Parable of the Employee and the Legislator

I will be out of town until March 4, please check out some of the past posts and check some of the links I have posted in the side columns.

TRADITIONAL VERSION:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away.
Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no
food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Work hard and you will earn your reward!


MODERN VERSION:

A State Employee works hard for a long career, building a retirement, and planning a future by taking less now the plan is to

To read the rest of the story please go to UnionMaine.org

You are invited to dinner

I will try to get in some posts as soon as possible, but my internet connection has been down for days. I use ISDN a technology not in use for the internet for years and only about twice as fast as dial up at four times the cost. The PUC doesn't regulate DSL, Cable, and there is no DSL or cable where I live. The cable companies don't take calls from the public. The telephone company has already said they are never giving us DSL because we live in a poorly populated area. You can get DSL in Bagdhad, in Kosovo, Canada, but the local independents don't have to serve the public.
Enough Ranting.

The budget is hungry. Foster kids have been an appetizer. Crippled and mentally challenged kids couldn't move fast enough to get away and the Levinson center will be closed. To paraphrase a joke by the head of the appropriations committee in a hearing when listening to tales of broken promises by the State "Didn't anyone tell you that a promise by the State is worthless?". Cruel humor in these tough times. You are next.

Coming up is news about the almost certain hit in the health care plans for State Employees.
Ask yourself how much is too much?
Layoffs? Furlough Days? Contracts with no raises, again? I have been writing about this for nearly a year and it is coming our way. In this case I hate to be right.
There are some things you can do. The Union is going to do what they can.

If you are interested in taking care of yourself or of your family leave a comment. Show some interest. If no one cares about this crisis I won't write about it.





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Something Wicked This Way comes is here now for State Employees.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about the nightmare carnival that comes to a Midwestern town one October.

Something Wicked This Way comes is here now for State Employees.

Both our friends and our not friends in the legislature are desperately searching for cover. The budget is a mess. They planed on $25,000,000.00 from unspent gift cards just before companies all over the U.S.A. suggested they get a clue.

Bradbury’s book combines elements of fantasy and horror, studying the elements of good and evil, and how they come into play between the characters and the carnival. In this budget I am still looking for the good.

The novel begins on a dark October but my tale begins during a cold February when friends, brothers and sisters on the verge of their next contract find themselves a lightning-rod for political fury. There is a storm coming our way. I have talked with legislators, the public and fellow employees. There is something in the air as if from a distant fire.

Reading the Kennebec Journal or the Bangor Daily News you can discover an editorial saying “lazy employees” “gold plated health care” and cries for fairness. On July 1, 2009 we will find out if the train we heard coming was carrying coffins for wages and benefits earned and promised for decades. We will find out if the “full faith and trust” of the State of Maine is worth anything.

If you look around you can see the carnival of evil being erected as it was in Bradbury’s book. Editorials in papers that claim that Union Employees must give up what they have earned, share the pain, and help carry the load. Nowhere do you see an honest voice standing up to defend good jobs and good benefits as a goal for all Mainers.

The public is being led into a mirror maze where distorted pictures of Union Employees are used to frighten and distract from the real goals. The goal is a race to the bottom in an attempt to have no one in Maine earn a fair wage.

Frightened, our fellow employees want the Union to do something for them and the campaign to convince the public that the hard work and years of promises by the State are just an elaborate stunt by the Union is well underway.

Unless we are active and let Mainers know that we are Mainers too no one will listen as we try to warn them about the dangers of propaganda with no facts.

We know that we are being targeted. We cannot hide from the evil carnival.

As in Bradbury’s work where the carnival preys on the weak for energy, propaganda preys on the uninformed for support feeding on the unhappiness of people, an unhappiness caused by a few seeking to maintain power with no concern for the employees that do the actual work. They attack others by exploiting their fears. Blame the Unions; don’t look at the Billionaire paying fewer taxes than the janitor.

Bradbury’s heroes saved the day by running after their fears and goals in the Mirror Maze. In the same way Union Employees must run into the Mirror Maze and smash the “lazy employee”, “shovel leaner” “over paid” fun house mirrors with the truth that we earn our pay and we earn no more than any employee deserves. We are not stealing from them. Their employers are stealing from them.

Don’t be afraid to say “I am a State Employee”. Be proud and tell your neighbors you work for them and you think they should have the same benefits you do. Ask them if their employer will increase their benefit if yours are cut. No, they should have the same benefits that Congress has, that Dick Cheney has, and that George Bush will have for the rest of his life.

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