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WELCOME TO THE MASS CO'S MESSAGE BOARD FOR UNION ISSUES


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Subject: PREDICTION


Author:
SAME AS LAST TIME
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Date Posted: 09:42:50 03/04/11 Fri

YES WINS 4 TO 1, AND 2,000 MORONS DON'T VOTE

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Subject: 2 DAYS TO THE VOTE COUNT


Author:
HOSE-B
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Date Posted: 20:48:45 03/02/11 Wed

HOLIDAYS BACK,PAY RAISES,COMP TIME COLUMNS,UNION BAGS,FOOD ORDERS,COFFEE,WALLETS 4 OUR BADGES,LIFE IS GOOD !

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Subject: Contract was voted down


Author:
It's what I heard
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Date Posted: 17:36:34 03/04/11 Fri


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Subject: Let The Battles Begin


Author:
Shot over the Bow
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Date Posted: 14:09:43 02/25/11 Fri

A Bay State Republican lawmaker is pushing for a low-key version of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining crackdown amid a national firestorm over union benefits.

“We have to unshackle managers’ hands so they can run things responsibly,” said state Rep. Dan Winslow (R-Norfolk), who served under former Gov. Mitt Romney and is currently U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s legal counsel. “My legislation would give them the tools to manage wisely and well.”

What do you think of the showdown over public unions and collective bargaining? Join in the Friday Throwdowntoday, 12-1.

Fiscal watchdogs told the Herald yesterday that Massachusetts could save $250 million if the state passed union-busting legislation — similar to Walker’s — that would eliminate collective bargaining on most issues except salary.

Winslow’s bill would remove collective bargaining on issues including hiring part-time workers, implementing drug and alcohol testing, and hiring, firing or promoting workers without adherence to seniority.

Local union officials quickly blasted the bill, saying Massachusetts’ political leaders were unlikely to follow the national anti-union tide that’s hit Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Oklahoma.

“This is ridiculous,” said Steve Lewis, treasurer of SEIU Local 509, which represents 7,500 state employees. “ I don’t know if he’s fantasizing that he lives in Wisconsin or what. I don’t think this is something that any of the unions are going to be concerned about — fortunately we have a Legislature and a governor who are much more friendly to working people.”

Winslow’s bill moves to expand a management-rights statute that was passed in 1980 to cut costs at the MBTA — largely thanks to the work of then-state representative Barney Frank. The bill saved the public transit agency “millions of dollars” by eliminating collective bargaining on overtime and hiring part-time workers, said MBTA management labor lawyer Phil Boyle.

“There were massive savings, especially with the changes to overtime and part-time workers. Millions of dollars were saved,” Boyle said.

Many management rights have slowly eroded since the bill passed, but T managers are still able to hire part-time employees without collective bargaining.

A spokesman for Frank said the congressman is proud of his past legislation, but declined to comment on whether it should be extended to all state employees.

Winslow’s legislation comes as his former boss, Mitt Romney, donated $5,000, the maximum amount allowed, to Wisconsin Republicans yesterday as a show of support. The governor of the chaos-ridden state sent state troopers to round up the missing Senate Democrats yesterday after they had fled the state in order to avoid voting on the controversial legislation.

The bill can’t be passed in the Wisconsin Senate unless at least one Democrat is attending.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1319252

Related Articles

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Subject: MCOFU Boxing


Author:
disgusted (sad)
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Date Posted: 01:08:16 02/28/11 Mon

Is MCOFU really sending 11 people to Ireland on a union paid vacation? Please tell me this is a rumor...

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Subject: The big question...


Author:
How many slugs won't vote? 2,000 like last time?
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Date Posted: 00:03:36 02/27/11 Sun

Vote yes, or vote no. But vote! If you don't, please quit. You can go work in a cubicle for 25g's a year, and still afford to live in your mommy's basement.

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Subject: Good Info


Author:
Pro Union
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Date Posted: 08:35:25 02/25/11 Fri

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you all vote NO. You don't need to be influenced or even be smart to see what this is all about people. Read it. It offers NOTHING we aren't already entitled to. We will be giving the DOC what it wants and getting zero in return. Paying it forward so to speak but we already did. We didn't have to give furlough days we lost thousands in holiday pay. Listen... 1. we have a 1% raise pending from july 2010. 2. we are already slated to get 3% in july 2011. Now it is 4% owed. Why would we agree to get 1% this july and not get 3% until next july? 3. they tell us we will get our holiday pay back in july 2012. by then the courts will have ordered it. 4. that comp board proposal is so you will use the time and DOC won't have to pay you for it. 5. The new language only talks about past practice. It doesn't specifically say you will be paid for all 13 holidays. Right now, there is a present and soon to be past practice that the DOC took your holiday pay away. Do not look at any of this as a good thing. There is nothing good about it. Again MCOFU laying down. We got NOTHING for years, no money, no benefits. We pay more in health insurance and still have horrible sick time language. READ IT PLEASE. What ever you do, don't not vote!!!! We have the DOC in a position to bargain...they will not let us get away if it is voted down. The DOC wants to wrap this up by July.

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Subject: Reality


Author:
Bites
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Date Posted: 10:46:01 02/26/11 Sat

State House News Service / February 26, 2011
E-mail this article To: Invalid E-mail address Add a personal message:(80 character limit) Your E-mail: Invalid E-mail address Sending your articleYour article has been sent.
E-mail|Print|Reprints|Comments (24)Text size – + BROCKTON — Launching a new State Police class in October would add 150 troopers to a force that has lost about 400 officers over the past five years.

Tweet Be the first to Tweet this!.Submit to Diggdiggsdigg.
Yahoo! Buzz ShareThis .Patrick administration officials testifying at budget hearings in Brockton said there are about 2,100 State Police officers now, down from more than 2,500 in 2006.

“We are down to some really severe levels,’’ said Mary Beth Heffernan, secretary of public safety. “We are at the point right now where it’s a problem and we need to get a class on.’’

Patrick administration officials said the plans are contingent on the receipt of appropriations from the Legislature. Patrick, in his budget plan unveiled last month, proposed a $2.50 to $2.70 surcharge on auto insurance policies to fund a new class of State Police cadets.

Administration officials expect as many as 200 more troopers to retire by the end of the current fiscal year.

At the hearing, Heffernan, while defending the administration’s plans to close a pair of prisons, said the administration is also eyeing plans for a new class of correction officers this spring.

Heffernan said the administration has also looked consistently at the idea of consolidating the State Police and MBTA police forces.

“It would not be a savings, no. We’ve looked at that proposal many times,’’ Heffernan said. She called it “too expensive to think about right now.’’

Heffernan, asked about the prison closures, again declined to specify which ones, saying it remained subject to discussion.

“I don’t mean to be glib at all. That’s not my intention,’’ she said.

Heffernan and a team of top state public safety officials faced light questioning from House and Senate Ways and Means Committee members about the Patrick administration’s extensive plans to overhaul probation and parole, sentencing laws, and supervision of inmates following their release from prisons and jails.

Heffernan described the state’s system of supervising inmates upon release as “bifurcated’’ and “fragmented.’’

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
MORE FROM BOSTON.COM

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Subject: Solidarity


Author:
People Get Ready
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Date Posted: 10:40:22 02/24/11 Thu

The fight of our generation is here. What happens in Wisconsin will be a defining moment for labor for the next century. As Correction Officers and state employees we should start showing our support for our Union brothers and sisters. Any labor rallies should have a strong MCOFU presence. We can disagree over alot of issues but we can not give up our right to negotiate.

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Subject: How long before they try to do here what they are doing in Wisconsin?


Author:
Eliminate collective bargaining....
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Date Posted: 13:36:15 02/18/11 Fri

It is in today's Boston Herald:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/midwest/view.bg?articleid=1317731&srvc=home&position=comment

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Subject: Wish I was broke like the state


Author:
really
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Date Posted: 08:24:33 02/24/11 Thu

By Jay Fitzgerald | Thursday, February 24, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets


Photo by Staff graphic
The state government could easily wipe out its budget gap and a large chunk of its long-term pension and building debts — if it’s willing to part with the State House, Zakim Bridge, Mass Pike and other prized assets.

As debate rages across the nation about how governments can reduce their huge deficits, an old idea is being raised again: Sell off publicly owned properties instead of just cutting spending or hiking taxes.

The latest call comes from Harvard financial historian Niall Ferguson, who’s receiving enormous attention lately for suggesting that the U.S. government and individual states could reap tens of billions of dollars by putting assets on the auction block.

Don’t dismiss the idea.

Cash-strapped Arizona last year actually sold off its state Capitol complex, prisons and other properties for more than $1 billion. Arizona’s lawmakers and governor now work out of leased office space.

And Chicago recently unloaded its 30,000 parking meters for $1.2 billion to private investors.

The Herald asked experts how much Massachusetts might reap if it got desperate enough for a budget-saving fire sale:

• The state Lottery — which former Treasurer Tim Cahill once mulled selling — could fetch at least $1 billion, with a guaranteed annual cut of proceeds, experts say.

• The Pike, with tolls already in place, could nab anywhere from $3 billion to $5 billion. Private firms would collect tolls and maintain the east-west highway.

• The Zakim and Tobin bridges could easily fetch hundreds of millions of dollars each, assuming new tolls are implemented on the Zakim and the Tobin kept its current toll system, according to experts.

• The State House could score about $500 million, although some wondered if it’s too old to get top dollar.

“It’s an intriguing idea,” said Ted Oatis, a principal at Chiofaro Co., a Boston developer.

The state already rents space at private buildings, including parts of the Saltonstall complex and the old Teradyne headquarters on Harrison Avenue.

But Oatis and others say the plan wouldn’t work if the state just used sale proceeds for the one-time plugging of deficits. The selloff would have to be accompanied with disciplined balanced budgets.

In the 1990s, former Gov. William Weld proposed the privatization of state parks, prisons, roads and even some fee-generating court services — but Democratic opponents largely slammed the door on the idea via the 1993 Pacheco Law, which strictly limits privatization of government services.

The author of that law, Sen. Marc Pacheco (D-Tauton) doesn’t sound like he’s any more willing today to allow a massive asset sale.

“I’m not against privatization per se,” he said. “It’s what it costs taxpayers at the end of the day.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1318991

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Subject: lets recall the entire e-board


Author:
jimmy
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Date Posted: 12:08:40 02/22/11 Tue

recall the entire e-board

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Subject: Vote


Author:
Rep. L
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Date Posted: 08:10:35 02/24/11 Thu

Once in awhile you have to go out into the streets and get bloody !

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Subject: VOTE NO AND WHERE WAS MCOFU?


Author:
SERIOUSLY!
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Date Posted: 23:15:01 02/22/11 Tue

Read other message boards on why to vote no. Isn't it funny that I am watching the Fox news and there was a big rally at the state house about unions. Where was MCOFU? We had an opportunity to get some media,FACE time and guess what? Yup no sight of an eboard member. Correction Officers should have flooded the state house, holding signs, getting FACE time! Deval Patrick said it best, Unions are good for Massachusetts, BUT he doesn't plan on doing much for them. What the fuck is he doing now? That's right, NOTHING! So nothing would change. So keep smiling and nodding yes when MCOFU tells you to vote yes or ROLL OVER! We will be the next Wisconsin and can not blame anyone but ourselves, as usual! Chit out your balls and vote NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Subject: MARCH 4 BALLOT COUNT , PLEASE PASS !


Author:
MONEY ON THE WAY
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Date Posted: 16:29:16 02/22/11 Tue


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Subject: Vote


Author:
Rook
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Date Posted: 12:55:38 02/15/11 Tue

So the way I see it vote yes and possibly get 0,1,3,3 plus holiday and comp time, or vote no and the e-board comes up with a new contract that we all can agree on (or at least the majority)

If we vote no can the state come back and tell us to eat another 0% and like it, or worse? (evergreen)

If we vote yes are we screwing ourselves out of something better?

What else am I missing? I want to make the right choice but am missing big chunks of information.

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Subject: Ballots on the way,updated contract to pass !!!


Author:
I will vote yes
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Date Posted: 08:36:43 02/11/11 Fri


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Subject: This is why you should vote YES!


Author:
Pro Union
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Date Posted: 10:19:32 02/11/11 Fri

This video is about ALL unions, not just Fire Fighters. The republican fear-mongers want to put the whole economic crisis on our backs. They expect us to pay for what the REPUBLICANS started in the first place. Still Joe citizen listens to crap like this and doesn't want to hear that we haven't had a raise in years, or that the state isn't paying us EXTRA for holiday, whether it's contractual or not. The average person hasn't had a raise in years just like us, and many of them have lost their jobs. Without the support of the public, there isn't much we can do/ Picketing at this point is useless. Who's going to listen and sympathise with us, NO ONE!!!

The best decision we can make right now is to take the contract and minimize our losses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af9do3wNC8s&feature=related

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