SEIU local 925, representing 6,500 University of Washington employees in academic, research and business departments, overwhelmingly voted last night to voluntarily give up scheduled wage increases for 2009-2011.
“Giving up raises won’t stop staff layoffs,” said Anne Lawson, SEIU 925 UW chapter president. “But it will preserve more services for students, faculty and hospital patients, and keep as many experienced staff as possible.”
State employee union leaders aren’t stupid, and everybody I’ve spoken to has seemed more than willing to negotiate concessions to help soften the blow of impending budget cuts. And that’s the way it should work, rather than the governor or legislature simply imposing wage and benefit cuts, unilaterally abrogating contracts that had been negotiated and signed in good faith.
Voluntarily, Voluntarily? My ass. Give up a 2% pay raise or watch a co-worker loose his/her job is not Voluntarily. Lets if the over paid President Dr E. give up any of his $500,000 plus a year. Will he open up his rent free mansion by the lake to house those who get laid off. How many to Vice Presidents, Directors, Manger ande etc that earn over $150,00 per year (and there is a lot of them) give up 2% of their pay? Then the UW may save some money.
BigGlen@1, nice class warfare rant. You are the perfect Democratic playbook user.
While it is sad they have to give up some tough fought pay increases I have no sympathy for the SEIU when they support the Democratic. Maybe they need to speak to their leadership about “their support.” Maybe they should fight back!
From a SEIU blog: “The SEIU leadership gave $65 million to pro-war, anti-single payer healthcare Kerry (Kerry voted for the war in Iraq and vowed to continue it). This $65 million could have been put into strike funds to pay the bills of our membership when we fight back, or it could have gone into an insurance fund for our uninsured members, or $65 million could have gone a long way towards running a labor candidate independent of the Democrats and Republicans that would push our agenda to the foreground. Instead a hard earned $65 million was thrown away on a corporate politician.”
like the puddybiotch really cares who dems give their money to.
like the puddybiotch really cares about who and what John Kerry is and who and what John Kerry stands for.
like the puddybiotch knows or cares about who the SEIU is and what they stand for.
like the puddybiotch really cares about anybody but the puddybiotch.
2 Of course, Puddy would have no objection had the SEIU supported the Republicans who started the war, oppose any sort of government involvement in health care and would just as soon do away with organized labor altogether.
Similarly, I have no problem with right-wing loons like Puddy spouting nonsense and making fools of themselves in public forums, thereby reminding those Americans who don’t share their particular brand of insanity that….well, they’re insane.
[Deleted — off topic, see HA Comment Policy]
@4 “well, they’re insane”
@5 Speaking of which…
6 Apparently they speak a different language, too. Looks sorta like English, but makes no sense.
Puddy loves it when the HA Democratic loons skip over SEIU loon comments to attack Puddy.
That’s okay fools. It was $65 Million wasted. That’s the beauty of it all.
Steve, Crazy Eddie was insane. But you may not have known about him.
This is the most orchestrated Union effort to date.
My questions:
1) Why didn’t they cut their salaries?
2) Why didn’t they cut their Diamond Benefit package?
3) Why wasn’t something done much sooner.
This is worse than a farcical 3-act mini-drama!
What a token bunch of BS.
Will the teachers union do this for K-12?
I can’t say that I ever met Crazy Eddie.
“It was $65 Million wasted. That’s the beauty of it all.”
Well, it didn’t all go to Kerry so maybe there was a congressional winner in there somewhere. That said, I kind of feel the same about the millions that the BIAW wasted on Dino.
Steve, that’s what the SEIU wrote about itself.
Ask your bud with the porn eye, knuckle dragging clueless village idiot, as he “claims” his wife is a card carrying SEIU member. Puddy bets “she” can tell you what really happened to the $65 Million because Puddy asked the knuckle dragging clueless village idiot and he didn’t have the brass cojones to answer a simple question.
Delaviega is actually a pretty nice golf course. Pasatiempo, of course, is the better of the Santa Cruz golf courses. Now, that’s a course I truly loved to play. Dr. MacKenzie did a fine job designing that one. I do wonder where the two million was going. That’s about what it cost us to build a new clubhouse at my course. And spending less than half that allowed us to replace the entire sprinkler system.
Off topic, of course, but one thing striking about Pasatiempo is that it finishes with a par 3 that requires a tee shot over a deep barranca filled with rattlesnakes to a three tiered green. God, I love that course.
steve is a Kountry-Klubber!
All his whining about the poor and he is part of the in-krowd.
How typical of the LEFTIST PINHEADED KLOWNS…spew & spew…but do & do whatever the heck you want even if it is in conflict with what you spew & spew.
Hey steve, why not donate those Kountry Klub dues to the Food Bank??
Oh yeah, that would mean YOU actually digging in your own pocket to support something for someone else.
You gotta love steve’s hutzpah!
10 “This is the most orchestrated Union effort to date.”
Naaaaaah. That would have to involve AFM local 76 and the Seattle Symphony.
(Ka-bomp-CHING!)
We start playing golf here in June.
It was 56 degrees yesterday and we have 4″ of snow on the ground in the past 3 hours and it’s still coming down.
Perhaps Kountry-Klubber steve kan tell us more about his lavish lifestyle?!!
Something humorous to do while I wait for it to stop snowing so we can fire up the tractor and start plowing.
af–
Pretty clever dude!
Obviously they were using the some Middle School Marching Band Director to help them play “Chopsticks”.
It is sooooooo obvious this was scripted to make the Union look like players….about 4 years too late.
Why aren’t the HA leftists upset with the AFL-CIO union execs holding their winter meeting at luxury Miami Resort? Maybe they wish they were there too?
Watch and learn pinheads…
@16 “steve is a Kountry-Klubber!”
Yeah, I went from being a homeless kid to being golf club member. Isn’t that what it’s all about for you Republicans?
“Perhaps Kountry-Klubber steve kan tell us more about his lavish lifestyle?!!”
Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t live a lavish lifestyle. Well, other than playing Pebble and staying at the old lodge overlooking the 18th green, the same rooms Jack stayed in during the Opens and the Crosby/AT&T. That actually is an indulgence for me. What’s up with the spelling? Trying to be clever?
“Hey steve, why not donate those Kountry Klub dues to the Food Bank??”
Sorry to disappoint you again, but the bulk of my donations, including my entire estate, goes to an organization called “Friends of Youth”. If you’re so wonderful, send them some money. Tell them Steve sent you.
@21 Yeah, I went from being a homeless kid to being golf club member.
————————-
You mean golf clubs that take up IMMENSE expanses of urban space that could be used far more productively for low income housing for the poor? Or that consume vast quantities of precious resources like WATER as Seattle and other areas slowly go dry because of global warming? Or that require huge amounts of CHEMICAL fertilizers that get into our water and food supplies?
All so people can push a little white ball across green grass and then share their “golf stories” in the cozy golf club afterwards over gin and tonics?
Too, too much.
salliemac–
steve is pretending to be born a Poor White Child. He plays golf on chemical-laden courses and squeals about Global Warming???
steve, you appear to be a real douchebag.
@23 The serious impact of golf courses on the environment has been highlighted for years. See for example:
http://www.bvihcg.com/images/b.....onment.pdf
I assume Steve, as a member of HA, is in tune with these issues and that he is WELL AWARE of the impact of HIS club on the environment. Perhaps he will share with us what he had done to lead the charge for reform there.
Cynical, gotta come to Steve’s defense. I believe Steve from certain things he said in other threads. You only say that when you’ve lived it. I doubt he’s faking it.
That’s OK, Puddy. No defense necessary. I don’t mind being honest about stuff. Today, as in the beginning, the truth shall set us free. Besides, nothing spewed my way on this blog bothers me. Water off a duck.
I believe you understand a couple of things as I do. Having been poor is nothing to brag about. Accomplish things in life and others will blow your horn for you plenty. You needn’t blow it yourself.
I’ll tell you two things I know for sure. First, a poor man of color has as much opportunity to be near God as any rich white man. Second, I owe any good fortune I’ve experienced in my life to God and to the values instilled in me by my Mom while she was alive.
I now know for sure that you know, Puddy. We won’t even have to talk about it again. I also see now that the common ground we share transcends the pettiness of political difference. Yup, your post was that of a real man. Glad to know you.
hey steve–
I’m crying a river.
All that talk about goat fornication and other vile, vulgar stuff you spewed…is that part of your mission to get closer to God?
Sorry puddy, my family survived barely from paycheck to paycheck too. My siblings and I all worked our way thru college with the love of our parents and our own determination.
I feel no sense of closeness to steve because of his “poor white child” syndrome.
Lot’s of us grew up poor and made it.
Common ground based on poorness & upbringing is fleeting. I have come to grips with mine long ago…God does have a plan for all of us.
The purpose of life is to know God better.
I believe that…now there is a bond worth forging! But merely how you were born & raised eventually rings hollow.
Steve, how do you justify your Kountry Klub existence when you klaim to be sooooo in touch with the poor folks??
@27: Just because you grew up poor doesn’t excuse the fact that you are now stupid and remain stupid.
Learn to think and then come back and post something worthwhile. All you can post is a bunch of crap. Not an original idea in the whole bunch. If I wanted a regurgitation of Redstate – I would go there. No thanks. The brainless and incessant postings you put out just prove your stupidity. You are not only an embarassment to yourself – you personally demonstrate the intellectual bankruptcy of the “right wingnuts”.
Is that what you want to be proud of? Grow up and get a life.
@27 Family and paychecks?
@28 -heh
NotRight said…
No but you stupidly or si that sheeplely visit Kurse and The Polluted Morons as needed.
Not much time to write right now, but FYI, a similar debate is going on amongst the faculty.
The Code (sort of the contract for faculty) says we get a 2% increase every year for meeting certain goals. I am sure most of us would prefer nT to get that now. The problem is the messy way the UW is governed may mean that the only way not to do that would be for the UW to declare a financial emergency (likely to COST money because of borrowing issues) or to have the Faculty Senate change the legislation .. a very cumbersome process that would mean gv ing up the 2% for the future as well.
Unfortunately, because so much of the UW’s expenditures are fixed by contract, legilsationm, etc., the burden of the cuts will fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable … the arts and sciences departments. In those departments, the main variable in cost is TAs and RAs .. that is graduate students who are already paid way below the poverty line.
For my own part, a good deal of what is frightening here is that representatives like Wallace and much of the public completely lack understanding of how a University does its job. For example, unlike health sciences(where SJ lives), the English Dept. depends almost entirely on tuition and on state funds. BUT, the impact of the education in that Dept. on the sciences .. as well as on medicine, business and law, is immense. Cutting TAs in English will hurt the quality of our graduates in all fields!
Are there alternatives> I think there are some. I very much supprt programmed instruction and the use of the community college model for introductory courses. At the University level, however, introductory expository writing is a remedial subject. I would nto mind at all if all our students came here well past that level. Some do. Even for these, however, we need … they need, the kind of exposure to real writing and literature that a community college usually can not offer because the instructors time is expensive!
President Emmet has addressed this in a recent podcast. I will UL that to SJ when I have time.
…and so the higher education bubble starts to pop.
I wish there was a way to short universities like you can short company stock.