SACRAMENTO, CA - The decline of unions in the private sector continues but those losses have been made up by major gains in the public sector, a development that comes as bad news for taxpayers.

During the 1950s unions represented around 30 percent of workers in America, but only five percent of government workers. Today there are 17 million union members who represent less than 15 percent of workers nationwide. Within that 15 percent, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, 32.4 percent of union members were in the public sector in 1983. By 2001, however, government unions had swelled to 25 percent, a full 7.2 million workers, and a whopping 44 percent of total union membership.

In other words, nearly half of the nation’s union members are government employees at some level. In California and 15 other states, government employees represent more than half of the total union membership. Union bosses, of course, would like to maintain this growth, which gives them a stake in the continued  expansion of government.

Unions in the private sector must deal with the discipline of the market. Management of the American auto industry, for example, must compete with foreign firms. No union wage demand of the 1970s could change the reality that many American cars were of dubious quality while Japanese imports set new standards for craftsmanship and customer satisfaction. Americans began to prefer the Honda Accord over the Chrysler Cordoba. In the government sector it doesn’t work that way.

The government produces nothing that most citizens would be willing to buy in the marketplace but it does holds a monopoly on certain services. If one doesn’t care for the rude, glacially slow service at the post office, for example, one can’t simply walk out and patronize Jim’s Postal Service across the street. Neither can one find an alternative to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

More important, the government holds a monopoly on police power, and gets it money through taxes. If the government is to expand its programs, it will have to raise taxes. The political agenda of unions, with most of their membership in the government sector, has a vested interest in such expansion and the higher taxes that come with it. That is why unions are marshalling their considerable clout to oppose tax breaks and tax reductions. The California Teachers Association, the most powerful union in the Golden State, not only calls for more spending but is backing a bill that would expand their already pervasive power in the classroom.

Expanded government may secure more jobs for union members but does not guarantee better service for the public. Government programs are easy to start but notoriously hard to end, however inefficient and counterproductive. One way legislators can provide better service, at lower cost, is to privatize.

Some years ago, a California administration privatized the cleaning services for government buildings. But then the current administration reversed that, at double the cost to California taxpayers. That could be changed and this is an election year. Candidates will have to decide whose interests they want to represent. Union bosses, it might be recalled, are not subject to election by the public.