Retiring Police Lieutenant Makes $292,000 in Final Year’s Compensation

A Cautionary Note to Public Employee Unions

The Buffalo News reports that in his final year of employment before retiring a police lieutenant in a Buffalo suburb earned $292,000 in compensation.  Now the message here is not to condemn the Union whose contract with the suburb allowed such a payment to take place.  It is the Union’s job to get the most for its members, and it is government’s job in collective bargaining to say no to things like this.  This is a failure of government to engage in collective bargaining in a responsible manner, not a failure of a system which allows public employee unions.

That being said, public employee unions need to look at stories like this and realize that these stories are a major reason why they are losing battles in Midwestern states where they had previously been welcomed and accepted.  They need to understand that they are public employees, whose wages and benefits are paid by taxpayers, and that while most taxpayers want them to have good salaries and benefits and appreciate the work that they do, taxpayers will revolt at what they see as excess.  And because the elected officials who caused problems like the above one are long gone, voters will take out their unhappiness on the union and its collective bargaining rights.  That may not be correct, but it is reality. 

Public employee unions – make the public interest part of your contracts, or prepare to live with the consequences.