Proposal Deadline

MSEASEIU 1989 is engaged in contract bargaining with the State. All proposals will be on the table by May 1 at 5:00 pm.

We don't know if there will be any surprises. Maybe the State feels they don't have to do anything but say no, and let the legislature do the harm.

If we are so important we don't have the right to strike, then nothing should be done without bargaining. Lots of rumors flying around, no facts yet but maybe the Gov. (I voted Democratic and all I got was this lousy Governor) will make an announcement early next week letting all Mainers know how bad things are.

In N.H. they actually want to raise the income tax.............only on State employees. It is bad, they don't care if we tell them where they can save money. State Employees know where the waste is.

How about a contract for 14 contractors that is being renewed for the 7th and 8th year for $133,000.00 per employee NOT counting the money we pay another company to manage the contract. I could find a hundred more examples if the idea was to save money or they actually cared.

Anyone that doesn't think we could pay and provide benefits for State employees for less does not have their head screwed on tight.

They won't listen because they want to keep feeding rich landlords when we have vacant State owned buildings, and paying bloated prices for rich contractors that might hire a ex legislator.

What about the citizens of Maine? Alone, I could point out 1/2 to one million dollars of waste a year. Many other employees could prove the same. It is time for the State to put all contracts for goods and services on the web for all Mainers to review. Then the public could make a fair comparison.


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Airlines Favor profit over safety. The Employer Free Choice Act

Untrained Pilots of

the Future?

Pilot Sully says Pilot Pay Cuts Put Passengers in danger. The pilot of Flight 1459 says the industry is driving out experienced pilots. The hero pilot has seen his pay cut and his pension destroyed as a reward for years of dedicated service. When do you think we will hear about Sully getting his huge retention bonus?

The pilot who successfully saved a planeload of passengers using years of skills and training by safely landing in the Hudson River said that pay and benefit cuts are driving experienced pilots from the cockpit. The US Airways pilot told the aviation subcommittee he has seen a 40 percent cut in his pay at the same time his pension was terminated and handed to the Federal Pension Guaranty Corp where he will get a pension "worth pennies on the dollar" .

Trained Union Pilot on the

River


The cuts were forced after several airline bankruptcies. Many of the management teams that oversaw the destruction of pay and pensions received huge bonuses as a reward for performance.. The cuts have placed "pilots and their families in an untenable financial situation," Sullenberger said. "I do not know a single, professional airline pilot who wants his or her children to follow in their footsteps."

Copilot Jeffrey B. Skiles said without labor-management reforms "experienced crews in the cockpit will be a thing of the past." Sullenberger said in his always controlled style that without experienced pilots "we will see negative consequences to the flying public." Will the airlines report a 200 mile an hour landing in a pine forest as an "extended delay".

Do you think temp agencies can send in pilots on an as needed basis? How about we take one of the executives that received bonuses for cutting Union pay and benefits and put them alone into the cockpit of a plane, take it off remotely and then kill the engines. If the executive lives then they can keep their life and consider it "pay for performance". Due to training and skills only gained through years of training Sullenberger landed in the river and all 155 people survived. If only Sully's pay and pension had been so lucky.

The Employer Free Choice Act

There has been a novel suggestion made to solve the problem of Unions that destroy the companies they work for. A program for the complete management of labor resources has been put forward by the National Right to Work for Less organization. A spokesperson said that after the idea was brought up everyone was amazed that it had taken them so long to arrive at this clearly obvious solution.

The new management initiative for complete management of labor resources for the parts of the American auto industry that have been hardest hit by the Union movement will be the first to see the effects of this new plan.

The program is based on a simple premise. Companies that have been hardest hit by Unions will be required to own their workers.

The spokesperson gave examples of how proper labor management has achieved greatness, the pyramids, and the entertainment industry in the days of the emperors, and the growth of the South into a burgeoning supplier for cotton in the early 1800’s. The “Complete Labor Management” program will allow commercial success to extend the free market principles to humans themselves.

Complete management of labor is the fastest, best, solution to investor losses and the pinnacle goal of free-market theory.

While is some ways the program could be mislabeled slavery, it is explained by the supporters as returning to their “roots”. In the past eight years labor relations have been taken in the direction of less conflict by allowing management to make the decisions unfettered by employees or long term commitments to pay benefits or pensions. We need to simply extend and polish these early improvements to labor relations. Much of the rest of the world including Iran has already taken the lead in these areas and now sees almost no Union conflict. America must not fall behind.

A management system where corporations make all the decisions is the only solution for falling dividends. Today, in American factories, employers must wend their way through a thicket of laws controlling wages, safety, and who they can hire. The only worries a corporation should have is if the employee is productive. Employers can not be saddled with the responsibility of an employee’s health or what they live on after their careers are done.

Rules must be set. If an employee is too sick to work, pregnant, or too old to be productive they should be out the door.

By encouraging employees to remain productive by not relying on an employer (or the government) we will be giving every employee true freedom of choice. They will decide their own destinies.

Further examples of the method at work were given, the late 1800’s success of Oil and Rail Roads. Chinese auto companies are rising stars. Chinese auto workers currently earn a dollar an hour. In each of these cases workers have been freed from labor worries, and management allowed to focus solely on the profitability without interference. In each case tremendous returns on investment have grown the corporations. There is a definite pattern and it can be proven that if it is Good for Unions, it is Bad for business. Bad for Unions, Good for business. The complete implementation of this plan is seen as the logical defense against the Employee Free Choice Act.

Some public sentiment still brands the word slavery with some negative connotations so we are re-branding the initiative as the Employer Free Choice Act. We can stress the benefits to the employee and the economy. The employee is freed from choices and conflicts with management. All their time is productive or the company is freed from the employee.The benefits to the economy have been obvious since the building of the pyramids.

This is what free choice is all about. The employee is freed when they only have to follow orders and management is freed when they can make any choice needed for the good of the corporation.

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Warning! Deadly new Virus Alert

Government virus warning!

*** VIRUS ALERT *** "The "Government Virus" has been found to be spreading. Courtesy of a conservative think tank, I interrupt this Blog to bring you a warning. You may think that losing your job, your home, running out of unemployment, and losing your health care are bad things. If you think these things are bad. You are at risk! You may already be a carrier! You need tax cuts!

The virus starts slowly. You start to feel a need to eat every day. You see your kids pants cuffs six inches above their ankles and your grow sad for no reason. Living in your car doesn't feel good any longer. During the final stages you have insatiable cravings to own a home and have a job. The virus has started.

There is only one way to stop the infection. Tax Cuts! Don’t ask for any services from Government. This is how the virus spreads. Whenever possible avoid government immediately. Do not complain about a closed motor vehicle office. Don’t worry about not having State cops or elevator inspectors! Do not complain to your legislators about a lack of service! Learn self control.

Opening the door to the government virus will erase every penny from your wallet, drain your kids college fund and empty your change jar.

Asking for services from the State will reprogram the stripes on your credit and ATM cards, and make deposits to State programs that you don’t support like education even if you don’t have kids. Asking for government services on the web will let the government use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play and erase your hard drive.

Contact with government will turn off your refrigerator so all your ice cream melts and your milk curdles, while doubling your electricity bill..
It will program your phone to text the Democratic National Committee with automatic donations.

Government will mix antifreeze into your fish tank and have the DEP fine you for throwing out the dead fish. Government will tax and then drink all your beer.
Government will leave Planned Parenthood booklets on the coffee table when you are expecting company.

Government will allow gays to have special rights which will immediately cause you to get a divorce, beat your spouse, give up on God and hate your kids.

Government will grow your ear hair into a pony tail.
Government will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine, all while sending your current boy/girlfriend pictures of any other “friends” you might have along with copies of your hotel bills.
Government changes all the pre-set buttons on your radio to NPR.

Government will give you diseases you can’t spell to sell you government health care. You could be break out in ugly "rationality" spots before you know it.
Government will send copies of your internet browsing history to your wife or husband and your employer….. With pictures.

If Government is not stopped it will it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in next to a full bathtub. Government will let the dog onto the couch.

Government will replace your instant coffee with Latte mix.
Government will replace all your luncheon meat with Spam. It will replace all your Email with Spam.

It will molecularly rearrange your cologne or perfume, causing it to smell like Bill Clinton on a hot day, near an intern. All of your internet favorites will be changed to left wing Blogs.

An experimental cure is being tried but it is too early to judge the results. Some people are taking all their money, finding an unlocked Mercedes and stuffing all the cash in the car as a last ditch effort. Maybe there is hope.

The Government virus is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of blue.

These are just a few signs of infection.

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Buy a house? Do you want to use Visa or Mastercard?

If you have a Union job you are blamed for the collapse. The talk shows say the only way out is to "break the backs of the Unions". Depressed yet? It gets worse.

Welcome to 2009. You’re out of work, maybe drinking or taking tranquilizers because you may be furloughed, laid off, or foreclosed on. You most likely know someone who is.

You can’t pay your mortgage and you are shamed to look for help. Asking for help will get you labeled a free loader by the right.

Unspoken during the arguments for and against the stimulus package is the fact that we may already be in worst financial collapse in history.

1929 may go down as the first, not the worst great depression.

Credit markets are frozen. The banks are spending our money on bonuses and shareholders. Wall St. has gotten billions to protect profits and they foam at the mouth when the subject of helping homeowners is brought up. “Let ‘em sink!” They made bad choices! The rant is "Why should I help someone that bought more house than they can afford?”

Instead we should ask, why we should help banks that bought more bad assets than they can afford. The right screams mortgage help to homeowners is socialism while they have their hand in our pockets. We keep them in limos and Mansions while losing our homes and our jobs. We pay their losses and we take the blame.

Bad borrower horror stories have made headlines for months, with examples of no income loans given to undocumented workers, and single mothers. The root causes are not discussed. Wall St. shipped our jobs overseas. Oil is at $35.00 a barrel and gas prices are going up. The combination of job loss, stagnant wages, retirement account losses, is killing the middle class, ad in falling home prices, and stir for a drink called toxic assets.

First the Bush Whitehouse helped corporations declare bankruptcy and make retirement funds disappear. They tried to prop up their Ponzi scheme with Social Security. Constant attacks on Unions has lowered the overall wage scale in the US and made employees afraid to speak up. Where is the middle class? They are still here, but their jobs are in China or India or even down the street. being done on an H1B visa. In Maine, State Employees are displaced by contractors costing more than the employee. Real estate tycoons grow rich while State buildings go empty.

So, you have a family of four and you bought a three bedroom with a mortgage you could afford? Wrong! You made a bad choice because you didn’t pay cash or you didn’t save two years of your income as a cushion. Deadbeat!

How bad is it getting? Huge chunks of this country are up for sale because there are no jobs. The pictures of some PA homes on the right speak for themselves. It only took a couple of minutes to find these examples and there are many more in every state. Two or three years ago, these houses would have been on “Flip this house”.The next time you see a lot of these there will be a bulldozer or a fire truck parked on an empty lot. The banks are still making the choice to foreclose and evict rather than deal. Even at these prices there are no buyers. Do these houses look like the McMansions talk shows claim the bad borrowers bought? In Florida you can buy nice homes because retirement incomes were stolen to pay an bonuses and dividends.

I don't want to end on that note. Remember we elected a President with a slogan of "Yes we Can!" and Yes we can get through this. Don't believe the right, most of this country has seen through the theft of tax cuts for the rich and wage cuts for the rest. The stimulus passed. Wait for the hypocrisy to show up. Follow the Republican Governors that are talking about turning down the stimulus money. Watching them grab for all they can get while the Republican members of congress give speeches about how much they did to bring home the package should brighten up some of our days to come.

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Fox TV anchor sunk by Mayor Benero

I caught this posted at Firedoglake
If you enjoy seeing a right wing Union hating talking head get his head handed to him. You need to watch Mayor Benero of Lansing Michigan tear this guys head off using passion, anger and logic. Patriotism is not the property of the right wing. Their attempt destroy Unions is a thinly disguised attempt to destroy this country. No matter how little you make, whatever you have will be seen by the right as having been taken from the rightful owners.....business. Following this logic the only way for American business to be competitive is to stop paying wages. I am certain they might give us cots and drinking water on the factory floor but that is all. Chinese auto workers earn one dollar an hour. By Fox News argues that this is what is needed for us to compete.

It is not the communists, or the radical Islamists that are the current clear and present danger. It is the Wall Street moguls paying their way out of failure with your money while awarding themselves bonuses because they think you are stupid. Given the chance they will crush Unions, ship jobs overseas, lower wages, and take away pensions earned over a lifetime. I don't usually wave the flag, patriotism must be personal, but disinfecting these slime molds who would take everything from everyone is not only necessary, it is a duty.

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Who Do You Want on Your Jury?

State Employees continue to be judged in the press, no on the bottom line. When a politician wants cover, they just fire a few or a lot of State Employees regardless of the real or imagined savings.

Now back to the east coast and what is happening with Unions and State governments in New England.

In New Hampshire SEIU Local 1984 has been in discussion with Gov. John H. Lynch about the 2010-2011 budget.

Gov. Lynch has proposed laying off 250-300 State employees.

SEA in N.H. and MSEA in Maine are trying to show the serious impact these proposals would have on their states.They are both trying to work with, not against the State to find savings.

The State Employees in New Hampshire have committed to working with the Governor and Legislature to seek ways to reduce costs. I hope their Governor and their legislature are not also among the hearing challenged when it comes to working with State employees rather than against them.

New Hampshire estimates the State deficit at $500 million to $1 billion without drastic cuts.

This is where it feels like looking in a mirror. Cut funds for the sick and needy while making some contractors rich.

New Hampshire would:

• Lay off 250-300 State employees; the largest cuts coming in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Corrections
• 
  
• Cut funding for nearly 400 vacant positions, always a budget tactic and maybe the only sign of government pre-planning (having vacancies to cut) that you can find.

• Closing the Tobey School. The Tobey School, similar to the soon to be closed Levinson CenterMaine, is an alternative day and residential school for students identified as educationally disabled. Almost exactly like Maine there will be an estimated loss of services for a population of children at risk and a loss of an estimated 50 State jobs.

• Close the Lakes Region Correctional Facility, causing the loss of 90-95 positions.

• Unlike Maine, New Hampshire retirees don’t have constitutional protection for their retirees health care and the State wants to change the health insurance premiums for State retirees and shift all retirees onto the active State health plan (estimated savings $10 million), and an estimated $10 million increase for retirees.

• In what many Union employees might see as a long overdue move the State proposes to offer a different health policy for what we call Confidential State employees, with the same offer made to Union employees.

• In a move that spells Déjà vu to Mainers there is a proposal to sell the Liquor Commission warehouse, lease the four State Welcome Centers and reorganize and close many liquor stores statewide. The governor in a good move also proposed building new liquor stores in expanding market areas.

• Close eight District Courts

Facing reality, the Governor also proposed some revenue increases:

• Increase the tobacco tax by 35 cents

• Increase the room and meals tax by three-quarters of one percent

• Increase the cost of registering each vehicle by $10

• Taxing gambling winnings over $600. They are way behind Maine us there.

• Changing the toll collection system. Another echo from Maine.

The N.H. Governor didn’t propose any increases to the gasoline tax or broad-based sales or income taxes, but like Governor Baldacci’s proposal to “tax only State Employees” by increasing their cost for health care the proposals place a tax burden onto select groups of public servants.

Some of the N.H. and Maine’s "rainy day funds" are being used to balance the current budgets. These funds were built up in good economic times to be used to help keep us afloat in bad economic times. The State workforce is seen by some as being “built up” and a target to support the State in bad times also. Unfortunately, the Maine State workforce is at the lowest head count in over twenty five years. State Employees as usual are expected to pay a price higher than others in the name of publicity, not fiscal responsibility.

All Union members share many of the same concerns:

• Bumping rights were one of the most important Union protections ever put into a contract. Those rights come to the fore in tough economic times. We must fight to protect and improve bumping rights. A layoff is one of the most devastating events a person faces. An employee facing a layoff must be given that guarantees management can not cherry pick people to lay off.

• When looking for savings state employees in Maine have identified possibly hundreds of unreviewed positions filled by private contractors. Many of these outside contractors and consultants cost the State far more than the average State worker's salary. The Governor, agencies, and the legislature must provide better oversight of the thousands of contracts, vendors and services the State pays for that could be done more efficiently and cost-effectively by State workers.

• We must not forget our brothers and sisters losing their jobs on February 28. No bumping rights after ten, twenty or thirty years of service. They were targeted and had no where to go. Turning the Levinson center over to private hands will not save the State any money and will severely impact if not harm, those dependent on Levinson to care for the State's most at risk children. Do you hire a baby sitter on “the lowest bid” approach?
  
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Bush Smash

Will we save the banks and let the ecology collapse?

Watching the Hulk on DVD reminded me of George Bush. Bruce Banner with his respect for science never got invited to the comparison. The Bush complexion in these dying days is turning slightly green while having even less capability for thought than the big green guy.Maybe he is just getting some bad pretzels.

Bush is acting like the enraged monster version of the Hulk, screaming "Bush Smash!" as the country wakes up from an eight year bad dream and throws him out. He is looting the treasury, smashing the furniture, ripping the doors off the palace, he is all rage and determined to leave nothing worth owning by the time the sons of bitches kick him out.

Politicians always pay off their friends when they leave office, but Bush isn't paying off favors. Yes he owes the mining, logging, banking, and oil industries, and his last minute “de”regulations, opening our wilderness to logging and mining, along with the destruction of pollution controls will go a long ways to return favors. Treasury secretary Paulson's is looting the treasury while refusing to say where the money is going, but even these hundreds of billions are not payback.

He is not paying favors, he is trying to smash those who threw him and his type out. If left in place by the next Congress these last minute acts of rage will do as much damage as he achieved in the eight years. The hope is to delay the the economy badly enough so the public will forget where the recession started. The right wing started calling this the "Obama Recession" even before the election. Talk radio will be dishing out the big lie every day until the next election.

In these last weeks we see the core of the right wing agenda and we see why they lost. The earth, the citizens of the U.S. and anyone not in their self appointed elite have no rights, deserve no respect, and will be destroyed in the attempt to leave nothing behind, except destruction for the new president and Congress. Neoconservatism never had any belief but power and now that the only power they have left is destruction they use it joyfully.

Bush’s legacy will be destruction. The war in Iraq, runaway climate change, a ruined economy, a world that has lost respect for the U.S., and an endless war on science will be his memory, not his library. Bush....... Library. When you put the two words in a sentence, library looks ashamed and tries to move to a better sentence.

Give Bush credit, he has been ignorant and destructive and he is staying the course until the last minute. Please do one good thing when you go George, take Dick Cheney with you.

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Do your job, lose your job.

State Employees offer to pitch in and save money

Friday, November 21 2008

State Employees representing the Executive Branch bargaining units with over 9000 employees came to bargaining today with an offer to help with the budget crisis. State employees who have gone without raises for two years in recent contracts, and consistently accepted raises lower than inflation, today offered to help balance the budget by identifying savings and waste in State government.

State employee’s raises have not kept up with inflation for the last ten years consistently leaving them behind the private sector in real income today called for everyone to pitch in.

The State employees represented by the MSEA-SEIU manage lifesaving services for children and adults through DHHS, DOT, and Public Safety. All branches of State government provide necessary services to the people of Maine and State employees stand ready to help save tax payer dollars by ending wasteful outsourcing and bloated contracts to out of state companies.

“Why send our money out of State, when we can hire Mainers to do the work for less?” said one of the Union negotiators, No one knows how to serve Mainers better than Mainers and we will work with the State to identify areas where money can be saved and funds kept in Maine. When we keep the money in Maine it helps our revenue fo ALL Maine citizens!

'We provide quality services." We want to help cut the tax burden said members of the negotiations team.

Many people don't know that some state employees earn so little that they qualify for state services. Even these employees are dedicated to doing their part to get everyone in Maine through these hard times.

There are so many examples of waste and opportunities for savings said another member of the executive branch teams.

We can find ways to save tax dollars.

“State employees pay taxes too and see their neighbors and friends hurting. With the help of their Union State employees have been trying to point out the waste of outsourcing for years and maybe during this crisis the time has come for the legislature to listen to those who know the work best.

State employees are your friends and neighbors and they don't want agencies to close and the public suffer. Mainers will still need to register a car, adopt a child, be sure their food is safe, and educate their children.

State workers know how fragile the economy is at the moment but they know Maine will weather this downturn better than many States because Mainers will pull together.

Saving State services has strikes home when it is made personal. Here is a personal story.

Recently two public safety workers working long hours and many unpaid hours on their own time were responsible for tracking down a sexual predator. The detective work rivaled the best of CSI. These two heroes don't make Hollywood salaries, they don't get a bonus for catching a monster. They did it to keep your children safe.

No one knows how many children may have been saved from this monster. Last week one of these heroes was told they were scheduled for layoff, after saving children their child would have a mother with no job.

I hope the State will work with its citizens to lower costs and I expect the public would question why State agencies would refuse to partner with State employees at no cost in a mutual goal of saving tax dollars.

The State is expecting as much as a half billion dollar deficit and our members want to be part of the solution, we have the skills and the people to replace contracted services, saving both jobs and money for the taxpayers of Maine while improving services.

The workers' contract does not expire until July 2009 but they are in negotiations now in order help find savings in the coming biennial budget.

State employees know they find ways to save the State millions of dollars. They are willing to commit the resources to make this happen.

Update: Saturday November 22

Ground Breaking Meeting of Executive, Judicial, and Community College bargaining units.

In a show of solidarity and strength the three bargaining units that are most closely associated with the biennial budget process met on Saturday to share their concerns, their talents, and to build solidarity.

The theme developed was "The best for the largest number, regardless of bargaining unit". This unprecedented meeting will lead to more sharing in the future and make it harder to pit one unit against another.

"We all share common interests and we all want to help each other" said one of the Union team members.

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Welcome New Subscribers

In the past few weeks I have had a number of new subscribers. I wanted to say thank you for coming on board and please feel free to comment. If I do all the posts, and all the writing I will always agree with myself. If I need to start having multiple personalities and arguments with myself in order to get differing view points...............I won't go there, yet. I am not going to have as much time to write as I would like as I am on the Executive branch negotiations team. There will be a number of topics I can not write about, but nothing stops the reader from sharing their opinions on anything.

Pension Funding

Will this be the next bailout?

Exxon Mobil after posting successive record setting profits and receiving Billions in tax breaks has the most underfunded plan of any company in the S&P 500.

Respect for employees? I don’t think so. Big Oil Has A Hole in Pension Funding

While Republicans are still trying to say the free market will solve everything and prosperity will be trickled down, the employees are in the bottom story of the two story outhouse.

While very few corporate pension funds have weathered the economic problems and State Employee and teachers pension funds have been hard hit, plans at energy companies are in the worst shape..

According to an analysis of S&P 500 companies from Citi Investment Research, companies in the energy sector had pension funds that were only slightly more than 80 percent funded at the beginning of 2008, the lowest funding level among any of the 10 industries examined by Citi.

With the drop in the market and the drops in oil prices by the end of October, Citi calculates that funding levels have dropped off another 20 percent, at least, leaving energy company pension funds barely above 60% funded.

“This could result in a need for energy firms to meaningfully contribute to their plans in 2009,” wrote Citi analyst Tobias Levkovich in a report released Thursday, November 6.

Why does it sound like this analyst thinks it is bad that these companies will have to fund their pension funds? Is it because the obscene profits have not been enough and the companies have been short changing their employees to benefit their investors?

“This would come at a time when earnings revisions for energy companies already are sliding sharply alongside plummeting oil prices … and could add another headwind for energy earnings and stock prices.”

The report noted that a substantial chunk of the funding shortfall in the energy industry belonged to just a handful of companies. That included Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, which have been reporting huge profits but still had three of the 10 most underfunded pension plans in the S&P 500 at the beginning of this year.

Indeed, Exxon Mobil had the most underfunded plan of any company in the S&P 500. Exxon Mobil has $27.8 billion in pension plan assets to cover $34.5 billion in pension liabilities, for a $6.7 billion deficit. ConocoPhillips, with a $1.6 billion shortfall, had the fifth-most underfunded plan, while Chevron’s $1.2 billion pension deficit was the eighth-largest of any company in the S&P 500.

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Nobody Knows the Troubles I seen

I am getting older and maybe I am feeling mortal.

At nearly sixty years old and after fifteen years as a State Employee I don’t look forward to the loss of income retirement brings. I am going to have to let my butler go back to the old country. My Chef is no longer a perk I can afford.

During every one of my years with the State there was never a month in which I did not have to do some work. The unending demands on my time made planning for my vacations nearly impossible. I nearly claimed disability from the stress induced from trying to choose between a time share in Florida, Nevada or both. I think that I am due more for the many hard weeks of work during my employment than a pension, a home in Florida, Nevada, Maine, and a retirement near my grand kids with only one private doctor on call.

At my age maintaining the Mercedes, the Cadillac, my wife’s cars and the real estate investments is getting to be too much. I will be cast out and forced into my twilight years without domestic staff.

If only they knew how much we will suffer. No Filet Mignon, just sirloin, No double lobster, just soft-shell and fries. The future is bleak.

Some of my friends will be forced into choosing between giving up their private golf club memberships or giving up the new plasma TV. Can be more a frightening future be imagined?

Realistically we must all suffer to weather these tough economic times. We must share the burden of our fellow citizens. From here on in, I am going to be more productive. I will work three days a week. I will give up the catered lunches, and the Swedish massage.

I am willing to share the burden. I will give up a lot, keeping only the consultant fee for rodent control for my cat.

If you are a State Employee, this is how the right wants the public to see you. A parasite. A tick to be burned off with a cleansing match. They don't want the public to know that we are Mainers, tax payers, real people that do not get cost of living raises.

If you have read the articles or listened to the radio recently the right wing says that promises of healthcare and retirement can be broken. O.K. I promised to work, until I am 62 to get my benefits. So if I don’t get my benefits can I just stop working and still get paid? Can I strike? Can I get back the 60% of my Social Security the Feds will take as punishment for having a pension? Can I get the same respect that I give the public every day?

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Health Insurance companies staying healthy

Tonight there is no reasoned argument. I have been out reading and raising my blood pressure. Good thing I still have health care. This is not a balanced argument, I needed to let off steam.

George Bush, last year said anyone can get health care “I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” He really said that , send the man a pretzel.

Just send 47,000,000 Americans to the emergency room. Should they go one at a time or all at once?

Don’t worry, Mitt Romney is coming to our rescue

Mitt says the uninsured are freeloaders “The reason health care isn’t working like a market right now is you have 47 million people that are saying, “I’m not going to play. I’m just going to get free care paid for by everybody else.” Freeloading, sicko deadbeats. Stay well if you want to keep your costs down!

So you unemployed deadbeat, eighty year old cripple, just because you have emphysema, or heart disease is no excuse not to be earning enough for health insurance, no matter what the cost.

Give 'em credit, the Republicans designed a built in cure in the last Medicare bill, called the “donut hole” where none of your medicines are paid for. At this point you stop paying for medicine because you want to eat. See the genius of the plan? Soon you will have no expenses at all. Skip enough medicine and the cost to the public falls to zero as soon as Social Security chips in the $300.00 death benefit.

In Canada a major hospital stay costing over ten thousand dollars might set you back $400 or nothing in some areas, and you could expect the same in England, France, Germany, or Scandinavia.

The same “compassionate conservatives” that say the use of emergency rooms by illegal aliens is breaking the system are proposing that (now 49,000,000 since you started reading) Americans use the same emergency rooms as primary care physicians.

I am certain that these politicos have never had to go to an emergency room in their life, unless G.W. needed to go for an OD during his party boy days. These are the same politicos that accept free federal health care, or free State health care in Mitt's case. The Senate and the house have a 24x7 ambulance with trained medics standing by “just in case”.

In Maine the same “cure” is being proposed for the expense of the State Employee health care plan. Cut benefits, raise costs. Then the taxpayer pays the emergency room. But at least the insurance companies will stay healthy.

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Growing hunger in Augusta

In both Washington DC and in Augusta Maine there exists a rising hunger made worse by the knowledge that many of the old crew are going to be gone in 2009.
They want their last meal to be made up of the rights of citizens and the rights of the Unions.
I thank Change to Win for the hard information in this post. At least my health care plan still pays for the blood pressure medication these facts make necessary.

The National Labor Relations Board was established to encourage "the practice and procedure of collective bargaining" and to protect the "exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid and protection."

Recent NLRB decisions prove the corporations that paid for Bush are not satisfied. They want the law destroyed before Bush leaves office.

This President has tried to rewrite the Constitution, and is attempting to destroy the administrative rules which by which our laws have been enforced. Obviously, he plans to finish the job before he leaves office.

Stop em from joining, make it easy to kick em out!

• Dana Corp., 351 NLRB No. 28 (Sept. 29, 2007) –The Board reversed 40 years of precedent and invented a new rule: even when more than 50% of the workers sign cards indicating they want a union and the employer respects that choice, a 30% minority of employees may, within 45 days of voluntary recognition, petition to decertify the union, prevent the parties from bargaining, and force employees to suffer through the NLRB’s lengthy and divisive election process.

• Wurtland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 351 NLRB No. 50 (Sept. 29, 2007) – The Board took the opposite view about the reliability of signing a card when it comes to getting rid of a union! In this case, the NLRB ruled that signatures on a petition were good enough to get rid of an existing union and the Board rejected its own election process, arguing that employees who want to get rid of their union should not have to endure the delay involved in a decertification election. In Dana, the NLRB said that signature cards were not true indicators of employee support.

Easier for Employers to Fire and Intimidate Union Supporters

• BP Amoco Chemical-Chocolate Bayou, 351 NLRB No. 39 (Sept. 29, 2007) - The Board ruled that it was perfectly permissible for an employer to target union supporters for layoffs, and then to force them to sign release forms, as a condition to receiving severance pay, that prevented them or anyone else from challenging the legality of their termination.

The next election cycle, local, State, and Federal may be the most important chance for workers in this country to share in the wealth they are producing.

We need to vote. The last two elections proved that only a few votes can make the difference. In Maine the legislative talk is already on how to take the easy way out. Cut State Employees benefits, retirement, and deny pay raises no matter what inflation is doing. One party is already blaming the deficit on State Employees. If we don’t want to wear that target on our backs we have to let the legislature know we are here. Email, write, call, or see them in person.

They come out when the sun goes down, and the sun is going down on failed policies and policies of hate. Before the next elections they will be trying to get a last bite out of you.

They got one million dollars from the health plan last time and now they are hungrier.

E.T.I. 2009

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