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Will the SEIU endorse McCrea?
By adamg on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 8:01pm
Looks like not all city workers will go gently into Tom Menino's wage-freeze night: SEIU 888, which represents city clerical workers, today launched MeninoWatch to make the case the city should use money from its "rainy day" fund to make up anticipated budget deficits. They even have a t-shirt contest for "the first person who can tell us how much the mayor will use from the rainy day fund." You may recall that Kevin McCrea recently made the same assertion, that the city is sitting on a pile of cash.
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Comments
SEIU doesnt understand that
SEIU doesnt understand that this is the day before the rainy day, sure its windy and the sky is black but its still not as bad as its going to get. Tomorrow it will rain, and by the next day there may be localized flooding (to carry on the metaphor), and lets not forget about the clean up and having the ability to rebound after the storm. Make a stand for your salaries, but seriously dont advocate taking away a citys rainy day fund (my town has recently gotten around to keeping funds as a rainy day fund and our credit rating went up because of it, it seems like we are saving money on any money we save because of our newly enhanced ratings.) Spend the money and you no longer have a rainy day fund, and your credit rating goes down.
This is the best year to restructure because there is still some control over the system. I would rather people like Menino do these things now rather then next year when the shit really hits the fan because at that point if the problems arent fixed people like Menino will be forced to swing wildly with a chainsaw rather then be careful with a scapel like they are now.
A ton of ifs and what ifs
Shady, I agree that next year will be much worse. But I don't blame SEIU at all for starting to joust on this -- it's about saving jobs, and hey, it's an election year. And if this is, as everyone has been saying, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, then we have reached a huge Rainy Day. So maybe this is about freeing some of those Rainy Days monies this year, with a larger chunk to follow next year. SEIU is smart enough to know they've got political leverage right now.
They are the clerical
They are the clerical union... Im an administrative guy myself so Im not dissing them but they dont have the same clout on election day as the firefighters or police.
If it is true that the depression is that bad nobody should be raiding the rainy day funds to fund positions and raises that will stick around until next year, and the next, and the next. At some point we have to realize this will be a couple years (minimum) situation, and even when things get better they will not be back to "normal". The wise choice is to cut recurring costs now as that will be one less thing to cut next time. We are not in an "emergency" situation, so now is the best time for all municipalities to prepare for what is coming down the road. To me their campaign will create a backlash because they are making a valid argument (that they should not be layed off) but are going about it the wrong way by telling the mayor to be fiscally irresponsible.