Public  service unions are at crossroads faced with being forced to accept more  and more concessions as cash-strapped state governments seek to find  ways to keep state budgets balanced.

After   a stunning defeat for the union movement in the recall election in  Wisconsin, union members questioned how to proceed and what the future  had in store as they met in Los Angeles this past week.

As  America's biggest state and local government employees' union gathered  here this week, it faced obstacles like never before. After a big defeat  in Wisconsin, and under pressure to accept cuts in jobs, pay, pensions  and benefits, it needed to give convincing answers.

Lee Saunders,  who became the union's first African American president on Friday, said  the fight was "just getting started." He said the mission for the  American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was to save  nothing less than organized labor itself.

"Our success or  failure will mark a turning point not only for our union but for the  entire labor movement," said Saunders, the former number two who  succeeded Gerald McEntee as president of the union, the largest in the  AFL-CIO federation.

The union had one of its darkest days on June  5 in Wisconsin, where voters rejected a union-led effort to recall the  state's governor, Republican Scott Walker, who had tried to curtail the  bargaining rights of public sector employees.

But the 3,500  delegates who came to Los Angeles to mark AFSCME's 75th anniversary and  elect its first new president in 31 years, left the meeting grimly  determined to do more than just reverse their union's recent setbacks.

"The  state is taking money that it should have paid into my retirement but  didn't, and it's giving it away in tax breaks to corporations," said  Steve Curran, a corrections officer from Connecticut.

Taxpayers have seen drastic cuts in public services after an economic downturn and support for public workers is waning.

The  crossing guards, snow-plow operators and librarians who make up the  membership of the AFSCME pushed back during their convention this week.

"We've  been demonized as the people who have it all," said Roberta Lynch,  deputy director of AFSCME's Council 31, which represents state workers  in Illinois.

While public workers have not seen the wage declines  experienced by some in the private sector, they have lost jobs  dramatically over the past three years, according to the Labor  Department.

The perception is "almost as if the unions are  drinking champagne while others are suffering," said Harley Shaiken, a  professor at University of California Berkeley. "It's just the opposite.  Public sector work is remarkably insecure in this environment and tough  concessions have been made."

According to AFSCME, its members  have an average salary of $40,000 a year and collect a pension of about  $19,000 a year in retirement. These figures are virtually impossible to  compare to those of the private sector given the wide mix of skills and  education.

Union leaders recognize that they need a swing in  popular opinion. After the convention, members plan a steady campaign to  tell their neighbors they have deep roots in their communities, provide  essential services and pay taxes, too.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-public-workers-organized-labor-turning-point-045753602.html

What is the answer for public workers?

Is there a middle ground that public service union members can find with state budget cutters?

From  the Cornfield, union support is on the decline, but not because of why  unions came to be - the welfare of oppressed workers, but rather for  what the leadership of unions has become.

The  workers, in my opinion, are not the first concern of most in union  leadership. What is first and foremost for most union leaders is the old  scourge of those in authority - power and money.

There  needs to be more emphasis on issues that directly affect workers and  less on political intervention and power-grabbing by union officials.