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I'm no fan of Labor Unions, mainly because I think they're too easily corruptable; but then again I'm no fan of polaticians either, mainly because I think they're too easily corruptable. So I've been getting a big kick out of the ongoing issues between our esteemed Mayor of Boston, Mumbles Menino and the local labor unions; mainly the Boston Police Partrolmans Union. See, in the years past the Government would play the unions off against each other when they negotiated contracts, but a couple years back all the major unions in town got together and decided on a tactic of complete information sharing. This has made it impossible for the Mayor to negotiate contracts "behind closed doors" with each union and resulted in situations like the police union not having a contract for the past 2 years. The current issue (that they're making public)? The mayor says he can do a 11.9% raise over 4 years, the cops want 17%. The mayor says he won't do it because the city can't afford it. The cops say they should get a 3% COL increase every year anyway so they're not only not getting a raise, they're getting jipped.
It's gone on like this for 2years. All of the sudden a special arbitrator has been appointed by the State (after the head of the state labor board was replaced by the Rep Gov) and it was declared that a legally binding contract that cannot be appealed will be finished by 2pm today. why you as? because the cops are having fun picketting all of the Mayors big swank parties related to the DNC when it comes to town next week. Kerry already snubbed the mayor at the Mayors Conferance a couple weeks ago because he said that he wouldn't cross a pickett line. So menino finally got the thing kicked to an arbitrator because he says that if the cops have a contract in place they can't pickett. Nice try, but they still gonna pickett cause there are a few other unions that don't have contracts and they gotta "show support".
it's like all the best bit of The Real World seasons rolled into one real life happening. You want to move to Boston now don't you?
The real question: if there is a pickett line at the FleetCenter will Kerry stick to his guns and not enter the convention or will there be a convienent loophope for him to use so he can go inside and pickup his nomination trophy?
I'm no fan of Labor Unions, mainly because I think they're too easily corruptable; but then again I'm no fan of polaticians either, mainly because I think they're too easily corruptable. So I've been getting a big kick out of the ongoing issues between our esteemed Mayor of Boston, Mumbles Menino and the local labor unions; mainly the Boston Police Partrolmans Union. See, in the years past the Government would play the unions off against each other when they negotiated contracts, but a couple years back all the major unions in town got together and decided on a tactic of complete information sharing. This has made it impossible for the Mayor to negotiate contracts "behind closed doors" with each union and resulted in situations like the police union not having a contract for the past 2 years. The current issue (that they're making public)? The mayor says he can do a 11.9% raise over 4 years, the cops want 17%. The mayor says he won't do it because the city can't afford it. The cops say they should get a 3% COL increase every year anyway so they're not only not getting a raise, they're getting jipped.
It's gone on like this for 2years. All of the sudden a special arbitrator has been appointed by the State (after the head of the state labor board was replaced by the Rep Gov) and it was declared that a legally binding contract that cannot be appealed will be finished by 2pm today. why you as? because the cops are having fun picketting all of the Mayors big swank parties related to the DNC when it comes to town next week. Kerry already snubbed the mayor at the Mayors Conferance a couple weeks ago because he said that he wouldn't cross a pickett line. So menino finally got the thing kicked to an arbitrator because he says that if the cops have a contract in place they can't pickett. Nice try, but they still gonna pickett cause there are a few other unions that don't have contracts and they gotta "show support".
it's like all the best bit of The Real World seasons rolled into one real life happening. You want to move to Boston now don't you?
The real question: if there is a pickett line at the FleetCenter will Kerry stick to his guns and not enter the convention or will there be a convienent loophope for him to use so he can go inside and pickup his nomination trophy?
