Workers Have Given Back (Courant Commentary)
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-digbrflets1223.art2dec23,0,7233376.story
December 23, 2009
The Courant has a very short memory. The Dec. 11 editorial ["Something's Gotta Give On State Budget"] attacked one specific group in the complicated state budget maelstrom.
The Courant claims that with the budget in dire straits, everyone must sacrifice, but no one wants to do it. “Those who live off the state budget” are “digging in their heels,” it says. This means towns, people who use public services and state agencies.
These people showed up by the hundreds in a snowstorm to protest disastrous cuts to vital services, such as those for nursing home care, kids with autism and people who need assistance for heat or rent.
The Courant took particular aim at state employees, who, it says, have job security. The Courant has apparently forgotten that the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition gave back almost $1 billion this year. Through increased employee health care premiums and co-pays, state public-service workers continue to provide savings to taxpayers now and in the future.
Finally, The Courant cited a “nonpartisan” study stating that “overall compensation costs for state and local employees were 51.4 percent higher than those in the private sector.” The reality is that according to the latest data available, 37 percent of public-sector workers in America have union representation, compared with only 7.6 percent of their counterparts in the private sector. We are delighted The Courant has learned that is better for workers to be unionized, but, frankly, we already knew this.
Connecticut’s budget cannot be balanced by cuts in services. The people do not support it and the economy cannot withstand it.
Why doesn’t The Courant ask those who helped cause the problem to help solve it? Why doesn’t it ask the wealthy and the big corporations to pay their fair share?
Steven E. Cohen, Bridgeport
The writer is president of the Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges, SEIU Local 1973, one of the 13 unions in the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition.
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
