burlingtonfreepress.com

Sponsored by:

vt.Buzz ~ a political blog

Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


2.20.2009

 

VSEA makes offer to Douglas administration

The Vermont State Employees Association has given the Douglas administration a proposal that union officials say could avert the need for massive layoffs.

The union isn't releasing any details, but Director Jes Kraus suggested more information might be released Monday.

The Douglas administration confirms it received information from the union and will review it.

Gov. Jim Douglas proposed 660 layoffs in his budget. He identified 60 positions. Agency and department managers have submitted plans to achieve the rest of the cuts. Those are still under review. Secretary of Administration Neale Lunderville says he expects to share those cuts with legislators by late next week.

Lawmakers go home next Friday for two weeks, so a lot is likely to get put on the table in a hurry. The question is whether any agreements can be reached quickly.

--Nancy Remsen

Comments:
Is it better to keep everyyone on at less than full time, or is it better to make the state bureaucracy cuts that are long overdue and let gov't employees go?

I'd say the latter.
 
It is better that VSEA keep as many people working as possible, that way they can stay fat on the dues the employees are paying in.

After all, why should VSEA suffer when they can make everybody suffer.

With VSEA is isn't the principle it's the money.
 
Give the state more options and leverage to get rid of dead wood.
 
So far, all 3 anonymous commenters don't know what they're talking about. 1) If you think cuts are long overdue, provide a detail list of what you'd like to see the State stop doing for you. 2) How many people do you think VSEA has? It's about a dozen and thankfully their employer (State workers) actually values and appreciates the work they do for some 6,000+ union members. 3) What deadwood are you talking about? The guy that plows your road, or the person who sends you your unemployment check? The State already cut 6% of its workforce last year. Try checking out vsea.org and you'll see "management" has increased about 5 times as much as "workers."
 
Middle management is usually the deadest of the dead wood and the best protected.

Take a good close look at BGS for a prime example.
 
It is interesting that Gov Douglas says that state government has grown too fast, too big!

Most of it is because of how he manages.

For instance all top managers who are exempt from the union have rec'd salary increases higher than inflation and higher than union workers.

The Governor's amangement has led to a much higher increase in the number of exempt employees.

AND, his own persoanl staff has grown exponentially in both numbers of employees and in salry increases.

Jim Douglas should look in the mirror to find out why salaries and benefits have increased so much!
 
How about that Deb Markowitz having her own first personal crack at all the Democratic resources! Maybe she really does have Welch and Leahy in her pocket but what an insult to the other candidates.
 
VSEA is dead.
 
We can only hope...
 
Lets just move on from a governors race that is 2 years away! The voters will just get sick of it.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   February 2010   March 2010   April 2010