Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1028 in Will County, Ill., have turned up their noses at a taxpayer-funded pay-increase offer they view as too small — 14.5 percent.
“That gives an indication of just how out of touch government workers are,” said Steve Stanek, a research fellow with the Heartland Institute, in Illinois Watchdog. “I think they’ve become more radicalized and more out of touch as they have become more unionized.”
The 1,300 union members went on strike on Monday, calling the proposed increase “paltry,” Fox News reported.
Taxpayers also had offered to pay for 90 percent of the union members’ health insurance, Illinois Watchdog said.
Meanwhile, unions in the public sector continue to grow in numbers and in popularity, Mr. Stanek said in a Fox News report.
“You can go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics … and you will see the government sector is unionized at, I think, six times the rate as the private sector,” he said.
Fox News finds similarly, reporting that 35 percent of government employees are unionized, compared with 6 percent in private industry.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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