Thanksgiving is over. Black Friday, that magical day after Thanksgiving when stores cut prices to reasonable levels in hopes of breaking even for the year, is past. The weather is cold, damp, and wet. The prospects of snow increase day by day. Unemployment is on the increase again. Housing foreclosures are on the increase. Personal bankruptcies have exceeded one and a half million through October this year, a new high. More than 58,500 businesses filed bankruptcy papers during the same period. Negotiations for pay increases for city employees has begun. Yep, the holiday season is underway.
We live in an age of greed, selfishness, and feelings of entitlement. Starting in the 1960s, the work ethic in the United States changed. Pride of craftsmanship was traded for the easy dollar. This is the curse of the MBA, that highly educated group, if you have low expectations of education, of managers whose total ambition was to build the bottom line, to make larger profits. These supposed financial geniuses had the book learning but no practical understanding of business. It is unfortunate that they succeeded in destroying the concepts of dedication to God, country, and family which made the United States the great nation it was once. In its place they created a society where bigger is better, where morality, responsibility, and pride in self was replaced by the concept of “you owe me”.
The principle of responsibility for one’s self has all but disappeared. The pride of a job well done has for the most part been replaced with the concept of I deserve things and if I don’t work for them, then somebody should provide them to me. The idea of being paid for the work one does seems no longer to exist. Employment is now considered to be a right instead of a privilege.
It used to be that that pay raises were based on achievement. You work harder, you get promoted, you make more money. That and the acceptance of responsibility, was the bellwether of pay raises. Today that is no longer the case. There does not seem to be any correlation between ability, competence, professionalism and wage scales. The last negotiations between the City and the Police Union, along with the other three city unions, were unique in a number of ways. With the rest of the country in a depression, pay raises were granted city employees not based on achievement or job proficiency.
Police officers in New Philadelphia are in the top 20% of wage earners in the city. The average salary in the department, including benefits (wages, sick pay, hospital and medical care, retirement, clothing, paid holidays, overtime, personal days, special assignment differentials, et cetera) is in excess of $65,000 per annum. Not bad when the average income for city residents is somewhat below $44,000.
How did the wage scale get to the level it has for city employees during three depression years? What happened is two fold.
First, the administration has been inept in its negotiations. Unions have been advised by union negotiators, lawyers who do nothing but represent union members in conflicts with the city. The City failed to hire competent attorneys to represent it in such discussions. During the past negotiations the attorney hired by the Administration was not qualified in the intricacies of labor law, being primarily a human resources (personnel) manager. The City was in jeopardy at the start and never recovered. Members of City Council, for the most part, did not perform diligently to determine if the city was able to afford the pay raises, most of which were based on creation of new positions of sergeant and lieutenant, and the lumping together of all patrolmen into the highest paid level. City councilmen generally approved pay increases for 2% with the promise of reopening negotiations at the end of the year.
Secondly, when disputed contracts go to arbitration, the referee has a long association with the union movement, generally as a long term union member of good standing. When union lawyers present their case to a friendly arbitrator while the City uses an attorney who is not familiar with, nor has experience with, union law, the result is fairly well predictable. In the past, such conflicts have been decided on the principle that the City has the money and can afford the increases. There is no reason to suspect that the same formula will be used in the upcoming union contract discussions.
The police are going to ask for more money, probably more benefits as well. In return they won’t be asked to do anything more for the citizens than they already do. No increase in services, no increase in courtesy, no increase in patrolling of troublesome areas, no increased enforcement of the laws and ordinances which they ignore now. Business as usual, that’s the plan. But if they don’t get the wage and benefit increase they want? Well, it can’t get any worse. Or can it?
So here we go again. There will be much ado in the negotiations but they will be the same smoke and mirrors approach of the past. The city will be hit again for unjustified increased expense brought about by self-interest on the part of the unions. The added expense to the city will be made up as the mayor’s promised during his election campaign, to raise city taxes to pay the cost of City wage increases and layoffs will not be considered.
So here we have it. Another year of neophyte City negotiators taking on Union professionals. You would think that the Mayor and City Council would learn from their past ineptitude. But they won’t.
We live in an age of greed, selfishness, and feelings of entitlement. Starting in the 1960s, the work ethic in the United States changed. Pride of craftsmanship was traded for the easy dollar. This is the curse of the MBA, that highly educated group, if you have low expectations of education, of managers whose total ambition was to build the bottom line, to make larger profits. These supposed financial geniuses had the book learning but no practical understanding of business. It is unfortunate that they succeeded in destroying the concepts of dedication to God, country, and family which made the United States the great nation it was once. In its place they created a society where bigger is better, where morality, responsibility, and pride in self was replaced by the concept of “you owe me”.
The principle of responsibility for one’s self has all but disappeared. The pride of a job well done has for the most part been replaced with the concept of I deserve things and if I don’t work for them, then somebody should provide them to me. The idea of being paid for the work one does seems no longer to exist. Employment is now considered to be a right instead of a privilege.
It used to be that that pay raises were based on achievement. You work harder, you get promoted, you make more money. That and the acceptance of responsibility, was the bellwether of pay raises. Today that is no longer the case. There does not seem to be any correlation between ability, competence, professionalism and wage scales. The last negotiations between the City and the Police Union, along with the other three city unions, were unique in a number of ways. With the rest of the country in a depression, pay raises were granted city employees not based on achievement or job proficiency.
Police officers in New Philadelphia are in the top 20% of wage earners in the city. The average salary in the department, including benefits (wages, sick pay, hospital and medical care, retirement, clothing, paid holidays, overtime, personal days, special assignment differentials, et cetera) is in excess of $65,000 per annum. Not bad when the average income for city residents is somewhat below $44,000.
How did the wage scale get to the level it has for city employees during three depression years? What happened is two fold.
First, the administration has been inept in its negotiations. Unions have been advised by union negotiators, lawyers who do nothing but represent union members in conflicts with the city. The City failed to hire competent attorneys to represent it in such discussions. During the past negotiations the attorney hired by the Administration was not qualified in the intricacies of labor law, being primarily a human resources (personnel) manager. The City was in jeopardy at the start and never recovered. Members of City Council, for the most part, did not perform diligently to determine if the city was able to afford the pay raises, most of which were based on creation of new positions of sergeant and lieutenant, and the lumping together of all patrolmen into the highest paid level. City councilmen generally approved pay increases for 2% with the promise of reopening negotiations at the end of the year.
Secondly, when disputed contracts go to arbitration, the referee has a long association with the union movement, generally as a long term union member of good standing. When union lawyers present their case to a friendly arbitrator while the City uses an attorney who is not familiar with, nor has experience with, union law, the result is fairly well predictable. In the past, such conflicts have been decided on the principle that the City has the money and can afford the increases. There is no reason to suspect that the same formula will be used in the upcoming union contract discussions.
The police are going to ask for more money, probably more benefits as well. In return they won’t be asked to do anything more for the citizens than they already do. No increase in services, no increase in courtesy, no increase in patrolling of troublesome areas, no increased enforcement of the laws and ordinances which they ignore now. Business as usual, that’s the plan. But if they don’t get the wage and benefit increase they want? Well, it can’t get any worse. Or can it?
So here we go again. There will be much ado in the negotiations but they will be the same smoke and mirrors approach of the past. The city will be hit again for unjustified increased expense brought about by self-interest on the part of the unions. The added expense to the city will be made up as the mayor’s promised during his election campaign, to raise city taxes to pay the cost of City wage increases and layoffs will not be considered.
So here we have it. Another year of neophyte City negotiators taking on Union professionals. You would think that the Mayor and City Council would learn from their past ineptitude. But they won’t.
Welcome to the start of the holiday season.
http://www.timesreporter.com/newsnow/x389484517/Three-men-in-custody-after-one-of-the-largest-seizures-in-New-Phila-history?img=4
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that officers working for the New Philadelphia Police Department don't offer any "increase of services or patrolling of troublesome areas" do they? I guess this one incident is just "business as usual".
Dear Mr. Connors,
ReplyDeleteI would think that someone like yourself, who always has their facts straight would KNOW that the police department does not have Lieutenants to begin with. That would be the fire department.... Oh, and the 2 % raise last year you talk about. It was a pay freeze of 0%. You know, JUST BUSINESS AS USUAL! If anyone is about smoke and mirrors, THAT WOULD BE YOU BOB!!!!
Sincerely,
Ty Norris