[M]embers of the Vermont State Employees Association and the Vermont NEA marched down State Street to the steps of the capitol Saturday where they gave speeches, waved signs and criticized the state Legislature and Gov. Peter Shumlin.
“I heard Gov. Shumlin say we would probably compare him to Scott Walker at our rally today; well, if the shoe fits!” said Michelle Salvador, VSEA first vice president, to cheers and applause from the crowd on the Statehouse lawn.
Unions in Vermont are under attack the same way they are in Wisconsin, she said.
Shumlin wants to cut state labor costs by $10.8 million. The governor has said if the VSEA doesn’t open its contract to help balance the budget, his administration could lay off as many as 345 state workers.
Last week the House debated a bill that would have banned teachers’ strikes and school boards’ authority to impose contracts. After fierce lobbying from the Vermont NEA, the legislation was defeated.
The two unions joined forces for the rally in Montpelier.
Leslie Matthews, VSEA legislative committee chair, says reopening the contract with state workers would set a bad precedent. In difficult financial times, the state shouldn’t bail itself out by asking a small segment of workers to make special concessions, Matthews said.
The way Shumlin resolves the standoff with the VSEA could signal a new relationship between the state and labor, Matthews says.
“We have to remember that we’re up against some really strong forces. We’ve been dismayed hearing and seeing things coming out of the Statehouse that are really reminiscent of the anti-union and union busting practices around the country,” Matthews said.
Organized labor is “the best remedy” to address the expanding income inequality gap, she says, and the weakening of unions nationally over the past 30 years is a “root cause” of that inequality.
The battle between Shumlin and the VSEA over labor savings started in January when the governor gave his budget speech. He has said the cuts are needed to fill a $113 million budget gap.
The VSEA and the Shumlin administration have identified several million dollars in potential savings through reduced reliance on exempt and temporary workers as well as retirement incentives, but the two sides are still far apart. The union and the governor’s office only have a month to resolve their differences before the budget is finalized by the Legislature.
At a recent news conference, Shumlin said he’s being treated differently by the union than previous governors who have sought concessions from the VSEA, and he’s only asking that they be part of the solution “as they always have under Govs. Snelling, Dean and Douglas in tough times.”
“I don’t think (Shumlin’s) getting any different treatment. We hoped we would get different treatment from him, a Democratic governor, than we would get from Gov. Douglas,” Matthews said.
Since January, the rhetoric on both sides has intensified. The Shumlin administration has insisted on the cuts (which were approved by the House, and await Senate consideration) while union leaders have reiterated that the governor and lawmakers need to raise taxes on the wealthy to avoid laying off state workers or cutting services.
Shumlin has repeatedly said he has no interest in raising taxes on Vermonters with the highest incomes. The budget, as passed by the House, includes $35 million in new taxes — a cap on itemized deductions that would raise $20 million and the elimination of an income tax refund deduction that would generate $15.5 million. The House budget proposal includes $53 million in reductions to projected growth in state spending.
Salvador, of the VSEA, says lawmakers and the governor have settled for “cruel devastating cuts” to social welfare programs and public services.
A handful of lawmakers attended Saturday’s rally. Rep. Joey Donovan, D-Burlington, chair of the Working Vermonters caucus, finds the Wisconsin comparisons a little overwrought, but she says Shumlin’s request that VSEA reopen its contract “unconscionable.”
“I think some of the comments were hyperbole,” Donovan said. “I don’t think we’re Wisconsin. I think we’re still a labor friendly state.”
Rep. Jean O’Sullivan, D-Burlington, said there are equitable ways to raise taxes that would enable the state to avoid potential layoffs or service cuts, but Shumlin and the Democratic leadership in the House aren’t interested in other tax proposals.
O’Sullivan was one of the sponsors of a proposal to raise the highest marginal tax rate on the top 3 percent of taxpayers, which would generate $12 million. That’s enough to backfill many of the most objectionable cuts, and would go a long way toward obviating the need for labor savings, she said. The proposal was defeated in the House.
“We wouldn’t be here at the rally if they’d done that,” O’Sullivan said.
Joel Cook, executive director of the Vermont NEA, said
workers rights are “under assault all over the country,” but unions still have power. The Vermont NEA successfully opposed a proposed ban on their ability to strike last week, home care workers recently unionized, and the unions representing Chittenden County Transportation Authority bus drivers and Fairpoint Communications workers both recently took collective action to improve their labor contracts.
There have also been setbacks. The American Federation of Teachers failed to organize child care workers and the Vermont NEA lost a bid to unionize non-teaching personnel at the University of Vermont.