What do government unions want from the Democratic Party?

We recently were sent a link to a questionnaire that was sent to all candidates for Chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.

It is well-known that the Democratic Party and government labor unions work hand-in-glove and it is also obvious that a labor union that benefits from bigger government will inherently support even bigger government, but it is enlightening to see exactly what policies actually drive decision making and candidate selection.

So, among the questions in the survey can be found several efforts to lock in the union’s monopoly status and prevent competition from anyone willing to do the job for a lower cost. Read the full survey for yourself, but specific “demands” made for union endorsement include:

support for collective bargaining which prevents employers (in this case the government operating on behalf of taxpayers) from hiring workers who would do the same job for less than union wage;

authorizes the union to automatically-deduct dues from workers’ paychecks;

oppose privatization (thus increasing union membership and locking out lower-cost providers);

oppose any efforts to reform New Mexico’s pension system in a way that takes taxpayers off the hook for luxurious government employee benefits;

raise taxes;

universal (socialized) health care;

indexing government-mandated wages to inflation;

From the looks of this survey and the fact that AFSCME is a dominant force in Democratic Party politics, it is hard to see the Party moving towards anything resembling free market principles without some extremely courageous leadership from someone who understands that government is not a firm basis upon which to build New Mexico’s economy.