Police can and regularly do simply skip their shifts or stand around doing nothing of consequence, while collecting a paycheck
You’re mixing two things here. In a private firm unions are needed because they balance the power. (Simplifying) Employer wants to exploit workers, union keeps them in check. (ofc employers don’t need to be exploitative for unions to be needed etc etc etc)
But when the employer is completely dysfunctional the unions become dysfunctional too. I don’t really know how the US government justifies paying for police doing nothing, but it’s the core of the problem. If there’s no expectation to work then unions have nothing to do and become something weird.
The solution is not to take unions away, but rather to stop pouring money for no work and restore that employer-union power balance.
So defund the police, I guess?
But when the employer is completely dysfunctional the unions become dysfunctional too.
The purpose of the union is to operate as a check on the employer. If unions can’t rein in the worst impulses of their employers, they aren’t functioning in the interests of the people they supposedly represent.
A corrupt union leadership isn’t part of the proletariat, either. A corrupt union membership - particularly one that’s financially wedded to political insiders - isn’t operating as a bargaining unit for the benefit of itself. These organizations are extractionary. A union of loan sharks or extortionary arsonists isn’t part of the proletariat, either.
The solution is not to take unions away, but rather to stop pouring money for no work and restore that employer-union power balance.
The solution is to dissolve the corrupt institution and reincorporate it with a membership that represents the interests of the community at large. But a cop that’s spent their entire career in a corrupt bureaucracy can’t be trusted to guard the neighborhood any more than a fox can be trusted to guard the hen house. Once you’ve got a taste, you’re ruined. Nothing to do but sort you into a different profession.
So defund the police, I guess?
Call it restructuring.
