Every legislator in R.I. needs to read this article and, hopefully the New York Empire Center study. Union leadership in R.I. has been foaming at the mouth to gain mandatory arbitration, knowing full well that it would open the doors to larger benefits and payouts. R.I. citizens beware! The issue is not dead. The unions will be back year after year until they sneak this one through. Don't let it happen

Public-employee unions are thugs. That's all there is to say on the subject.

Citizens are sheep for returning to office lifetime politicians who are in bed with the thugs.

What ever happened to "of the people, for the people and by the people"? Now it seems to be "AGAINST THE PEOPLE"!

Things really went downhill in Scranton when Dunder-Mifflin Paper Co. got acquired by a conglomerate and moved out of town.

The major problems with binding arbitration for public contracts are that the original contracts were written incompetently, then that the arbitrators are almost always the same lawyers who negotiate these labor contracts.

States acted foolishly by not limiting the original contracts. This is especially the case for police operations. It is not unusual to see police officers getting twice or even three times the salary of teachers.

Bankruptcy is indeed the legal cure. The surprise, here, is that so few municipalities avail themselves of relief.