Thread: Last-Ditch Attempts by State, Local Govt's to Save Jobs

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Last-Ditch Attempts by State and Local Government to Save Jobs

In a welcome but choppy and exceptionally slow start in terms of what needs to happen, some public unions are agreeing to pay cuts in order to save jobs. In other cases, cities are imposing their will with unions fighting every step of the way.

Please consider the New York Times article More Workers Face Pay Cuts, Not Furloughs http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/busin ... ml?_r=2&hp

The furloughs that popped up during the recession are being replaced by a highly unusual tactic: actual cuts in pay.

Local and state governments, as well as some companies, are squeezing their employees to work the same amount for less money in cost-saving measures that are often described as a last-ditch effort to avoid layoffs.

A new report on Tuesday showed a slight dip in overall wages and salaries in June, caused partly by employees working fewer hours.

Though average hourly pay is still higher than when the recession began, the new wage rollbacks feed worries that the economy has weakened and could even be at risk of deflation.

Pay cuts are appearing most frequently among state and local governments, which are under extraordinary budget pressures and have often already tried furloughs, i.e., docking pay in exchange for time off. Warning that they will have to lay off people otherwise, many governors and mayors are pressing public employee unions to accept a reduction in salary of a few percentage points, without getting days off in exchange.

At the University of Hawaii, professors have accepted a 6.7 percent cut. Albuquerque has trimmed pay for its 6,000 employees by 1.8 percent on average, and New York’s governor, David A. Paterson, has sought a 4 percent wage rollback for most state employees. State troopers in Vermont agreed to a 3 percent cut. In California, teachers in the Capistrano and Pacheco school districts have accepted salary cuts.

“We’ve seen pay freezes before in the public sector, but pay cuts are something very new to that sector,â€

Unionized public employees are typically lower-paid worker bees for the most part. They need to look at directors and officers, who often make six figures. That was the case where I worked, a public university.