Hostility to Public Employees: Based on Jealousy

By Raanan Geberer
Originally published in Brooklyn Daily Eagle


BROOKLYN — In times of austerity, officials — especially Republicans — seem to target public employees, especially state and municipal workers. They propose layoffs and hiring freezes without regard for what those workers and their families might think.

They express outrage over these workers’ “huge” raises, seemingly automatic promotions and “Cadillac” health plans. Their attitude is summed up by a remark I once heard a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor say at a press conference: “When we were in office, such and such number of jobs were created — and by jobs, I mean productive jobs, private-sector jobs.”

This attitude has filtered down to the people at large. Friends of public employees often ask them, in jest, whether they really work. City and state workers are thought to be immune to being fired, especially if they’ve been there for awhile.

When real abuses exist, such as a few years ago, when it was brought to people’s attention that subway conductors on “layup” for two or three hours between trains were still paid for those hours, critics jump all over them. They find in these incidents an excuse to criticize all public employees — and especially public employee unions — by default.

I’ve had two stints as a public employee, one as an assistant manager in the Section 8 housing program for several years and one as a census interviewer for about a month, and from my standpoint, public employees are very productive. Without the census, federal resources wouldn’t get to the right people. Without the Section 8 housing program, many people couldn’t afford their apartments. And by the way, there were several people at Section 8 who were fired due to poor performance, disproving an old canard. Furthermore, let’s look at some other public employees. Without bridge and tunnel employees, it wouldn’t be safe to cross over the George Washington Bridge or go through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Without police officers, no place would be safe. Without Health Department inspections, thousands of people would die from eating tainted food. And without police officers, no one would be safe, although most of those who slam civil servants make an exception for police officers, firefighters and sanitation people.

Much of the anger at public employees focuses on teachers, who supposedly aren’t getting the “results,” making A students out of D students, as if such a thing could be accomplished overnight. There are some people such as myself, who could read, write and do simple math by age 5 or 6 (I learned to read by asking my mother what was written on the sides of the freight cars that we saw going by at a nearby railroad yard). But for the great majority of people, their first exposure to the three Rs came in the classroom.

Perhaps what really ticks people off about civil servants is JEALOUSY! Deep down inside, most people would like to have the regularly scheduled raises, number of days off, health coverage, pensions, etc., that city and state workers have. At one time, most employees of big companies such as GM, GE and IBM had very similar benefits, but then the corporations began chipping away at them. Rather than attacking public employees, I think, politicians should try to create a climate where ALL workers — public and private — will have the security that public workers now enjoy.