CONCESSIONS & COLONOSCOPIES

CONCESSIONS & COLONOSCOPIES

BY MIKE ALEWITZ

Over the past two months, union officials representing government employees and the Democratic Party of Connecticut have given us a remarkable display of solidarity. Unfortunately, it has been a close-knit solidarity directed against state workers. 

An absolute blanket of secrecy was imposed over negotiations of state demands for $1.6 billion in concessions from union workers. Not one local union officer, representative of a labor council, international rep or other union official has spoken out against a massive, malicious media campaign directed against state workers. 

In fact, you could not even find out the names of the bargaining representatives that were supposedly representing us. 

While the poor of the state have been told that pampered union workers would be responsible for cutting of social services, while the super wealthy have been given a free ride, while corporations continue to pay no taxes – union officials have remained silent. We don’t want to negotiate in the press, they said. Why not? Because workers would have a chance to express themselves?

Tuesday, I attended a large meeting of college professors anxious to hear a report on concessions demanded by the Democratic administration of Connecticut. We were not shown the actual agreement–only a summary that is clearly a spin operation to sugarcoat the theft of billions of dollars from the pockets of state workers.

Great news everybody – no layoffs!  They’re just going to eliminate thousands of jobs through attrition.

Never mind the effect this has on important state programs or the fact that it will require speed-up of already overburdened workers.

Never mind the fact that the deal includes long-term givebacks for 20 years, even though the whole point of opening concessions was supposedly to solve a temporary budget problem.

Never mind that the state unions backed Malloy and the other Democratic politicians that are now stabbing us in the back. 

Never mind that the corporate executives and bankers that populate this, one of the richest states in the country, are essentially the recipients of these billions of dollars through tax breaks.

Never mind that the students of our state will be indebted to those bankers for the rest of their lives, paying off loans from low-wage jobs.

Never mind that work will continue to be outsourced to sweatshop companies both in this country and overseas–whether it be information management or grounds keeping.

Never mind that tuition will go up, classes will get larger and programs will get cut.

Never mind that tenure is being eliminated.

Never mind that public education is being gutted

Along with the theft of our wages and income through loss of pension and retirement benefits, the union-management cabal has engineered a remarkable giveaway to health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Employees will be mandated to have such procedures as colonoscopies under penalty of noncompliance. This is no joke. You will be charged $1200 a year, if you opt out of a plan whereby insurance bureaucrats and management can enforce such procedures.

Billions of dollars are being stolen from our wages. Despite this fact, professors left the room in a buoyant mood. It could’ve been worse! Why, since we had furlough days this year, and there won’t be any furlough days next year, it’s practically like getting a raise!

We have been fed this poison for so long. We have been programmed to accept cuts that affect others, as long as givebacks don’t hurt me. Dump it on the new hires. Dump it on the next generation of teachers. Dump it on the future retirees. Dump it on the students. Dump it on the community.

In the fall, professors will return to the classrooms. We will work even harder than we already do. We will try to work around every rotten thing that is done to us by state officials and visionless University educrats. We will go the extra mile for the students because we take enormous pride in our work and we believe in public education.

In the fall, union officials will come to us once again, telling us to vote for Malloy and Obama, because they are the lesser of two evils. Even as the Democratic governors of Massachusetts, California, New York, Illinois, Washington and many other states lead the assault on workers rights, we will once again be told that they are the friends of labor. Once again, they will try to convince us to await the second coming of Christ - hoping to be swept up in the rapture.

At the union meeting, they served coconut-crusted shrimp for refreshments. I’ve observed a relationship between the quality of refreshments provided at a union meeting, to the amount of crap they are trying to sell to the members. Nothing like those tasty shrimps and a glass of wine to put you in the mood for giving up a few billion dollars in concessions.

So enjoy your summer adventures. Have a great trip. Get that book done. Be glad you have a job. Things will get better. In the meantime, have another shrimp. Drink another glass of wine. Now, bend over – you’re not going to feel a thing...

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Addendum:

It has now been some days since the summary agreement was released, and there is still not a peep of opposition from our so-called leaders. 

If we have learned anything from the events of the past year I hope it is from the example of the workers in Tunisia, Egypt and Wisconsin that have made it clear we cannot rely on Democratic Party officials or union bureaucrats to wage our fights–we must fight for ourselves, our students and our community.

I intend to vote no to this contract and I urge you to do the same.

If you believe in the right to collective bargaining, and that contracts should be honored, then vote no.

If you believe that state workers should be treated with dignity, then vote no.

If you believe that we should have a right to a decent wages and working conditions, then vote no.

If you are tired of seeing the wealth of working people go into the pockets of the superrich, then vote no.

If you are tired of paying taxes that go for war and prisons, instead of education, while the wealthy pay no taxes, then vote no.

If you are tired of being the host for a parasitic healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, then vote no.

If you are tired of secret deals between union bureaucrats and management, then vote no.

If you are tired of seeing your students robbed of their future, then vote no.

If you are tired of being told you have to accept crumbs, and that we cannot aspire to a better world, then vote no.

NO CUTS! NO LAYOFFS! NO CONCESSIONS!