Mass. Update Union Membership Down, Job Fair Cancelled, Gov. Patrick Stumps in WI for Public Employees Unions, Agawam Teachers fight for Pay Raise

Agawam Mayor Cohen, the Next "Scott Walker"? Asks Teachers to Skip 1% Salary Raise! photo Springfield MA Republican

Massachusetts appears to be suffering the same pangs of recovery as most states, the ongoing battle between public employee unions and the states and municipalities that cannot, for budgetary reasons, continue to fund additional salary and benefit increases has begun to hit home. Of interest is that fewer than 12% of the Massachusetts workers belong to unions (Boston Globe), yet Governor Deval Patrick has taken up the public employees union cause in Wisconsin, with plans to speak at a Wisconsin Democrat fundraiser on April 30th, from the Globe:

“The announcement for the event declares: “The featured speaker will be Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick who, unlike Walker, has used negotiation and compromise as a way to solve his state’s budget challenges, without putting education, health and infrastructure at risk.”

Someone should let the Governor know that over in the Western Part of the State an apparent fight is brewing between the City of Agawam and their teacher’s union. The Mayor, Richard Cohen, needs to make budget cuts, and has asked the teachers to fore go a 1% salary increase which will save the City over a quarter of a million dollars. Further, the Mayor has forgone any salary increase asking the Union to do the same. One can well imagine how well that went over with Agawam Teachers. The teachers union is balking, and apparently the Union President is ”Trash-Talking “the mayor over his request that they forgo a pay raise in hard economic times.

Trash Talking?

Of course, should those teachers or other public employees decide to try the public sector they may have a bit of a problem – although the unemployment rates as dropped in Massachusetts, from 9 percent to 8.4% (Bureau of Labor Statistics), CBS3 Springfield is reporting on a job fair in Taunton, which was cancelled due to lack of employers participants. There were 20 to 25 tables available, with 10 reserved, one of which was a non-profit that helps individuals find jobs, and three were temporary employment agencies.

How dire is the situation in Massachusetts? Public employee unions are running advertisements outlining the benefits that public employees bring to the communities. Working Mass.org’s latest commercial here . Apparently, even in Massachusetts, the unions feel that they may be looked at somewhat askance by those who work in the public sector and pay the taxes that allow the public employees to operate. On the website section “Get-Involved”, http://workingmass.org/get-involved, one finds ways for Public employee union members to help their neighbors and families understand that they aren’t as bad as those pundits, with access to cable and radio, might be saying. Of course, when one’s salary is in excess of $100,000 a year, and one has full pensions, full health benefits and works possibly ten months of the year, sympathy may be a little harder to come by, especially when neighbors on Social Security are looking at a 3rd year without an increase, due to the rising cost of Medicare Premiums. , in fact, once the Medicare Premiums rise, those Senior Citizens will be looking at a pay decrease Chicago Sun Times. Perhaps they’d like to thank that teacher, as these Seniors also pay property taxes.

When is enough, enough? Apparently, in Massachusetts, enough is enough when there are simply no more taxpayers left to support the public sector, and when the backup system (i.e. Federal Government) can no longer print enough money to send to the Governor’s office, having made the decision to do what so many private sector employees have done (some pay cuts have been up to 10% in salary, along with a 25% increase in employees participation in medial and other benefits), play ball to keep ones job. It is not that all teachers, or other public employees are putting the union ahead of the students they teach, or the towns (citizens and taxpayers) for which they work, it is just that with every article about the union stepping in for pay raises, especially now, it certainly appears that way.

One wonders if the Town of Agawam will be besieged by protesters from the SEIU, and teachers union reps from Madison, and possibly even the Governor of the State (Deval Patrick), in order to ensure that those teachers get the 1% (which sounds like a pittance, but again one quarter of a million dollars or more), raise, which they and the union feel they deserve.