On January 25, a coalition of groups and individuals calling itself “Vermonters for Quality Mental Health” held a press conference at the State House to voice their concern about the Shumlin Administration’s plan to replace the acute mental health beds at the antiquated Vermont State Hospital with only a 16-bed facility in central Vermont and some additional acute beds in private hospitals in Brattleboro and Rutland. VSEA is assisting the coalition with getting its message out and would like to share this short 10-minute video with you.
All posts by VSEADoug
VSEA & AFL-CIO Call On VRP To Rescind Priebus Invite
The VSEA and AFL-CIO released this statement today:
The Vermont State Employees Association (VSEA) and the Vermont AFL-CIO are calling on Vermont Republican Party (VRP) Chair Pat McDonald to rescind an invitation to newly elected Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Reince Priebus to speak at an April 13 VRP event at the Hilton in Burlington.
Prior to being elected RNC Chair in January 2011, Priebus was chair of Wisconsin’s Republican Party and is largely credited with helping get Scott Walker elected Governor and helping lay the groundwork for the current war being waged on workers’ collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin.
“As Vermonters rally behind the Wisconsin public employees’ fight to retain their collective bargaining rights, the Vermont Republican Party is inviting the architect of much of what is playing out right now in Wisconsin to come to Vermont and spread his anti-worker, anti-middle-class message here,” said VSEA President Bob Hooper. “VSEA thinks this sends the wrong message right now to working Vermonters and we are asking the Vermont Republican Party to rescind its invitation to Mr. Priebus and instead educate him about why a large majority of Vermonters-and Americans-support collective bargaining rights for public employees.”
Vermont AFL-CIO President Jill Charbonneau reminded that just a few weeks ago, the Vermont House overwhelmingly passed a strongly worded resolution supporting collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin public employees.
“By a two to one margin, Vermont representatives denounced what’s going on in Wisconsin right now, so it should be pretty clear that Mr. Priebus’ beliefs are not shared by a large majority of Vermonters,” Charbonneau added.
Charbonneau said the AFL-CIO and VSEA are also concerned about some of the allegations leveled against Preibus by Wisconsin organizations like One Wisconsin Now, whose director warned after Preibus’ election “Now that Reince Priebus will have the RNC’s treasury at his disposal, those across the country interested in fair and clean elections will be on high alert.”
“Is Reince Preibus’ message really one that a majority of Vermonters-Republican. Democrat or Progressive-will embrace, or would even invite?” asked Charbonneau. “We don’t think so, and we call on Ms. McDonald to please rescind the invitation.”
Hooper agreed, adding “I am shocked this is the image the Party wants to project right now to working Vermonters, many of whom enjoy good working relationships with Vermont’s Republican legislators.
What’s Good For The Goose?
( – promoted by Jack McCullough)
Early in yesterday’s Free Press debate, Brian Dubie once again put on his “union guy” hat, choosing this time, however just to say “I belong to a labor union.” Given that it looks like Dubie is not going to drop his “union guy” claim any time soon, I have to wonder why he introduced a proposal during the October 7 VPT debate to gut state employees’ retirement by switching his VSEA brothers and sisters from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution pension plan (read: if your personal investment skills suck, your retirement probably will as well).
This is an odd proposal from Mr. Union Guy because his own union, the Allied Pilots Association (APA), has been fighting a tough battle for years now to protect the defined benefit plan APA pilots negotiated with American Airlines. In fact, pilots belonging to Mr. Dubie’s union are some of the last in the airline industry who still enjoy a defined benefit plan, called simply “Plan A.”
On the blog “Airline Pilot Central,” I found the following entry posted by an American pilot:
“Since the advent of deregulation thirty years ago almost every legacy carrier has been liquidated through bankruptcy or had their defined benefit retirement plans liquidated and the liabilities of those plans passed on to the [federal] PBGC. The one lone exception to this has been American Airlines.”
“From our perspective as pilots there are two problems with replacing defined benefit plans with defined contribution plans. The first problem as was mentioned earlier is that some folks are extraordinarily bad at managing money. In any investor population there are some people that don’t have the interest or the talent to do well in financial matters. Pilots as a group are no exception. Any retirement plan that relies solely on DC plans to fund retirement is likely to have a significant percentage of its retirees reduced to poverty by the end of their retirement.”
“The second problem with the DC plans is that because of limits on how much the government will allow you to contribute to your B plan. In most cases it is not enough to fund an adequate retirement.”
So, Mr. Union Guy sits idly by while his boss cuts Vermont state employee jobs (even though APA pilots are vociferously fighting back against American Airlines’ job cuts) and he parts ways with his APA brothers and sisters on the issue of American pilots switching to a defined contribution plan.
Guessing Mr. Union Guy isn’t a big hit at APA functions, unless he’s putting on a different face with that crowd.
Note: Vermonters are going to hear a lot from a certain Chicken Little crowd in the next few months about how state employees need to make changes to their pension system or the sky will indeed fall. Please remember that state employees sat with the Douglas Administration, Legislature and the Treasurer in 2007 and agreed to changes that Treasurer Spaulding said at the time would make the employees’ pension fund “sustainable.” In fact, in papers across the state, Vermont officials were praising state employees for their cooperation and compromise. Now, because of recent Wall Street greed and predatory bankers, the pension changes state employees agreed to in 2007 are a convenient distant memory for some. State employees have not forgotten.
My One Minute With Brian D.
( – promoted by odum)
Where: Tunbridge Fairgrounds
Why: WDEV Debate
Weather: Overcast with a light drizzle
After navigating his way through a small throng of overzealous Dubie co-pilots, candidate Dubie wandered over and shook the hand of my colleague and then turned to me:
Brian: Hi. I’m Brian.
Me: Hi. Nice to meet you. Where do you stand on card check recognition?
Brian: Well, I’m a union guy, and I…
Me: Yeah, yeah. I know all that, but where do you stand on card check.
Brian: I’m against it (walks away and returns to adoring co-pilots).
All I needed to know. Thanks for being honest.
Union Man?
( – promoted by odum)
It’s amazing to me that, to date, the Vermont press has given Lt. Governor Dubie a free pass on his oft repeated claim throughout this campaign that he is “a union man.”
While it’s true that Dubie is a member in good standing with his union, the Allied Pilots Association (APA is a small independent union representing American Airlines’ pilots), his inaction and silence over the past few years-as his boss, Governor Douglas, was slicing and dicing state government-did little to bolster his claim that he’s a union man. Dubie’s lack of solidarity with his VSEA brothers and sisters is especially appalling when you look at the issues confronting his own union.
A search of the APA’s in-house magazine, and we excerpt the following:
•From APA Secretary Treasurer’s column in Jan. 2010 Flightline magazine:
“We often think of APA as the entity tasked with negotiating increased pay and benefits on our behalf. An equally important but sometimes overlooked role for APA is defending and preserving the benefits we have already negotiated and achieved over the years. American Airlines pilots enjoy one of the richest benefits packages in the industry, consisting of medical, disability, life insurance and pension benefits. These valuable benefits are undoubtedly worth defending, preserving and saving;”
•”Management expends a great deal of effort on communicating with us during contract negotiations. The chief goal of management’s communications is to lower our expectations by generating anxiety and concern. Using a powerful in-house communications team as well as expensive outside consultants, working internally through chief pilots and externally through the media, management will continue to exert pressure on APA pilots and attempt to derail our pursuit of a restorative contract;” and
•From a May 2010 APA press release on Spirit Airlines labor problems:
“We are well acquainted with the challenge our Spirit Airlines colleagues face,” said APA President Captain Lloyd Hill. “They are dealing with a management team engaged in delay tactics and intent on extracting further employee concessions, which has unfortunately become a familiar refrain throughout the airline industry. “As professional aviators, we cannot permit the industry-wide ‘race to the bottom’ mentality that prevailed during much of the past decade to continue,” he said. “We therefore pledge our support to the pilots of Spirit Airlines as they attempt to conclude their contract negotiations amicably and without inconvenience to the airline’s customers.”
And a quick search on YouTube revealed several recent videos reporting on unrest within the APA ranks because of management proposals to cut the workforce. In one video, it’s reported that Dubie’s own union is promising quick legal action to stop the cuts and APA leaders vow to fight management tooth and nail.
So the question for Brian Dubie is, if you are the union man your purport to be, why did you not join in solidarity with your VSEA brothers and sisters when they were fighting the exact same battle as you and your APA brothers and sisters? As a proud union man, did you make any effort at all to work with VSEA to stop your boss’ wholesale cuts? Did you advise Jim Douglas that, as an APA member, you know what it’s like to be trapped in a race to the bottom? Did you try and get him to rethink cutting the nearly 1,000 state employee positions he did?
It’s one thing to crisscross Vermont proclaiming you’re a “union man,” but as any good union member worth his/her salt knows, when it comes to labor disputes, actions often speak far louder than words.
If Mr. Dubie is elected governor, I trust he will put his money where his mouth is, especially when he sits down to look at our state’s hundred-plus million deficit and begins hearing from his apparatchiks about how we need to keep cutting services and jobs and leave wealthy Vermonters and the state’s Rain Day funds alone. After all, it’s pretty clear what your union, the APA, will do if American Airlines proposes new staff cuts.
You can’t have it both ways Brother Dubie. A true union man/woman would have stood in solidarity with VSEA in its fight against Gov. Douglas’ cuts, or with any other Vermont union members’ facing the same management tactics and demands as American’s pilots.
What’s your excuse for sitting idly by Mr. Union Man?