kevin s smartphone. mom s smartphone. dad s tablet. or lauren s smartphone. at&t has a plan built to help make families lives easier. introducing at&t mobile share. one plan lets you share data on up to 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. add a tablet for only $10 per month. the more data you share, the more you save.