VSEA.org

“I don’t know what the administration’s motivations are these days for doing anything that they’re doing,” [VSEA’s Conor Casey] said. “I will say that I disagree with their methodology and their budget instructions. Clearly, what they’re doing is underfunding our contracts by not including the restoration of the 3 percent. I believe that’s part of this contract, not the next contract. They’re starting off on a bad foot with bargaining.”

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"But a report issued this week by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), gives lie to [trickle-down] logic with its stark findings that a notable recent effort to create jobs through corporate tax cuts created a multibillion-dollar corporate windfall that did not trickle down to America’s workers, and did not create new jobs."

"The real money is riding on whether the administration will restore the temporary 3 percent pay cut state employees took two years ago to help close Vermont’s budget gap. That could cost taxpayers an extra $9 million at a time when the shortfall for FY 2013 stands at close to $70 million."

"To be clear: Most of the employees asking for double pay are folks who were called into work when other workers were told to stay home. In fact, more than one third of the workers listed on the grievance are Vermont State Hospital employees. Many of them spent days on the road, living out of hotels, in order to care for residents displaced from the state’s psychiatric hospital."

"The workers are pressing their case in a political atmosphere that, at least in other states, has been hostile to labor. They are sensitive to demands that they forgo their rights, and they note that state workers have already given much, including agreed-upon pay cuts, layoffs, and increases in retirement contributions. Union officials say they have an obligation to defend the workers’ interests, even in a situation like that created by Irene."

"But the Shumlin administration, in the spirit of good will and unity, ought to recognize the dedicated service of state workers and, whether or not it is forced to give in on this particular grievance, refrain from stinginess in its dealings with state workers. Vermont must avoid the contemptuous treatment of labor that has become common elsewhere (see post below this story). Irene should have taught us that."