Hang Together or Hang Separately?

When I heard Thursday night that an Alameda County Superior Court judge sided with SEIU Local 1000 and other California state employee unions against the imposed three-day-a-month furloughs, I was at first overjoyed and hopeful for 2010. Judge Frank Roesch ruled that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to furlough about 200,000 state employees, regardless of whether they were paid through the general fund or special funds, was legally flawed. To which I said, “Duh!”

Then reality settled in. The state faces a $21 billion deficit and growing. Tomorrow the Governor makes his last State of the State address, and I expect the other shoe to drop – layoffs for state employees.

I admit that at first I selfishly thought, “Let him do layoffs. I have nine years with the state and I’m in a special fund agency.” Then I remembered I have friends who work for general fund agencies who don’t have as many years of state service as I do. I also have family members who work for the state who may be affected. A prime example is my sister, Black Woman Blogging (http://www.blackwomanblogging.blogspot.com). She is an attorney for a general fund state agency who has been furloughed, as I have been. She and her husband, an attorney for a federal agency, bought their first home together in November 2008. I don’t want them to lose their home and go through more financial struggles.

Last night on KTXL Fox 40 in Sacramento, reporter Rick Boone interviewed Antonio Mitchell, a 19-year state employee. Mitchell looked directly into the camera and told his union SEIU Local 1000, “If you’re listening, union reps, save everyone’s jobs. I think it’s better for us to take the 15 percent (pay cut) than for some to lose their jobs. That’s a no-win situation. I think everyone everybody can share in the pain.”

Mitchell has a valid point. The superior court judge’s ruling and the subsequent appeals are a train wreck waiting to happen. If SEIU Local 1000 wants to help its membership, it should take a poll of its members asking if we should stop the war and take furloughs over firings. If the unions truly represent us, the leadership should listen to us.

I will side with Mr. Mitchell and ask SEIU Local 1000 to stop. As Benjamin Franklin said, “We must hang together, gentlemen,…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.”

Writing Diva