The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79474 Message #1439589
Posted By: Greg F.
21-Mar-05 - 08:10 AM
Thread Name: BS: Public Employees: Second Class Citizens
Subject: BS: Public Employees: Second Class Citizens
Civil Service? Don't need it! Lets go back to the rotten patronage system that existed before Teddy Roosevelt.
Public Employees are "different" according to the BuShites: they're less equal than everyone else.
Wake Up, Amerika!
------------- GOP governors cut state workers' rights
By ROBERT TANNER, Associated Press Last updated: 2:51 a.m., Monday, March 21, 2005
Republican governors in a few spots across the country are angering state employees by removing one of organized labor's strongest tools: the right to collective bargaining.
Governors in three states who've taken the step say it's about making government more efficient or being fair to non-union workers. Critics say it's political payback for labor's traditional support of Democrats and part of a wider shift to undermine workers in favor of big business.
Within hours or days of taking office this year, Mitch Daniels in Indiana and Matt Blunt in Missouri eliminated collective bargaining agreements for state employees, affecting about 50,000 workers. Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher did the same when he took office in 2003....
In Mississippi, where state employees don't have collective bargaining rights, GOP Gov. Haley Barbour supports a legislative effort to eliminate existing civil-service protections. In Oklahoma, the GOP-controlled state House approved a measure to repeal a law granting collective bargaining to municipal employees.
Blunt said the union rules of the business world should not apply to government. "Fundamentally, public employees are different than private sector employees -- their employer is the people of Missouri," he said on his first day in office. "Taxpayers should not be bound by collective bargaining agreements."
Union leaders see the actions as concerted effort among new, more conservative leaders, and tie it to President Bush.Spokesmen for the governors all dismissed any notion that they had acted together, pointing out that each had their own motivation. None of the governors responded to requests for interviews.
...Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, with 1.5 million members [said] "I see this as an effort to make the Republican right-wing conservatives the party of the future for a long, long time."