end of Triptych
"The very distinctiveness of pubic-service labor puts it in an invidious position, however. In fighting public-expenditure cuts, it defends the public interest; in defending its own wages and conditions, it pitches itself against the public interest. This uneasy position makes public-service labor an easy target for right-wing detractors, for, as noted above, during economic crises, public-service unions are used as scapegoats for the political Right.”- Whyeda Gill-Mclure: 2007 Fighting Marketization. Labor Studies Journal 32(1):41-59.
Perhaps the Right can get away with this "frame" because labor's supposed academic allies continue to by into the notion that public employees receiving decent pay with health care (health care!) is somehow "against the public interest." No, no, the public is best served by having underpaid, underskilled, stressed employees. Has capitalism taught us nothing?
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