In the storm of reform demanded by the voters in November, the unions better learn how to bend or they will break.

In private business, unless their friends in government step in as with the UAW, it's renegotiate or die. The private sector union worker's life is dependent on the products of their employer selling or not selling. They can demand that their contracts ratified in plush times be honored without change throughout their company's financial recession, and their employer would go out of business and they would have nothing. Thus they negotiate concessions, as my former Teamster Local did in NJ.

Public Employees, who produce no product and no revenue and live off the taxes of their fellow citizens do not live in the real world of supply and demand. They expect and demand no change and no concessions as the temple falls down around them.

I understand that they may have a hard time understanding how the falling temple had anything to do with their performance as an employee, but public employees must sometimes feel the ax the same as the private employee. It's either accept the new reality or witness your fellow employees of lesser seniority walk out with a pink slip.

That's still better than the private employee's situation where the employer needs a certain number of employees to stay in business. The public employee's employer is never out of business.