The stupid, it burns

[meirwen_1988]

So, back in September our contract expired.
Back in November our new contract came up for vote (a month after our lead negotiator dropped dead in the hall at school from a heart attack).
We (the professional bargaining unit) approved it.
One week later the college's Board of Trustees approved it.
And it went to the County for final approval.
Where they sat on it.
And sat on it.
And sat on it.
They voted on it Thursday.
And rejected it.

My contempt for lawmakers has risen exponentially. I am not going to go into the minutia, because the sole lawmaker who voted to approve it says succinctly why their voting it down was so inexpressibly...ridiculous.

"Michael Clancy, D-Verona, cast the lone vote in approval of the seven-member committee who attended the Wednesday afternoon meeting.

'We trust President VanWagoner to overlook operations at the college, and we trust the board to negotiate on the college’s behalf,' he said.'I couldn’t vote against a contract that was negotiated on good faith by both parties that had zero impact on what we already budget for the college.'"

Yes, that's right--he said, accurately, "had zero impact on what we already budget for the college."

Because of give-backs, the raise was revenue neutral. A good contract, where no one was pissed off, that was affordable, gave the college some things it needs from us, gives us what we need, while trimming some niceties. But because the raises in the contract would "set a precedent" for other bargaining units in the county, they voted it down.

How about talking about how it sets a precedent for cooperation, mutual respect, and shared vision?

Kitty is FURIOUS.

Comments

[keastree.livejournal.com]

And they will wonder why there is no good will available to them when the time comes to renegotiate the whole mess.

NYCDOE...

[diablu.livejournal.com]

We have been without a contract going on 2 years now, and the city isn't even negotiating any more.

[jlbooth76.livejournal.com]

Yes, it would be terrible for them to set a precedent of being decent, thinking beings. >:(

[ermine-rat.livejournal.com]

My father did some of the the negotiations for his school in the 70s and 80s, and they tended to freeze the salaries for 5 year chunks, and promised to make the cost of living increases once the district was doing a little better. 5 year later, when it was time to renegotiate, they would always reject it. The California State teacher organization would never buck it, and the union continued to pay money to re-elect those same politicians who played this game for decades. I don't know which was worse, the paid-off union flunkies, or the state negotiators that never knew the meaning of negotiating in good faith.