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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Dick Cheney got it right

Send help quickly, I am agreeing with Dick Cheney.

Why is it that Democrats can defend the rights of the poor, criminals, and captured (maybe) terrorists yet have a hate and disgust for the second amendment rights of U.S. citizens?

To read the rest of this post please remember that this blog is moving. Follow this link http://unionmaine.org/

For the rest of the story.

Do What I say, not what I do

Do what I say, not what I do.

The Republican Party on the Federal level claims the right to lead us all as little children into the garden of moral correctness.

Remember this blog is moving.
Please go to http://unionmaine.org/?p=167 to read the rest of this post.

Now go there or your next job will be providing day care to Dick Cheney.

MSEA Leadership Meeting Best Ever

Sorry for the late post, but if you can imagine it my job has been interfering with my life and my writing. Late or not I don't want to miss telling you about the leadership meeting. After so many of these I thought I knew the Script. First someone gets up and drones on for way too long and then tries to raise your interest in the newest direction picked by the SEIU or by the brass of the Union.
Not this time! No agenda, no speeches, no big table with the brass behind and above everyone else. The only agenda was the question "What can we do to make this a better Union?" Can you imagine it! The brass wanted to hear from us. We broke into four groups to discuss how to make our Union stronger, how to include more people and what it is we really want. The difference from the past was astounding and we were asked what our members wanted, not asked to fall in behind someone else's goals and march.

Our members want to let the public know that we respect them and that we are Mainers too.
We discussed how to reach out and change the image of the State Employee that the talk shows have painted for too long. State Employees don't lean on the shovel, but contractors that the State hires don't have signs that say CONTRACTOR. The costs for contracting are far more than the cost of a hard working State Employee because we don't drain out all of the money for profit. But the businesses in Maine don't want to talk about that either. The corporate tax rate in Maine is among the lowest in the country, and your taxes among the highest. Does that make good right wing talk?

We are growing and getting stronger. You have to know that and the press doesn't want you to know because Union members vote. There were more young members there than ever before and they are realizing they have to step up and take the place of the long time and long in the tooth activists that have built the Union. I don't like to admit it, but I keep having those birthdays every year. Helen, the president of the new local 771 was there, members of the community college were there, and looking around you could see hope.
The economy is rough and we have some very tough times ahead and whether we make gains or manage to hold off the worst of what is coming is up to us.

When we elected Bruce Hodsdon as president of the MSEA a lot of people said they expected change, they wanted change. I think they were right and this Union can start on a new road. We need each other. If you have not been involved because you didn't think you could be heard, that time is over.

Please remember, this Blog is moving to Http://WWW.UnionMaine.Org and we need members of all and any Unions to write articles. If you are not a member of a Union, write in and maybe we can help you to find one to help you.

George Bush doesn't like it

While the title of this article is George Bush doesn't like it. I don't think Susan Collins likes Tom Allen very much either. She too thinks it a wast of money to investigate fraud. Cheat the taxpayer, cheat our troops, fire the patriots that discover the crooks. Susan Collins thinks missing equipment, bad food, and putting our soldiers at risk doesn't deserve to be investigated.
Think about it, if you are a Republican do you want her to be the face of your party?

A quick update from the campaign of Tom Allen. The campaign offices send these to me and they know I can't help but put my own spin on them. Tom would be far better for Maine that Susan C.
but his office needs to learn how to do constituent services correctly.

Just tonight I got a letter from Tom Allen's office telling me there was nothing they could do about Foster care cuts in Maine. As the foster care stipends are based on Federal law, and receive Federal money, I question the knowledge of the aide that did the research.
In other words, the answer I got was wrong. Missouri Foster parents won a case based on Federal provisions in 2006. At the least the office could have provided references to the valid laws and offered the assistance of Tom Allen's office to make sure the State was toeing the line and take advantage of shoddy level of George Bush oversight. Foster parents in Tom's district should email his office and tell him you will remember if he helps, and you will remember if he doesn't.

With all of that said, Tom Allen would make a far better (about five bajillion times) office holder than his opponent. Susan Collins has been a tremendous disappointment to the Republican party while managing to do damage to Democratic ideals. Voting for Collins is the same as voting for cold oatmeal. Functional but unappetizing.

Edited for this blog:

This week, President Bush issued several signing statements that directly contradict the will of Congress, the American people, and legislation that Tom Allen has authored.

Well, you know you’re doing something right when the President doesn’t like it.

If George Bush is afraid of this legislation, it must be on the right track. Tom has authored and championed two of the four pieces of legislation that the President’s signing statements attempt to overrule. Last night, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart weighed in on this issue. Click here to see the video.

Editor: Don't watch it at work unless you are willing to choke down your laughs.

George has said he has the right to destroy the constitution, over rule congress, fire employees that want to report waste and fraud. It all ends next January.

Jon Stewart uses humor to highlight a serious problem with the President’s actions, which show just how far the President will go to continue his war.

Tom led the fight to prevent taxpayer money to be used for permanent military bases in Iraq. This legislation is absolutely necessary to show the Iraqi people and the rest of the world that America does not want to be in Iraq permanently.

Tom ....co-sponsored a law that would create a bi-partisan commission to root out wartime waste, fraud and abuse – just like what Harry Truman created during World War II. We need this commission to protect the troops and the taxpayers from corrupt contractors like Halliburton, KBR, and Bechtel. Editor: (Remember the point, Bush thinks digging out fraud is bad, selling shoddy food or goods to our troops is ok?

Tom, you are far better than Susan, but please do your homework.
P.S. I wrote to Susan, and Olympia. They didn't even have the courtesy to send a form letter.