Factoids That You Can Use

Public employee unions have unleashed a flurry of protests to parry efforts by some states to restrict collective bargaining in an attempt to close yawning deficits. While the union bosses are focused on this front, states and municipalities continue to erode the union's power by reducing payrolls, which will have a more profound impact. For example, in February government payrolls shrunk by 30,000 people, including 12,000 state workers and 18,000 local government employees. States and localities have shaved an astounding 459,000 government jobs since public employment peaked in 2008. Those kind of steep reductions will reduce the total amount of dues paid by workers, crimping the union's ability to dole out millions of dollars in campaign contributions to their shills in the Democratic Party. Not surprisingly, while states and cities are trimming payrolls, the federal government is going in the opposite direction. Since the recession began, the feds have added 99,000 people.