Federal Bargaining Rights

Blogger Mike Plaisted says that I deleted a comment that he left here asking me why I "lied" about the bargaining rights of federal employees.

I have not deleted a comment on this blog for well over a year. The last time I can recall doing it was when the story broke about the relationship between Ed Flynn and Jessica McBride and somebody made a sexist joke. I did not delete any comment from Mike Plaisted. I saw no comment from Mike Plaisted. I saw no comment asking about federal employee's collective bargaining rights. Mike can comment here whenever he wants.

UPDATE: In addition to not moderating, I also do not review the comments that Blogger holds as spam. In fact, until about five minutes ago, I was unaware that I could do that. I have now reviewed those and Mike's comment was held as spam. In other words, it was not deleted. It never appeared in the first place. I have marked it as "not spam." It now appears.

My goodness, if it were my practice to delete dissenting comments or comments that say I am wrong or that try to insult me, I am obviously doing a poor job.

On the substance, Mike is upset that I and others suggest that other states and the federal government restrict collective bargaining rights of public employess. But they do. Mike's point is that federal employees can bargain over things other than wages and benefits. Fine. I never said otherwise. My point is simply that it is not unusual for public employees to have their collective bargaining restricted in various ways and that folks who want to claim that the Walker bill is an existential threat to the republic might want to address that. Walker's bill would not permit bargaining over working conditions. Federal law generally doesn't permit bargaining over wages and benefits. The point is that, either way, there are restrictions on collective bargaining. (And, of course, some states completely prohibit collective bargaining by public employees.)

Well, Mike seems to claim, you shouldn't say that Wisconsin public employees would be left with collective bargaining rights greater than or equal to employees in half the states and most federal employees. Why not? It seems to me that, for most people, wages and benefits are the most important conditions of employment. But however that may be, the larger point - that there is no universal and fundamental right of public employees to collectively bargain - is correct.