Just as EFCA was being introduced in Washington Fast Ed Rendell was asking unions for $120-160 million in concessions to help the Commonwealth's budget woes.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
BY CHARLES THOMPSON
Of The Patriot-News
Gov. Ed Rendell said Monday that he must have concessions from labor unions by the end of March or he will unilaterally either temporarily close some nonessential offices or lay off workers.
The labor savings also must be in place to keep his proposed $29 billion spending plan for 2009-10 in balance, he has said.
"We've agreed to give the unions a couple of more weeks to look at the options and get back to us," Rendell said during a Capitol press conference. "But by the end of March, if we don't have an agreement ... I'm going to have to act."
Rendell said again that he is leaning toward a system of "rolling furloughs," in which certain, nonessential aspects of state government would close for a day at a time, causing cuts in hours for thousands of state workers.
Union leaders have vowed not to take wage concessions back to their rank-and-file, making the case that they have accepted wage freezes and sacrificed in other ways during past contract negotiations with Rendell.
They also said Monday that the governor has been talking at them, rather than with them, for the last month.
Still, Kathy Jellison, the president of Local 668 of the Service Employees International Union, said some agreement on personnel costs isn't out of the question.
Uhh Ed...how about trimming the Legislature in half..think of the money you would save. How much more did the Democratic Caucus pay those new hires? Mixed signals, failed policy.
1 comment:
Fast Eddie's only concern is to enrich his friends. Do you really think "Pay for Play" started with Street? And look how tight he is with Fumo. Rendell was the 1st Democrat running for Gov. that was not endorsed by the state employees unions. Ever since he has had a hard-on for them. The unions accepted freezes and other benefit losses before and never made up the ground. Employees are not assets to him, they are the enemy. There are savings to be had, we could go on a 4x10 hr. work week and save energy by closing state buildings like Utah. Instead of opening new offices we could consolidate buildings, certain jobs could work from home altogether. Instead of spending $170K to teach business manners to state store employees we could privatize the LCB. No he would rather sell the turnpike!
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