[devilbunny]

"You" being used impersonally here; I don't mean you specifically.

Private sector unions are crap under US law, but they're a good concept in general.

No, public sector employees should not be allowed to strike. They get special protections (civil service) that do not apply to private-sector workers. Public sector workers work for the rest of us; we're not all fat-cat capitalists taking their potential wages to make ourselves rich. We're their fellow citizens, and when government employees strike, what's the average citizen to do? Your mother died while abroad, your passport is expired, but hey, the State Department clerks are on strike, so guess what? You're not going.

You want things to change, vote someone in who agrees with you like any other citizen. The only strike-breaking measure that's easily available to the government (due to civil-service laws) is conscripting everyone in the job or replacing them with military/National Guard, which is swatting a fly with a Buick.

[elicash]

I think our fundamental disagreement is that I view public sector employment as more similar to private sector in the day-to-day than you do.

Secondarily, I think you fail to think through what happens when PRIVATE sector workers like hospital workers, or nursing home workers, or other important jobs go on strike. It can't just be the case that if the general public is hurt by it, they lose worker protections. Especially when often the goals of those strikes are to improve the services. There's not really a reason to separate out private from public sector here. Private sector jobs are also important to the general public.