November 11, 2007
Gio Is Not Looking For The Union Label
Last week, certain leaders of organized labor in Rhode Island called for the resignation of the Chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party, Giovanni Cicione. They referred to his "insensitive and hurtful statement" about the Governor's proposed layoff of 1,000 state workers, his use of the term "poverty pimps" and his "remarks equating unions with racism".
In yesterday's Providence Journal, Cicione declined the suggestion that he step aside and instead elaborated on some of his comments in a manner not likely to abate the ire of union leaders.
Every time we keep a position that we no longer need, cave in to a union work rule, or create a new benefit we cannot afford, we are potentially taking money from anti-poverty programs, from roads and bridges, from local schools, and from our own pockets.Many state employees know better and are embarrassed and angered by a system that created “protected” coworkers who fail to carry their weight. They know that the system protects unproductive workers, and rewards length of service over quality performance.
They know that this is not the best model for our state, and I ask them to support efforts to improve efficiency of state services.
As to "union work rules", in August, Director of the Department of Administration Beverly E. Najarian cited the costly inefficiencies built into public employee contracts, including restrictions on who can fill the temporary absence of a state employee.
Some of this stuff is really, really very costly, very onerous ... When I first came here, all of these rules seemed so foreign to me. If you would look at other unions in the private sector, you would not find these things. They are all detrimental to the efficiency and management of any operation.
In the same article, MHRH Director Ellen R. Nelson points to a provision in the contract for the conduct of union business on the taxpayer dime.
Union officials who also work for the state can be scheduled for weeks off, with pay, to handle union-related duties, such as meeting with other workers. But those union officials can also put in for extra shifts that week and be paid overtime, at the same time the state may be paying someone else overtime to cover the union official’s regular shift.Nelson did not offer a solution, saying she wants to hear suggestions from the unions.
Further to his comment last week that unions demonstrate “the last vestige of institutional racism in this country”, Cicione asks:
Why does the Fire Department of the City of Cranston have 200-plus white male firefighters — no women, no minorities? Why do minority contractors need a state agency to give them access to union-controlled public-works projects? Why do minority contractors struggle to meet union-imposed bonding, apprenticeship, and benefits requirements?Is it, perhaps, that the labor laws are rigged to protect the status quo? ...
[Sidebar: Cranston Fire Chief Richard Delgado does not deny the absence of female and minority firefighters in the department but does deny that their absence arises out of union rules, asserting instead that the department "can’t get” such applicants.]
Cicione points out in his OpEd that
The Republican Party was formed 150 years ago for the express propose of ending slavery, a cause for which the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, died. Today we continue the fight by working to break down barriers that repress minorities in a cycle of poverty and by pushing for the elimination of all the “special deals” that overwhelmingly favor those who are part of the Democratic-union establishment at the expense of the general interest, including thousands of struggling small businesses
and concludes by speaking directly to unionized public employees throughout the state.
So to the membership of those unions, I have a message — and it is one I will repeat again and again: The labor movement has become the most offensive special interest in Rhode Island history.It is time for union members to restore your pride, restore your hope, and restore this state. Take charge and create radical change. The union boss needs you. You don’t need him.
Well I'll be damned... Gio gets in the paper and it's not for making an ass of himself. Might this be a new direction for the Republican Party or just an accidental moment of lucidity?
Posted by: Greg at November 11, 2007 4:54 PMGio, This is a great start. Do your thing. The GA has screwed things up so bad it makes for a target rich environment. Line them up and pick them off one at a time.
Posted by: Red at November 11, 2007 6:27 PMDear Greg,
This begs a question . . .
On another thread you, quite rightly, asked rhody about charitable giving so all things being fair . . .
Are you going to run??
Red,
Gio can't find any candidates, the Governor only has $3000, it's not as rich as you think especially in a Presidential year.
Maybe you would like to run as well
Posted by: Bobby Oliveira at November 12, 2007 10:19 AMAgain I ask why you're allowed to be here.
I'd address your question of my running or not and why it's an entirely irrelevant question but I'd rather not engage people like you and Ducky. It's like explaining quantum mechanics to my dog.
Posted by: Greg at November 12, 2007 10:37 AMDear Greg,
Does your dog win votes at your house by 57-12 margins??
Smart dog.
(Are you ever going to learn that when you have scoreboard you don't need insults??)
Posted by: Bobby Oliveira at November 12, 2007 12:37 PMCome on, Justin, can't we just relegate Bobby to rifuture? Why do you continue to allow him to post his lunatic rants here? Frankly, the prospect of encountering Bobby's postings makes me less likely to visit this site.
Posted by: John at November 12, 2007 9:54 PMWhen I read Cicione's editorial in the paper I couldn't believe that somebody who speaks with such venom and hypocracy is leading the Republican party.
"Further to his comment last week that unions demonstrate “the last vestige of institutional racism in this country”, Cicione asks:
Why does the Fire Department of the City of Cranston have 200-plus white male firefighters — no women, no minorities? Why do minority contractors need a state agency to give them access to union-controlled public-works projects? Why do minority contractors struggle to meet union-imposed bonding, apprenticeship, and benefits requirements?
Is it, perhaps, that the labor laws are rigged to protect the status quo? ..."
I suppose this means the Republicans are now in favor of quota hiring rather than hiring the most qualified. Sounds like a democrat to me.
"So to the membership of those unions, I have a message — and it is one I will repeat again and again: The labor movement has become the most offensive special interest in Rhode Island history.
It is time for union members to restore your pride, restore your hope, and restore this state. Take charge and create radical change. The union boss needs you. You don’t need him."
Catagorizing a group of people as them, you people, those people, or "the labor movement" is a blatant form of bigotry. We are all individuals with our own thoughts and ideas, using the strength of our orginization to ensure fairness in the workplace.
I have a message for you, Gio, the union boss IS us. We elect them. They work for us, and next to us.
I really think those who enjoy Bobby's obsessive-compulsive rants about how powerfull he is and his threats to assault anyone who disagrees with him should read his ubiquitous posts on Jerzyk's Communist site. His being allowed to post here is not productive. He has, either here or on Jerzyk's Pravda site threatened to kidnap and force a ski mask on Carcieri's wife, boasted about his alleged assaults on Harold Myer forcing Myer to leave the state and repeatedly requesting posters home addresses so he can assault them.
He ran for office last year and got about 12 votes citywide. Clearly, in his overwhelmingly Democrat hometown, they recognize him for the unhinged sociopath he is.
PLEASE ban Bobby from posting here.
Dear Mike,
Last time wasn't so good in a tougher race. Still got over 10 times the number you credit me with. That's about 6 GOP Representative races combined.
The bottom line fact here of course is this: Even though I had lived here less than 3 years at the time of the first race, and less than 5 at the time of the second, I had enough courage to put my name on a ballot. I know, being a keyboard commando is so much more rewarding.
However, in 2004, in a race they liked me in, I got 3400. I think the difference between the two sends a very clear message: "hey moron, run for School Committee". That's like the total for the entire GOP Representative slate that year.
As far as this being a Democratic stronghold: the Mayor is a Republican and Chaffee had one of his best showings here.
There was no kidnapping. I put out a bounty for anyone who could get a picture of Steve Kass in a ski mask because he steals everyday. Between the leaked GOP memo and the fact that he knew nothing about the Sasse hiring means some other folks think he's less than competent. (There was also no mention of Sue Carcieri in that one)
Mike, why is it you never fail to get your facts wrong??
I also never claimed to assault Hal Meyer. Yes, I did intend to confront him. Anybody who spends as much time as he does creating "so and so sucks dot com" needs to be confronted. He reacted like a scared little child, he didn't want to be a man, and so he left.
I never tried to ban your "the sky is falling" silliness from RIFuture. Over there, Greg said he was going to assault me. Of course like Meyer, face to face meetings do not seem to be his thing.
Sorry if you can't take it. Sorry if you can't deal with just how far out the mainstream you've become.
There's also the lifestyle question. If I am an unhinged sociopath as you claim, why don't you make more than me?? Why don't you live in an address like I do?? Surely, you can compete on a financial level with an unhinged sociopath, can't you?? In short, why does the unhinged sociopath pay more in taxes every year than most of the people complaining about the taxes??
Lastly, there's also a qurestion of political accomplishment. I have beat the Governor numerous times, and you can look at up, on OMA complaints, violations of the Open Meetings Law, ethics findings, et cetera. Mike, you scream corruption all the time but I see no findings in your favor. Is the unhinged sociopath beating you in this department as well??
Posted by: Bobby Oliveira at November 13, 2007 9:30 AMI stand corrected in that Bobby's violent threat was not against Mrs. Carcieri (although he viciously speaks about her holding a coat hanger in another post on the same thread) but against a man named Jonathan Stevens.
I will quote Bobby verbatim-
"Steve Kass is a racist pig that should wear a ski mask to work.
(We have one of these in Newport. His name is Jonathan Stevens. He’s an unqualified, over-hyped, never-was. I think in Stevens’ case, I’ll actually force him to wear the ski mask. He’s a former Chaffee hack who wears a bowtie to work, not like he can stop me"
The above threat was made on October 16. The URL is:
http://www.rifuture.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=406
Dear Mike,
Wow, great way to take things out of context. You forgot the whole bounty part which is what makes them all funny. (Oh yes, I could be like you and make fun of a defenseless woman who got her leg snapped)
Appearently, you believe people taking pictures in order to win a reward is vicious and violent. Compared to some of the things posted here, that's laughable.
Should we post some of your wonderfully bigoted language?? I bet your friends here would be real proud.
By the way, even if I use political means to get him to wear a ski mask, where's the kidnapping part??
If this is the best Carcieri staffers can do, you're all in a lot more trouble than I thought.
Posted by: Bobby Oliveira at November 13, 2007 11:11 AM To try to get back on topic:
I actually agree with Gio on one thing: Murphy and Montalbano are not friends of the union man (or woman). These two guzzle out of both the union bucket and the corporate trough. Union people need to stand up to these two and vote their fat-cat butts out.
Then again, social conservatives don't really want these two gone. They will serve as Carcieri's useful idiots if abortion, gay marriage, etc. come before the Assembly. It would be nice if the GOP put viable candidates up against this pair - real nice.
"Murphy and Montalbano are not friends of the union man (or woman)"
Whoa. A lot of union dues go into the campaign funds of M & M. And you're saying they're not being put to good use.
Posted by: Monique at November 13, 2007 11:57 AM Thank God my union dues don't go into their campaign coffers (I belong to a union that does not make contributions to candidates or parties, nor does it make candidate endorsements).
Union folks whose dues go to these two guys' campaign funds need to wake up and start asking some questions.
Ok, enough. All in favor of sending Bobby O back to the left side of the blog-o-sphere say aye.
Aye!
Bob, say hi to Homoerotic Charlie Drago for me!
Posted by: Red at November 13, 2007 1:58 PMAye!
Posted by: Mike at November 13, 2007 7:32 PM