Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Markell on Public Employee Unions

Governor Jack Markell wrote an article for Politico.com showing a political maturity that is refreshing in today's environment. The article is copied below:


By GOV. JACK MARKELL | 2/23/11 4:47 AM EST
I’m not the likeliest candidate to speak out on behalf of the labor demonstrators in Wisconsin. After all, my own relationship with the unions in Delaware has been a bit iffy since I took office as governor two years ago.
Within two months of becoming governor, as I faced a budget shortfall of 25 percent of my state’s entire budget, I proposed an 8 percent pay cut for state workers, which was reduced by our Legislature to 2.5 percent and restored a year later.

Several times during that first legislative session, more than 1,000 union members came to the state Legislature to protest against me and my proposals. The impeachment signs were hard to miss.

My own background before politics is hardly labor-oriented. I have an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, a bastion of the free market. I spent time in banking, management consulting and working with the investment community as a senior executive in the telecommunications industry.

I’m also sympathetic to the need in Wisconsin and other states to secure pension and health benefits concessions from public workers.
We’re in the same position in Delaware. What taxpayers fund for these benefits is certainly not sustainable.

But with that background, I also believe the call to get rid of unions goes too far.
Perhaps that’s because, as governor, I’ve spent so much time visiting our state agencies and watching our people work. I often spend time there explaining my own unpopular proposals — including those to cut their pay and benefits.

Their work is often grueling, dirty and unappreciated by many. They bathe vulnerable patients in state hospitals. They plow streets in the middle of the night, when the rest of us are asleep. They keep our streets safe by dealing with the worst of our society. They help kids learn — even when those kids haven’t eaten since they last left school, haven’t bathed in a week or have come to school from a shelter.
That’s the reality for many of our state employees.

It’s true that my job as governor would be easier without having to deal with public-sector unions. Some of them file frivolous grievances. Some union members have unrealistic expectations about wage increases when so many of their neighbors throughout the state don’t have jobs, wages or benefits. I’m sometimes frustrated by that attitude.

But my job as governor is not to make my own job easier. It’s to make sure that the quality of life for my constituents will be better tomorrow than it is today. That’s why we focus every day on putting more people to work and improving our schools.
On balance, it’s better for our state when unions have the right to speak out and to have a place at the table — when they represent those whose voices may not be heard.
Those discussions might be painful. But it would be worse if they didn’t take place at all.

Jack Markell is governor of Delaware.

1 comment:

  1. Plenty of code language revealing a potential attack here too....

    "I’m also sympathetic to the need in Wisconsin and other states to secure pension and health benefits concessions from public workers.
    We’re in the same position in Delaware. What taxpayers fund for these benefits is certainly not sustainable. "

    WI redux coming to DE? Maybe without the glitz and glam of what we are seeing on TV, but I predict it will be Delaware's Union workers who will be in the way of Gov. Markell's privatization agenda.

    ReplyDelete