….tough times no doubt made even tougher by a boss who wants you to take a big pay cut and will likely try his hardest to eliminate your job in the coming year, if he hasn’t already eliminated your job.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is thankful for a lot today, and among the things he’s thankful for is “the ability of these people to overcome the hard times to remake our state better than it ever has been before.” I wonder if, when he wrote his Thanksgiving message, Scott Walker ever paused to think of the hundreds of County employees for whom Thanksgiving won’t be a day to give thanks, as they look forward to their jobs being eliminated in the very near future. For the hundreds of County employees who won’t have jobs in the near future, these hard times have no doubt been made worse thanks to Scott Walker, and their ability to overcome these hard times will be put to the test.
Courtesy of Scott Walker, there’s not much for a good number of County employees to be thankful for this year.
What you wrote is true. But even more devastating and dastardly is the loss of services for people that depend on them. That is unforgivable.
capper, the loss of services is devastating as well.
You are asking for compassion when you cold heartly told people in the private sector that it was the chance you take to work in the private sector.
Jeff, I don’t recall “asking for compassion;” I simply pointed out that there’s not much for the folks who had their jobs eliminated by Scott Walker to be thankful for this year.
Zach the time is coming soon that government workers will feel the real pain that the private sector has and not just a few unpaid days off while still getting a cola or auto raise.
Jeff, look beyond the talking points. The “few unpaid days off” you referenced amount to a paycut of slightly more than 3% (at least for yours truly), which is a greater cut than any cost of living increase or auto raise that was received, resulting a net cut for the year. Mind you, I’m not complaining; I’m just providing a little factual information for your benefit.
The other thing that JeffN overlooks is the cost to society. Who will be watching the criminals on probation? Who will be helping the mentally ill stay in balance? Who will be plowing the roads? Who will be driving the buses?
It’s easy to hate, it’s not so easy to come up with viable solutions.
All can be done with private sector jobs!!!!!
Capper not one thing did you mention requires public service jobs.
Privitize and save more money!!!!!!!
Um, two things. Some things need to be done by the public sector. Or do you really want some politician’s buddy keeping track of gov’t money without having to disclose any records?
Two, privatization costs more. For example, Walker has thrown away more than a million dollars in just two years on security at the mental health complex. Ceridian, which was supposed to take over employee payroll and benefits, is over budget and over due, and we still rely on HR people. That is throwing away over $10M just on that.
Next try.
Yeah, let’s privatize fire and police officers. After all, leaving fire and police protection to the lowest bidder is sure to yield great results! While we’re at it, let’s privatize corrections officers as well, because putting the safety and security of our state’s prisons in the hands of the lowest bidder will surely end well!
It is odd Capper that security is privatized at the fed building and other places and saves money in the short term and long term.
If you don’t like the service fire them and find a new one. Don’t like the food, fire them.
Correction officers could be privatiized, but fire and police not so much. But it does happen! What about paramedics? They were once all part of the fire and now moast are private!
The security guards they use at the federal building are armed, and much more expensive than the ones the county currently hires. Furthermore, the security was at the mental health complex was privatized and has cost more than $1 million dollars in the last two years than if it was kept in the public sector.
Correction officers were privatized and that failed miserably. Most states steer clear of that nonsense now.
As for the paramedics, all paramedics are public. Ambulances have been privatized, but cost a heckuva lot more.
You also forget about the other costs. If the food service sucks, you can fire them, but you also have to deal with the lawsuits of patients being given the wrong diet, etc., not to mention the people getting hurt when they go off because the food service tried to serve green bologna. (Saw that myself when I worked at HOC.)
You’re just hitting your head against a wall here, capper.
That’s OK. I got a hard head from working under Walker’s regime for eight long years.