To most Democrats, labor unions bring to mind raggedy workers from the 1930s: underage, underpaid, exploited and condemned to work in perilous conditions by heartless capitalist overlords.

That was certainly true at one time. My great-grandfather worked on the Pennsylvania railroad and was killed after falling asleep on the tracks after working 16-hour days (this was late 1890s.)

The labor movement was a righteous response to a real problem.

Today, when I think of labor, it isn’t Joe Lunch Bucket, but Joe Bureaucrat. As private sector labor unions have lost ground, they’ve made it up in the public sector. California is facing multi-billion dollar structural deficits, in large part because of the size of its government and its cost.

Government jobs used to pay less, but were attractive because they were steady. Now they’re steady and pay more, way more.

As the LA Daily News reported:

As Los Angeles grapples with its largest budget deficit in history, lucrative compensation packages for thousands of city workers are driving much of the gap, and there’s little end in sight. In the past year alone, gross annual payroll costs have soared $120 million for nearly 48,000 city employees - $90 million of that going to 35,000 civilian and sworn workers - and bumped the total payroll up to $3.2 billion, or nearly half Los Angeles’ $7 billion budget.

While city leaders seek to close a looming $406 million budget shortfall with everything from fee hikes to service cuts, a Daily News review of salary data shows more than 21,000 city workers take home $70,000 or more a year and more than 6,000 take home more than $100,000.

City workers’ average salaries will reach about $68,850 for civilians and $93,800 for sworn police and fire by July - placing them in the upper ranks of comparable cities and far higher than private-sector workers.

At LA’s Department of Water and Power, 13% of the workforce earns more than $100,000.

As the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power seeks a hefty taxpayer rate hike, a Daily News review of salary data shows the average utility worker makes $76,949 a year - or nearly 20 percent more than the average civilian city worker.

More than 1,140 of the utility’s employees - or about 13 percent - take home more than $100,000 a year. And General Manager Ron Deaton, who is on medical leave, rakes in $344,624 a year - making him the city’s highest- paid worker.

DWP salaries are on average higher than city and far higher than private-sector workers’ even as the utility has come under fire for recent power outages and another round of rate hikes: A 9 percent, three-year electric-rate hike and a 6 percent, two-year water-rate hike.

The average private sector carpenter earns $47,680 in LA vs. $74,165 for the DWP carpenter. Locksmiths: $37,980 vs. $79,176. And on and on.

Today, it’s the taxpayers who are exploited by a combination of unions and their Democrat puppets. These are the special interests.