Time for Unions to Wake up to Reality
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
I’m directing this post towards union members and union leadership. If Mayor Taveras’ termination letters do not serve as the final wake up call for you, I’m unsure what will. If you didn’t know, over the last few years we’ve gone through an historic financial crisis, the likes of which we haven’t seen since before December 7, 1941 became a day of infamy. In other words, a very long time.
People like me have been telling you for years that the “system” could no longer support the deals you’d previously negotiated. Yes, it’s not your fault that for the most part Democratic leadership bent over backwards to appease you and your population. You fought for the best benefits possible and in many cases faced little opposition from “management.” Year after year, you came out en masse to support those same political leaders who had voted your way and chastised those – mostly Republicans – who seemed to disregard “working families.” Those heartless and cruel Republicans seemed concerned only with sustainability and ensuring people who had wealth kept as much of it as possible. The audacity!
Not that those ran counter to your efforts, but whenever they conflicted, you sought what most directly benefited you. Again, this isn’t your fault. We’ve had leadership unwilling to stand up to you and say enough is enough.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThat brings us to today, where Mayor Taveras seems to have drawn the proverbial line in the sand. The city’s worst kept secret is that it is in dire financial straights (thank you, Rep. Cicilline!) and will need to make several cuts, amongst other things, in order to right the ship. Taveras has thus decided to FIRE EVERYBODY!!
Obviously, Taveras does not intend to turn over the entire Providence school system. Taveras is still should be viewed as the darling of the progressives, antithetical terminations notwithstanding. What this should tell you union leaders is that the money train has officially come to a complete stop. Don’t want to pay higher health care premiums? Tough. It’s that or layoffs. Want to have pension programs like you had in the 60s? I don’t think so. If you do, here’s your pink slip and good luck finding anything remotely close to your sweet pension plan in the private sector.
From all accounts in this particular case, union leadership seems willing to concede in order to avoid layoffs but for the last 5-10 years where were the concessions? It’s my opinion we have Democratic leadership in the Assembly and within most of our cities and towns to blame. They should have put their foot down as Taveras is doing today so that the problem didn’t get this bad. Instead, they valued getting reelected over dealing with the reality of the economy.
With that type of history what point was there for the unions to do anything but business as usual? Nonetheless, times have changed and we see a progressive champion taking pragmatic steps to address the problem of public sector union contracts being out of alignment with their private sector brethren. My hope is that this is not smoke and mirrors from Taveras’ team and that they actually intend to revamp the educational system in Providence. In so doing, they’ll be taking steps the previous administration was unwilling to take. They’ll also be telling you and me that they are grounded in reality and are unwilling to pass this issue along to yet another administration.
So union leaders, be careful how you tread over the next several months because it’s finally time for you to feel the pains the rest of us have suffered through over the last several years.
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