Collective bargaining and why it’s important (at least in the state of oregon)

What’s been happening in Wisconsin has made me feel like I need to write down what I know about collective bargaining and how it affects our public employees.

I started working for the state as a temp in 1999 and my first long term assignments was in HR for ODOT (oregon department of transportation).
I stopped temping for them in 2006. In that time period I watched as there were cost of living raises frozen and hiring freezes. Every year you have a review (typical) and you would get a step increase (around 5 steps) if you were deemed eligible. In the private sector if you get a raise you can sometimes negotiate and there are no limits set to how much this is. Working for the state the step increases are set and not negotiable the closest to negotiating is when you are hired into a position if you have enough experience you can start at a higher step. The only problem with the increases is that they are limited. Once you reach that top pay you are stuck there until there are changes to the positions pay scale. This is done through collective bargaining between the state and the unions.
State employees are paid less for the same jobs in the private sector, the only real bonus is that the benefits are good, or were, over the years they have been whittled down more and more. The only other bonus is not being able to be fired for any reason possible after your initial 6 month trial period is up. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever get fired it means there are steps you have to follow (most large corporations do this as well) basically 3 write ups and you are out unless it’s really bad and then you are gone no matter what.
The reasons I wanted to work for the state (I never did because the jobs I was great at and loved were frozen or not defined as a real position so there really was no job) was because you are guaranteed health insurance with no 6 month wait to be able to been seen for pre-exhisting conditions without paying full price.
Even with collective bargaining and the security of the union (you get a union rep at diciplenary hearings so as to not have to worry about personal vendettas from management etc, not all people are good at separating personal feelings with performance) State employees over the last 12 years has gone down. They now have Furlough days where no one is allowed to work and they don’t get paid for this. You can opt to use vacation time but that cuts into the few hours you earn per year (8 a year for the first 5 years and then a bit more and again at 10). Taking away collective bargaining for public employees means they have no support for getting treated fairly. Everyone will be treated the same still but they will have less and less reasons to do it. Who wants to work for less pay and the same benefits etc as a private sector job?
Maybe Wisconsin public employees get paid more than Oregon but that doesn’t mean it’s right to take away the right to get what you deserve for working.

I could be wrong on some of this so feel free to comment on that.