Demand fairness, respect or be crushed
By KENNETH BRYNIEN Make no mistake, public employees are under siege.
Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia are just a few states where public employees are under direct attack. For most the target has been negotiated wages and benefits,
or in states where there isn’t collective bargaining, the pay and benefits granted by the state Legislatures and governors. In many states the right to collectively bargain itself is under attack. The cover for these attacks has been the economic downturn
and the need to cut the cost of government, but what we are witnessing is the eviscerating of public-employee wages and benefits far beyond what is needed to balance budgets. This is happening right here in New York, too. Cuts to public
services and savings from a “labor-management partnership” (or more appropriately called contract give backs) proposed in the Executive Budget and financial plan extend well beyond the period when economic growth and tax revenues are expected to return to pre-recession levels. Worse yet, these savings are being extorted through the threat of 9,800 or more layoffs if the concessions aren’t made. We are witnessing a political ideology that is spreading like a
cancer across the country. An ideology that scapegoats public employees as a protected class of workers insulated from the economic downturn. An ideology that believes government is the problem and, no matter what, government spending is too high, that high taxes created the economic downturn and tax cuts are
SUPPORTINGWISCONSINWORKERS—PEF President Ken Brynien tells statewide labor unionmembers to stand strong against the attacks on state employees across the nation, especially those inWisconsin.—Photo by Deborah
A.Miles
sacrosanct and a panacea for what ails the economy. This ideology borders on social Darwinism. Those who rely
on or provide public services are unworthy. Meanwhile the wealthy, who are most able to weather the economic downturn, are rewarded with tax cuts paid for by cuts to the public services on which New Yorkers rely and wage freezes and contract concessions from the employees who provide them. This ideology pits private-sector employees against public-sector employees in a race to the bottom, seeing just how many benefits and how much pay can be stripped away before the middle class vanishes. Could this ideology take root in our state? Only if we let it. Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph
of evil is that good men do nothing.” We, as public employees, understand everyone must
sacrifice during this fiscal crisis. We will sacrifice, but we will not be sacrificed. Your efforts will determine whether New York joins the
expanding list of states where public employees and the middle class have been driven into submission, or whether we will be a state where services to the most vulnerable are preserved, fairness in our contract is achieved and sacrifice is shared by all.
ATTHE CAUCUS—PEF leaders participate at the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Conference held at the Empire State Plaza in
February.Shown are some of the participants at the PEF
exhibit.They are Region 9 Coordinator Vivian Street,PEFVice PresidentTom Comanzo,Region 12 Coordinator Connie Batts,Region 10 Coordinator Vernetta Chesimard,Division 192 Council Leader Marion Fox,PEFVice President Pat Baker and George Rowe. —Photo by Richard Dillard
www.pef.org
The Communicator April 2011—Page 7
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
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