Taxpayers must be priority No. 1 in collective bargaining debate

With exquisitely masochistic timing, one of the nine unions representing city government employees has just made an eloquent argument for its own demise.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 723 wouldn't put it that way, of course. Its leaders would argue that they were simply trying to protect the union, its members and the integrity of the collective bargaining process when they claimed in court last week that the city had no authority to change worker benefits in 2013 in order to avoid layoffs. But regardless of the merits of its legal case, the union is not invoking the taxpayers' best interest any more than the speakers at last week's City Council meeting did when they emotionally spoke against three ordinances that would curtail or eliminate collective bargaining for about 1,300 city workers.

Read the full story from the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.