Thursday, November 10, 2011
Kingston Fire Dept No Layoff Clause Cries Out for Contract Talks Open to Public
Does anyone remember what Common council members along with Mayor Sottile agreed to a No Layoff clause in the present Kingston Fire Dept Contract? This lack of accountability cries out for union contract negotiations open to the public. There is no law which states that union contract negotiations have to be secret. If we had open negotiations, the Kingston Fire Union would not have obtained a No Layoff clause in their present contract. The public would have screamed bloody murder. Instead, we now have what looks like an impossible situation with an $8 Million Fire Dept. budget which could be cut in half (by using Volunteer Firemen) if we had the ability to threaten layoffs (as Governor Cuomo threatened with the CSEA and PEF unions). The only way to reset this Fire Contract with the Tri-borough amendment is to declare Chapter 6 Municipal Bankruptcy. In the meantime, many Kingstonians are harmed and are suffering by losing their homes and leaving the area. Let's error on the side of the taxpayers and Keep all of our future union contracts open to the public, including the school district union contract negotiations.
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5 comments:
you sir are truly a hater of all unions
Mike,
Do you agree with me that by including a No Layoff clause in a union contract in NY State which maintains old contracts via the Tri-borough amendment is equivalent to removing the paw nails from a cat and setting it free in the wild. The No Layoff clause makes the City of Kingston powerless when negotiating with the Fire Dept. union. Do you agree?
Sottile negotiated this contract while the Firemen were working on his campaign - what did you expect? He also increased the manning clause.
IBM could not continue to afford great salaries, benefits and work rules - so they closed and left town. That is what the residents of Kingston are doing - leaving town.
And over time unless our government steps in corporations will continue to leave not only Kingston but the US for lower paying countries with horrific labor standards. Maybe we should all accept 3 cents a day as a reasonable wage. We need to stand up to these countries and make it known that we will not allow their products to be sold in our market place unless real changes occur in their countries in terms of working conditions and wages.
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