Union-busting

It didn't take too long for the right wingers to write in to attack unions after what's happening in Detroit, and the Oklahoman is all too happy run those letters to further their plutocratic agenda. Thus, we get a letter from David L. Quinn of Pauls Valley, who writes,

On July 18, the city of Detroit, Mich., declared bankruptcy. For the past 50 years, Detroit has been governed exclusively by Democrats with an assist from unions. One can only hope now that the American voter will see the fraud that is the Democratic Party. One can only hope now that businesses and workers will see the fraud of unions. And one can only hope that it's not too late to save America.

As we discussed yesterday, what has happened in Detroit has nothing to do with unions. Quoting a nice summary that appeared recently in Salon.com:

It’s a straightforward conservative formula: the right blames state and municipal budget problems exclusively on public employees’ retirement benefits, often underfunding those public pensions for years. The money raided by those pension funds is then used to enact expensive tax cuts and corporate welfare programs. After years of robbing those pension funds to pay for such giveaways, a crisis inevitably hits, and workers’ pension benefits are blamed — and then slashed. Meanwhile, the massive tax cuts and corporate subsidies are preserved, because we are led to believe they had nothing to do with the crisis. Ultimately, the extra monies taken from retirees are then often plowed into even more tax cuts and more corporate subsidies.

There are plenty of examples of this-- both in Michigan and elsewhere. A great example comes from Rhode Island, where, as usual, pensions are underfunded and funds are raided to pay for tax-cuts:

In Rhode Island, the governor 'deferred' contributions to the state pension fund, 'saving' $111 million applied toward budget deficit relief in both 1991 and 1992. 

'If this practice continues, it will devastate the pension system in Rhode Island,' said Anthony Solomon, the state's general treasurer.

And, indeed, here we are 20 years later and, in fact, Rhode Island's pension system is in trouble. Just like what has happened in Detroit-- and yet this is the fault of unions? Only someone truly blinded by right wing plutocratic propaganda could believe this.

The reality, of course, is that Detroit has been hit by a perfect storm of factors that have little to do with unions. But that narrative doesn't fit the narrative that the plutocracy wants you to hear, do instead, the editors run letters that spew ignorance as fact and hope that the thralls that read their paper follow along.