Oh, how the worm has turned! Bernie, the anti-business union hero!? Wants to support unions in Starbucks? What tripe coming from his millionaire mouth.
Lest we forget, when he was the mayor of the Queen City, he fought tooth and nail against the police and fire departments forming unions for better pay and working conditions.
At the time, Burlington police were near last on New England police department comparables. There was only one department with worse pay in all of New England. But did he care? No! He was dead set against unionization of public safety in the city.
We ended up going to arbitration in 1982-83 because he and his City Hall acolytes wouldn’t budge. I was on the police negotiating team at the time and was shocked how he clung to his communist ideals.
I guess those ideals are flexible now that he’s in Washington, D.C. Typical.
William J. Wolfe
Retired corporal
Burlington Police Department
