Not a Step Back
Just one day after announcing their plan for the largest tax increase in state history, the administration of Governor Dannel P. Malloy tossed their second stinkbomb when they made it known that they would seek $2 billion in concessions from state employees.
The usual suspects from the state employee unions have taken to the microphones at Gov. Malloy’s town hall meetings with the usual grumbles about concessions and the unfairness of it all.
Of course, refusing the concessions, as the Governor has repeatedly warned, will force significant employee layoffs and slashed state spending.
The other alternative, unmentioned but nonetheless omnipresent, is doubling down on the tax hikes.
What will Big Labor do in the face of such consequences?
Christine Stuart’s CT News Junkie pulled back the bedsheets yesterday by publishing the minutes from a recent meeting of the Connecticut State Prison Employees AFSCME Local 391. In language that harkens back to Soviet Premier Josef Stalin’s infamous Order 227, the union intends to hold what they have:
Stance: Keep what we have, no givebacks!
The line appears underlined and in bold in the original document as to make their position abundantly clear.
There is no doubt that its a tough pill to be asked to swallow. Higher health insurance co-pays, fewer hours, more furlough days, and being asked for larger retirement contributions will all erode the bottom line of the average worker and make things more difficult for their families at a time of economic challenges.
But the problem is that for years, policymakers have recognized that spending was increasing at an untenable rate. Between 1990 and 2010, state expenditures have, in inflation-adjusted dollars, increased 90% while population grew 8.7% and median income grew 19%. Far too many times, proposed spending reforms have provoked the same position from the unions articulated in their minutes: NO, NO, NO!
Proposals to shift state services to the private sector or otherwise deliver the same services at a lower rate have been stymied time and time again. This unwillingness to change, even while their friends and family members in the private sector changed to 401(k) retirement plans, adopted new technologies into their workplace, and found other innovative ways to do their jobs, made the current crisis inevitable.
Not a step back! was a good slogan but a lousy code of conduct. With Gov. Malloy looking steely on this point, the hard working brothers and sisters of labor may need to rethink before they go toe to toe with him.
