Editor’s note: This commentary is by Michelle D.S. Salvador, first vice president of the Vermont State Employees’ Association. The views expressed are her own.
[S]everal times each legislative session I hear people talking about the “Vermont Way.” This January while sitting in the well of the Statehouse for the State of the State address, I listened to the songs and chants of fellow Vermonters calling for affordable health care for all. But even before the protesters had even been escorted out of the well, news reports and online posts were already quoting politicians declaring that the protesters’ tactics were ”just not the Vermont Way.” In fact, they were even referred to as fascists.
Even more recently my union, the Vermont State Employees’ Association (VSEA), has stood up in support of members’ contractual rights, while the administration and many of our elected representatives are calling on us to open our contracts outside of the normal bargaining process. When we declared that our contracts are a legally binding agreement between the employees and the administration, and when we stood up for those rights publicly, once again I began to hear the rumblings directed toward us that we are just not doing things the Vermont Way.
The governor also recently declared on the news that he is concerned that “doing layoffs is not the best way to do this,” which is why the VSEA “should come to the table and make some pay concessions.” He stated that hard-working Vermonters are not going to pay higher taxes because “we have a state workforce who is refusing to be reasonable. It’s just not the Vermont Way.” (Note: I have an internal reaction when I hear comments that seem to imply that state employees are not taxpayers, or hard-working Vermonters. In fact the middle and bottom 20 percent earners in Vermont pay the highest tax rates as most of our taxes come from consumption and use taxes. But I digress …)
I began to wonder after all of these years, could I have possibly misunderstood the meaning of the Vermont Way? Did I miss that day in class? Did they neglect to ask that question on the state entrance exam? So I set out to chat to a few Vermonters to learn more about the Vermont Way.
One Vermonter spoke about Vermonters having a deep love of rural life and respect of the outdoors. While another life-long Vermonter spoke about Vermonters fierce independence as being the Vermont Way.
I spoke to others as well whose roots in Vermont date back over seven generations, and they felt that the Vermont Way is neighbors helping neighbors and self-sufficiency. Like me, they believed this to be the traditional Vermont Way, but now they sense that the term seems to have been hijacked.
The Vermont Way that we hear about from some of our representatives seems to be a way to dismiss that which we do not want to face, that which might make us uncomfortable. The term is used to discount our voices.
One individual I know — who is the epitome of the self-sufficient, independent Vermonter — shared with me that the Vermont Way is to mind your own business and help people out when they need it. His partner worked for the state as a full-time temporary worker for 14 years. She had no benefits including health insurance, annual leave, sick time, or a retirement plan. Could this be the Vermont Way that they speak of so much under the golden dome?
Ed Olson a plow driver for the AOT gets up at 3 a.m. and often works seven days a week so that we can all get to work and school on cleared roads. Ed makes roughly $17 an hour. The 2.5 percent cost of living allowance that the governor would like Ed to give up would be $36 a pay check for Ed, and the difference between making or missing a mortgage payment, a utility bill or buying a pair shoes for the kids. But I did some calculations and with the 18 percent increase in health care that we are faced with Ed only stands to make an additional $13 a pay check. Could asking Vermonters like Ed to cover the budget gap that the leadership created be the Vermont Way?
Lorri LePage who has worked for the Vermont Department of Health in Newport for 15 years witnessed employees being dismissed under the Douglass administration with little to no regard for public need. She has seen her benefits cut while the cost of everything else rises. Lorri recently said in a letter to the editor, “I don’t understand how we are here again. The state is unable to balance a budget so is again looking to state employees to do it for them. … I don’t understand how it can be acceptable to cut funding for emergency dispatch services, rehabilitation for inmates, services for blind citizens, heating assistance, a multitude of services for Vermonters who are at the bottom of the pay scale, who are too young, too old, too sick, too beaten down and discouraged to have a voice that is loud enough to stop the travesty of their meager resources from being taken away from them.”
Lorri continued, “I know employees, whose marriages are failing because of the constant stress the employee works under, trying to do too much with too little. I know state employees who are forced to spend more time trying to cover the needs of their clients’ children than spending the time that they should have every night to spend with their own children. I have seen state employees in tears and physically ill because there is no answer for the elderly client who must choose between heat and food. I know state employees who have been forced to access professional counseling because of the despair they feel when they can’t help abused, hungry and frightened children. I can’t understand how this is acceptable. I can’t understand how our governor can be surprised when the VSEA and the many people it represents, refuse to entertain this request to give more, which we know will result in further jeopardizing the Vermonters that we have sworn to serve. Or how he can threaten to decimate the state workforce, just as his predecessor did, if his proposal isn’t met with altruistic enthusiasm.” Is this the Vermont Way?
Or are we, in fact, just like everywhere else in this country, yet we have convinced ourselves of our exceptionalism. Take income inequality. Some under the golden dome want to balance the budget on the backs of working Vermonters while the wealthiest continue to thrive. Gov. Shumlin says one group (the wealthy) should not be expected to cover the budget gap, but then why does he want the state employees and those who benefit from public services to? If we convince ourselves that we are so different than everywhere else, then perhaps we can turn a blind eye to these issues that we face that are exactly like everywhere else.
I believe the Vermont Way of our elders does in fact mean something. My neighbors have been here in Worcester, Vermont, for multiple generations. They are proud, private, strong, honorable folks and the first to help a neighbor in need. They exude the Vermont Way to me. There is no comparison between this and the Vermont Way that I hear about from some of those who were elected to represent us. The Vermont Way that we hear about from some of our representatives seems to be a way to dismiss that which we do not want to face, that which might make us uncomfortable. The term is used to discount our voices. It appears to be a way to shirk off responsibility for where we are now and place the focus somewhere else. “Hey you, clean up this mess we created and sit back and be quiet about it … that’s the Vermont Way!” The reality is that we are just like everyone and everywhere else. We, the working class, are struggling. Unless we start to address the root cause of income inequality in this state, and balance the budget in a way that does not negatively impact working class Vermonters, we will continue to see the negative impacts in our communities and among our neighbors for years to come.
So when you see Vermonters joining together and firmly say no more, or you see us fighting for human rights or to protect critical services for Vermonters, I challenge you to think twice before quickly chiding us for not doing things the Vermont Way. After all, it is history that has taught me that power rises from the bottom up, not from the top down.
