Unjust proposals

   Did you ever hear jokes about state employees like how many state employees does it take to screw in a light bulb? Well if the governor has his way you be paying sixty dollars an hour to some contractor to do it?

   In his proposals he has things like not buying back sick time from employees who are retiring, not many of us have enough sick time to sell back due to illness.

   Cutting in half the amount of vacation time an employee can carry over from one year to the next, the fact is if the employee retires he'll only get paid for one years vacation time not two. Where's the saving?

    Replacing longevity raisers with performance bonuses, the only one that will get a merit raise are in the upper management people.

    Striking the the 20 year rule and removing the ability of an employee to bump another worker with less seniority during a work force reduction,extending probationary period, instituting performance evaluations, all are intended to take away any job  security the state workers have. These proposal would give the not only the governor but any department head the ability to abolish the job of any employee for any reason. The worker will have no protection.

    The governor also wants to eliminate over 400 state jobs, who going to do their jobs? Will the work they do magically disappear? In some cases the work will be done by a highly paid contractor. The fact that they make campaign contributions will have nothing to do with it, I'm sure but they don't contribute to the state retirement system either.

    As a state employee and union member how can we ever negotiate in good faith with the state again if these proposal are enacted. Like the governor the state employee serve the citizens of Rhode Island. We are not the department heads you see on the nightly news.These proposals don't affect them. We are the people you usually don't see, cleaners, institutional attendants, maintenance people, lower paid workers and we don't deserve to be treated with such disrespect.   

   

      

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