Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

I smell massive layoffs in the works.

Don't let us down (AGAIN) Gov.

The governor seems not to understand collective bargaining. "Those representatives agreed to the terms that were finally negotiated" sounds like he expected the members to take his lousy offer because he wouldn't make a better one to the negotiators. It doesn't work that way.

Negotiators bring what they can get to the membership who then voted it down. The imperial governor is acting like he thought they had to take it.

Accountants don't make good governors -- and he hasn't even been a good accountant in managing the budget.

Give them what they deserve Governor. Fire them all!!!!!! They did us a favor by not accepting the contract. Privitize it all, those lazy State workers. With the saved money let's fix our bridges!

good decision. these negotiations would have gone on for weeks/months until the unions got all the dough they wanted that should really be going towards stimulating/improving our state's economy. Bring 'em back to the level of the "other" hard-working servants of the state (not state workers) who choose not have the luxuries/amneties that those in RI's unions receive.

Give me a break...everyone know's it is a lousy deal...!
Employees of Council 94 include Cities, Towns, Sheriff dept Clerk's, Health Department, Water Department employees and so forth...All of these people work incredibly hard at different capacities and the starting wage is only $11.37/hr...How many of you want to carry a pager and be on call two weeks a month and stand in a hole full of water when a main breaks and it's 2 degrees out...?

Fire them all and start from scratch. Create a new contract that is in line with today's economy and what the tax payers can afford. Then post it allowing for the current employees to sign up or not - if not, post it for everyone or privatize.

Hey Lisa,

If the job sucks that bad you can quit.

Sad that this is an issue. However it is an issue the Governor has initiated and caused.

Why isn’t he changing ALL state employee contracts. The Guards, the workers who report to the Board of Regents, the State Police and so on.

The 94 group represent the lowest paid employees of the state.
ProJo, do YOUR job and print a chart reflecting the pay and benefits of ALL State Contracts. The public would be amazed and probably sympathetic to the 94 people.

If thet are that unhppy then they should all quit and go work in private industry. See if they get every holiday and a Total of 30 days off a year. Let them pay their own Blue Cross And Dental which will cost them $15,000 a year, on top of there already high pay for the least amount of work they do. Don't be in the doorway at A Stae Office at 3:59 p.m. or you will get caught in the stampede to leave by 4:00 p.m. I know some one who went to the Registry and the girl was googling vacation infor on her computer while people were waiting to be served. These people could not hack it in the real world, and that is why they all are employed by the State. I did not say work for the State, which they do not know what that is.

The Governor doesn't know what he is going to do? I'd be willing to bet that his anti-union administration has a contingency plan designed months ago to go along with their bargaining tactics and proposals. Otherwise, there would have not been an attempt to divide and conquer as he has succeeded in doing. Nobody said he had a cool head. Perhaps his EMA Director will be well enough this time to deal with the forthcoming crisis. Perhaps since The Governor likes to claim he is the head of government, ICE should take him out in handcuffs for overseeing the hiring of undocumented workers on his watch while he attempts to privatize more things at a higher cost (don't look since it will be his private sector buddies making the money) while waving the anti-union flag. We don't need grandstanding, we need to get people to work together to solve our economic woes. Perhaps start with ELIMINATING HEALTH CARE FOR OUR PART TIME GENERAL ASSEMBLY, never mind co-pay which they rejected.

Council 94 employees: wake up and smell the coffee. Your employer is in debt and you don't seem to care at all. You ask for more money, and it comes out of the TAXPAYERS' PAYCHECKS.

How many people do you actually think are going to take your side?

"Privatize"? Are you nuts? The governor's cronies get fat contracts, hire the cheapest inexperienced workers they can find (probably illegals) and profits, not state services, are the prime objective.

Privatizing doesn't save money, it costs more for shoddy work.

Greg...

I don't work for the State or Union...!

I do however entitle myself to know information if my taxes will increase...

How will 4900 people look laid off...lol

Yeah ... look what you got by privatizing ... a cleaning agency at URI that stole social security numbers ... lets get more of that going on ... you dumb people in this state sure have great ideas

Council 94 will regret their vote. They made a huge mistake with this one. Their situation now is beyond grave. I'm sure the Carcieri Administration is both furious and thrilled.

My guess is that next week these contracts will be eliminated completely. Then C 94 will sue in a protracted battle that will bleed them financially. Anyone who has wanted to see the back of the unions broken in RI should get a front row seat for this one.

The days of free medical care, longevity bonuses, accrued sick time, seniority preferences and automatic pay increases without regard to merit are o-v-e-r. State employees don't get it. Sure, some are hard-working, and those would survive in a meritocracy, but many are lazy and crippled by a sense of entitlement. If we want to really understand where are tax dollars are going, forget the immigrant raids and raid Rhode Island golf clubs on Friday afternoons! It is despicable to note how many state workers sneak out early while we stay at work in order to pay their salaries!

I'm a state employee who also worked approx. 17 years in private industry prior to state service. And you know what, I'm sick and tired of all you state employee haters. You're all hippocrates, because if you had a family to support, you'd be wanting what's best for them too. I like my job and am ok with the benefits, which by the way, is comparable to what my neighbors make and get in the private sector. Go ahead and scream for privatization - you all deserve it. Let's bring in a bunch of new hires at MINIMUM wage no less! Pay peanuts and get monkees, duhhhh. I hope you remember your wishes the next time you need help at DEM, Dept of Health, or put trust in the Dept Corrections! Let's see, have low wage, private contractors watching over our murderers. The people of this state are more stupid than I realized.

Authoritarian control by a lame duck govenor? Enthusiastic support by citizens cheering from the sides of the coliseum? Does the governor even know what people do in their jobs? Why doesn't he work a week as a custodian, a week as a typist, a week as a member of a grounds crew cleaning up the highway, a week as an orderly on the halls of a nursing home, or a week in a clinic for the poor? Then once he has walked in the moccasins of those workers can he sit on his high and mighty throne and pass judgment. How about if he has to live in subsidized housing and drive (by himself) an old car that starts when it wants to while he does this "job exploration". I imagine he would have a different outlook!

Those who are generalizing the state worker population...wake up. Not all state workers are lazy slobs. And we are taxpayers too. I worked in the private sector and saw an employees taking a nap in a VP's office while the VP was on vacation, so don't even go there. There are plenty of screw offs in the private sector too. State workders get benefits b/c we are underpaid. I took a pay cut from the private sector to work for the state because of the benefits package and more vacation time to spend with my family. I still make less than I would in the private sector, but I am grateful for what I have, and don't mind paying for my health care b/c the benefit package is still decent compared to the private sector.
As for Carcieri's response, the rest of the Unions took their hit. Council 94 will have to "pay their dues" at some point, but hopefully not on the backs of those poor people just making enough to scrape by.

I think the state workers need to realize what life is like in the private sector. People in the private sector don't get pensions, don't get to roll over vacation and sick time and then get paid for it when you retire. Also you don't have lifetime job security. The reason people switch from the private sector to the state is the benefits, security and compensation. Unions give people a false sense of their value in the marketplace. I feel bad for the union people, because when they lose their jobs and look for new ones it will be a rude awakening.

I love all the pro comments by union employees, they just don't get it, we are broker we don't have the money, if their jobs are so bad quit, unemployemt in RI is the highest in NE they will be replaced trust me people will need work and they will learn that they had it great when they work in the real world..

Wake up and smell what the governor is shoveling. As a former DOT employee, if anyone doesn't understand why I cashed out and moved to sunny PCB Florida, look at your next pay check. There's plenty of room for more beach chairs. See y'all soon. Peace

I have NO sympathy for STATE worker"s. Actually it should be STATE burden's. Private works pay the salaries, benefits etc of these supposed workers. Then how does the government Thank us. Come April we pay more Taxes to get redistributed as money to "boost" the economy. Re-distribution and Liberal polices in general are killing this country slowly and steadfastly!

Lay them all off let them try working the real world.
Let them get a taste of what it is like not to get a pay increase every year have med copay increase every year plus pay for your own 401 k and not have a nice state pension what you retire after what 20 years maybe 25. The bill has come due the taxpayers aren't going to pay for it again. Remember the air traffic controllers they thought they could not be replaced they found out they were dead wrong and they had skills that were unique to the job. The governor is right and the unions just played inot his hand. They are toast.

Thankfully, we finally have a state elected official who is representing the majority. This is long over due and quite refreshing. This is a page right out of Ronald Reagan's book.

Thank you Governor, keep going. It's time to clean this state up and make it the attractive place to live, work and, play it should be.

Council 94 has nobody to blame but themselves. This was your 'sanctioned' negotiating team. It's time to be accountable on many levels!

The members should have accepted the deal, but the Governor is a fool as well. He has created no new jobs and is using the unions as a scapegoat for the State's problems. Private contractors do no better. Remember the INS sting, the DOT work, etc. etc?

Perhaps the Governor should use Quonset Point and not make his cronies in NK and EG happy at the expense of the rest of us.

Ahh the comedy of it all.

First of all, nice to see the stereotyping of state workers is still going strong. Maybe you ought to do some homework on stereotyping and figure out why it's bad. It's not fair to paint ALL people of one "class" a certain way because of a few bad apples. Not all state works are "lazy." With that said...

I'm in Council 94 and I abstained from voting because of how absolutely biased the "presentation" was. First of all, there was no slot for abstention on the ballot. That in and of itself is what I feel a serious violation of my voting rights. Secondly, I am anti-union. I hate paying union dues and fattening up the pockets of a bunch of hacks who want everything for nothing. They kept talking about how the governor was trying to screw us. It was a seriously biased presentation and I guarantee that swayed quite a few of the voters. In my opinion, contract voting should be administered by a neutral 3rd party. That's the only way to have as fair of a vote as possible.

HEAVEN forbid we have to pay for some of our health care. The union membership has zero clue how good they have it. I also agree that unions do nothing but promote mediocrity. They also make it impossible to fire and get rid of the dead weight "lazy" state workers that cause many of you to stereotype us all. I'm looking forward to crossing the picket line if they strike. And I pray that if they do, Carcieri follows' Reagan's example with the air traffic controllers. The unions are too corrupt, too powerful, and for too obsolete to exist in this state. Something needs to change. However, privatization is not the key. Privatization led to the state to pay upwards of $100K for a 34K/year secretary. This is just one of many example demonstrating privatization is not as fiscally sound as you'd think

As for Bob, I'd like to see you deal with a bunch of angry citizens who label you "lazy" because of a stereotype. We also work in the real world. Sadly, we have it too good. But, especially in my line of work, the real world is very apparent to us. To say otherwise is an insult born out of ignorance.

Bravo Governor Carcieri!

There seems to be an awful lot of animosity directed toward the state work force. Most of the detractors are probably Carcieri supporters and registered republicans.

The fact of the matter is, the state workers they so despise are their neighbors, family, and friends and they are getting a raw deal shoved down their throats by the governor.

Carcieri feels that the state's work force should shoulder an ever-increasing burden to balance the state budget; in fact, all the citizens of Rhode Island should share the burden.

State workers in both Mass and CT are better paid with better benefits and the citizens pay less taxes than Rhode Island and drive on much better roads.

It’s apparent to anyone that takes the time to look, the ineptitude, misfeasance and malfeasance lies in the governor’s office and not with the workers that plow the highways, walk the cell bocks and patrol the highways of this corrupt little state.

The governor will leave office with state worse off that when he took over, the same as the companies he ran. He’ll then blame it all on the economy and the state worker and shoulder none of the responsibility.

The union members are doing a disservice to their own membership – so much for solidarity and brotherhood. By rejecting the proposal, they have pretty much guaranteed that the lowest seniority union members will be laid off. Nice work in voting your own members into the unemployment line!

Bottom line is the economy sucks and RI is one of two states that officially in a recession. I would rather have any job with crappy benefits, than no job with no benefits. These union people seem to prefer the latter.

hey union members, maybe you've had to sacrifice something else in your lives' in the past. THIS is one of them, as the state, it's municipalities and non-state workers begin to make the financial sacrifices for themselves and their families, YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW SUIT!

Buy Shaw's/Stop and Shop brand names/Ditch the digital cable/ Tell you kid they can't have a cell phone/ Stop purchasing non-essential items/ turn off your lights/ unplug the air conditioner and turn it off when all you really need is an oscillating fan/ stop saying yes when you know your budget is telling you NO

Robert,
Yeah, we're all registered Republicans who are complaining.(A great try, Einstein) And if Massachusetts and Connecticut have higher paying government jobs and lower taxes, the last time I looked, you could move your whiny butt there. What the sobbing, crying, whining union workers fail to see, is that you have jobs where it's almost impossible to be laid off and/or fired. Those jobs are not your birthright, and they're paid for by the taxpayers. In the real world with a sagging economy, you would be laid off, period. So stop whining about "how unfair" this contract is. No one cares about blue collar workers who whine about their lowly paid lifetime appointment jobs. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.........

I am so sick of hearing about how state workers are lazy. Most of them do their job with dignity and pride. Do you really think firing all the state workers would be the answer. Well I guess it doesn't matter if your license doesn't get renewed or if parolees aren't monitored or how those children that are abused I guess they don't matter either because those DCYF workers are lazy.

Unless I miss my guess, these STATE EMPLOYEES who are DEMANDING MORE MONEY from TAXPAYERS are RHODE ISLAND RESIDENTS who are also TAXPAYERS...

Emperor Carcieri (aka the Prince of Darkness) needs to start looking at the fat-cat crony positions he created (Bev Najarian, Steve Kass, etc.) and watch a few of those fatheads with overinflated egos roll.

To the general assembly: do the job you are SUPPOSED to do...not just showing up so you can get your FREE HEALTHCARE.

what is it all this this hatred for the state worker?? my last job i worked in for 15 years.had dealings every day with state workers at the workers compensation court.the clerks were always very professional and never kept me waiting while i was at the counter.also found them to be an excellent group of people.have a few friends who work at superior court and they love their jobs.also have another friend at one capitol hill who is a very dedicated state employee.the state worker is just looking for what we all want a fair deal.

I completely agree with Joanne!

Hey Lisa:

Why dont you quit your job.!!I will take it in a minute and without benefits.11+ dollars per hour seems good to me!!!So get a life and a education and then see if you can get a real job??I dont think that you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1Same old RI happy that I dont live there anymore!!

To the "former state worker"...

I wonder why you're a "former" state worker...

If every-thing's as good as you say, why would you have left in the first place!

You were probably fired for doing something stupid and now you're disgruntled and feel the need to disparage.

There is a reason why these guys work for the state for 20, 30 years or more: it is a racket, and they won't find 'jobs' like that with all the perks an bennies anywhere in the private sector. Well, they have gotten away with it for decades, but now the party is over and they don't want to fact it. I wouldn't mind seeing the whole bunch laid off; there are plenty of people in the unemployment lines just aching to take their jobs. Welcome to the new millennium!!

You people of RI disgust me. I lived in RI for 40 yrs. and I couldn't get out of it fast enough when I finally had the chance. Jay, although I disagree with his ideas towards the union is the only person who brings the slightest amount of level-headed thinkig to this whole group. If you really want to solve the problems in RI start by firing everyone, but start at the top. With the Governorthen his lackys, and then move on to the general assembly they are all a bunch of selfserving sadists who REALLY have it all. then take out the corrupt judicial system, yes all of them. If you think about it The state government started this whole mess in the first place.

But overall you all disgust me. I thank god you are no longer an influence on my children.

WOW!! The animosity from the citizens of RI is almost hard to take!! State employees take jobs in the government sector because they once had the reputation of "security." We all knew at the time (25 years ago) that the pay was not competitive; however, the benefits outweighed the payscale. With that said, as a taxpayer, I am willing to make concessions. What I cannot tolerate is the hatred directed at us. This has been an ongoing issue with the entire population of RI for some time. I must say that I have always had integrity and compassion with the general public for my entire career in state government. What I don't understand is why the people of RI are so bitter and angry. Are we not your neighbors and friends when you need advice on how to assist your elderly neighbor, your ailing relative and the never-ending questions on how you can help John or Jane Doe? I truly love my work and just want to make an honest living. Why shouldn't I be upset when my own employer (Governor) is making me look like I don't earn my wage/benefits? When I tell people what I do for a living, no one says they wish they were me.

As a member of c94, I want everyone to realize the truth. We didn't get to negotiate. There are proposals that the Gov. and staff didn't consider. Who in their right mind would vote for a plan that adds up to a net loss 3 of the 4 years. All of the little raises get eaten up by the health copay. Then He wants us to take a day without pay, and gives nothing in return. Negotiations are give and take. We would be worse of in 4 years than we are now. We will fight this Govenor and win!! Union Brothers and Sisters did the right thing. Let them give us what we deserve.

What will really be sad is when the privatization companies get all your personal information. You think you got junk mail now? HAHAHAH!

And don't forget they will have access to all your classified information especially medical records and your social security numbers. It's bad enough AAA workers have access to registry databases. Wait until the illegals get it!
So much for the hipaa law.

Chew on that one bub.

The next time you feel the need to sympathize with the state worker's plight to demand a raise during one of the worst economic periods in our history, try phoning a govt. agency or visit just about any govt. office; it will cure you.

When I worked at the R.I. Medical Center as a college student I was introduced to terms like: Killing the job..." which meant that if I performed my duties faster than the others, I would be assigned more work!

For the most part, state workers are nice, lazy slackers, and God forbid Carcieri should try to stop them because our state can't AFFORD them to do so anymore!

I read all the pro union and pro Carcieri comments. The one thing that seems to be missing is I am having a difficult time figuring what value/quality of life improvements most state work deliver to the citizens of Rhode Island. I scanned the list of state agencies. Thirty percent of the agencies could be eliminated and it would never impact me or anyone I know.

I joined AAA so I would not have to wait in line and deal with the worker in the Registry. I understand not stereotyping people, but I also understand why people do it. When I went to the Registry, I got the impression the workers thought they were doing me a favor. For the most part, state workers do not have to contend with competition. Competition promotes improves in both cost and services. Going back to the Registry, has any one see any improvement in cost or services from the Registry? I suspect not and this is the basic problem with government and drives people to stereotype state workers.

From someone who has worked in both the public and private sectors, state workers have an unbelievable benefits package with comparable salaries to the private sector. It is time for the unions to wake up and stop trying to take money from the hard working families in this state. It is time to add value to society, improve the service you provide, and give back rather than suck the life out of the state treasury.

I don't know what the answer is, but the State of RI is a mess. We left for Virginia seven years ago and haven't seen any turmoil like this since we moved. I lived in RI long enough to know that State and Municipal workers expect benefits that workers in other states can only dream of. The state population is just too small to keep giving these prizes away without conscequences. And guess what--no yearly teacher strikes here either.