Flint, Michigan Did The Right Thing-Other Cities Should Follow Suit

THE DOCTOR IS IN
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LAS VEGAS - Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

A few days ago I wrote an op-ed piece for the Las Vegas Review Journal. In it I said that Public Employee Unions are actually bankrupting this country with their near impossible demands for higher and higher salaries, excessive pay such as annual cost of living, merit pay,bonuses and unrealistic obscene retirement and pension plans. In the article I said that Flint, Michigan will be laying off Public Employees and some Safety workers.

Today Flint, Michigan laid off about one quarter of its Firemen. Good! As I stated in that article I think no one should be exempt from losing their job. Policemen, firemen and teachers should experience the same pain that employees in the private sector have to suffer through.

However, since the firemen were let go there has been a rash of fires and the city fathers and the fire chief says that the fires are not an accident. Well, "do ya think"? In the past few decades when firemen has been laid off or fired they began setting fires in their cities. Some were little fires in trash cans,in vacant lots with debris set ablaze and yes, even some buildings. When caught some of the culprits were only disciplined and most were let off with a slap on the wrist with the rationalization that the employees were angry about losing their jobs. What a joke!

This act of fires being set really drives a point home that when public employees in safety positions lose their job they strike out with vengeance and anger and are banking that their city will hire them back because of the increase in fires. If in fact, firemen are shown to be some of the arsonists they should never be rehired. Termination and jail time is appropriate.

I predict that if the city of Flint, Michigan actually investigates the fires being set in and about the city they will find that possibly some fireman are involved and the fires were an act of intimidation.

These acts of arson, no matter how small should not occur but I should mention that in addition to fireman being caught committing these acts, police officers and EMT's have come down with"blue flu" in past incidents and they also slowed down their response time to a crime scene. We shouldn't forget the health care community either.Union nurses and doctors have used sick outs and slow response to patients as a hammer to attempt to gain better union contracts. It's sad.

The inequity and parity between powerful union members and public employees wages compared to people working in the private sector is totally unrealistic but the lawmakers close their eyes and ears and like the three little monkeys they fail to see, hear and speak up against these abuses against the middle class taxpayer.

Flint, Michigan did the right thing when dealing with the Fire Department. They should also do the same with the Police Department. The state should take steps to repeal and revoke all contracts with public employees and start over again with sane and reasonable salaries and when it come to retirement and pensions they should put all public employees into a 401(k) retirement plan like most private sector people have to accept. Annual cost of living? No! Bonuses? No! Free medical and health care for life? No! Up to 90% of ones pay as a pension? No!

I say, if the city of Flint, Michigan has to file for bankruptcy in order to cancel all of the current public employees outrageous contracts, they should do it. Would the cancellation of the public employees contracts and starting from scratch prevent the city from hiring new people for the positions? No way? There would be people standing in line for the jobs and these current public employees know that. Usually for a position for a policeman or fireman there is an excess in applicants. When the call goes out to hire 20 or 30 police officers or firemen there is generally thousands of applicants showing up for the job.

So, when and if the city of Flint, Michigan investigates the arson(s) being set around the city and if/and when they determine some of the arsonists were indeed firemen they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and not receive a wrist slap. As as added note: Other cities and counties across the country should take the same steps that Flint, Michigan did. Don't be afraid to fire these public employees.-And, that's my opinion.

Bradley W. Kuhns, Ph.D., O.M.D.
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Dr. Kuhns can be reached by e-mail at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com