Results tagged “unions”

Gregoire just got hit with a second lawsuit over her proposed 2009 budget, which--unlawfully, according to the unions suing the governor--reneges on certain contracted pay raises for state employees and home-care workers. Gregoire's office has responded, saying the money simply isn't there to fulfill the terms of those contracts. Seattlest is a union girl (we have a fraction of Irish blood coursing through our veins, and some stubborn Midwest farmer blood in there too), but we have to wonder: what exactly are the two angry unions hoping to accomplish? A different budget allocating non-existent money? A token acknowledgment that though what's done is done, what's done was illegal? Good luck with that.

Most news reports and editorials that reference the striking Bellevue teachers list salary as the primary motivator for the strike, which is the easy play because it's always about money. Except when it isn't. The striking Bellevue teachers we've talked to (full disclosure: Seattlest's wife is a striking Bellevue teacher) list the current implementation of the centralized curriculum as the primary motivation for the strike.