<snip>
“There’s a class war going on this country and today the Massachusetts House sided against the middle class,” Ed Kelly, president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, said after the vote.Union officials made a last-minute plea to DeLeo shortly before the House voted on the proposal, visiting the speaker in his State House office. After that meeting failed to produce the unions’ desired result, Haynes called the Speaker “totally intractable,” and issued an indictment of what he said was an “inordinate” concentration of power in the speaker’s office, one he said caused lawmakers to change their votes in order to protect their standing with House leadership.
“The Speaker told us good luck when we left his office, and I told him good luck and good luck to his Democratic members,” Haynes told the News Service.
“Can you imagine what teachers and firefighter and police officers and public sector works and nurses and librarians are going to think when they wake up tomorrow morning to find out the Democrats that we elected, that we worked for, that we contributed to their campaigns just snatched collective bargaining away from them, just took the voice, the Democratic voice, away from working people. I say good luck to him. And good luck to the future of this House.”The speaker’s proposal – a modified version of a plan issued two weeks earlier by the Ways and Means Committee – was unveiled by House leadership shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday after most of the State House had gone dark and after a 13-hour day of start-and-stop action in the House. It emerged as unions were preparing to flood the State House over the next few days to protest the initial version of DeLeo’s proposal, which also curbed collective bargaining rights but offered limited opportunities for workers to share in any cost-savings.
<snip>
Link:
http://www.dotnews.com/2011/unions-enraged-after-house-backs-curbs-municipal-bargainingBeckwith was one of the few outside supporters of the speaker’s plan who spoke with reporters after the vote in a State House lobby largely crowded with union backers irate over the final tally. As Beckwith spoke with a reporter, Haynes and Kelly hovered closely, watching him speak. As Beckwith walked away, Haynes pointed his finger at him and said, “Don’t ever talk to me again.” As the two passed on the stairs moments later, Haynes waved his finger in Beckwith’s face.
:wtf:
:banghead:
:nuke:
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
