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administration upped the ante by direct- you’re taking them from wherever they ing state agency heads to submit plans to happen to be that day,” Johnson said. cut up to 325 workers. “It’s a random thing.” “It seems unlikely that the state’s Shumlin insists he’ll initiate layoffs if labor contract will be reopened as necessary. part of the solution to balancing the “We can achieve the 10 to 12 million budget,” Administration Secretary in employee savings the smart way or Justin Johnson told agency chiefs in a the hard way,” Shumlin said. “The hard memo. “This situation leaves me with way is to do it through layoffs, but that’s no alternative but to begin planning for what we’ll do if it’s our only choice. The a significant reduction in force across smart way would be to sit down with the all sectors of Vermont state government union and figure out how to not make to be effective July 1, pay cuts, but all make 2015.” some reductions as a “That’s part of group.” the game the adminReminded of his istration is playing,” 2009 stand against Howard said of the layoffs proposed memo. “They’re by his predecessor, ratcheting up the Shumlin argued that pressure.” the situation is more Johnson said difficult now than the timing of the it was in the depths memo was logistiof recession, when cal — rather than a there was hope that negotiating tactic. revenues would To save $10.8 million rebound. M ART h A AL L E n , pRE S i d E n T, in personnel costs in “We’re in a very VE RM On T- n E A the fiscal year startdifferent place right ing July 1, jobs must now. We fundamenbe vacated by mid-June. The process of tally have a situation where our growth identifying positions and allowing vet- rate is not projected to increase to 5 eran employees to bump newer cowork- percent,” Shumlin said. “Some of it has ers takes months, Johnson said. to come from compensation for state It’s possible, he acknowledged, that employees.” much of the savings could be achieved Not all public sector unions are crying by eliminating 500 state positions that foul over the governor’s plans. are currently vacant. But he said it’s The 270-member Vermont Troopers unclear yet how many of those are par- Association has also been asked to tially federally funded and whether they reopen its contract. should be the ones to go. “They’re happy to sit down and talk “When you take vacant positions, to us,” Johnson said.
He’d Have to do some serious relationsHipbuilding
with us if he’s running for governor again.
VTA president Mike O’Neil declined to say whether the union would agree to reopen the contract. “We’re not going to comment,” he said. The administration and the troopers’ union signed a one-year contract just last month, giving its members a 2.5 percent pay raise. Shumlin could have simply held off signing the deal rather than ask to reopen negotiations, but Johnson said he did so to put the VTA on the same contract timeline as the VSEA. So far, the Democratic legislature appears no more likely to go to bat for the unions than Shumlin is. Just last week, House Appropriations Committee chair Mitzi Johnson (D-Grand Isle) proposed cutting $1 million from the budget of the Vermont Veterans’ Home, where some 200 state employees work. Asked last week whether he will fight to keep the home open, Shumlin said he’s long supported the home. “I think my record’s pretty clear,” he said, but he declined to explicitly promise he could save it from the chopping block. Other labor issues dear to the VSEA, such as paid sick leave, show no sign of advancing this year. House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) and Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell (D-Windsor) have supported Shumlin’s insistence on reopening the state employee union’s contract. “I certainly understand why they wouldn’t want to do it,” Smith said of the VSEA. The legislature is looking to raise new revenue, but Smith said the notion of closing the $113 million budget gap STATE Of ThE uniOn
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offered to sit down with management and identify efficiencies. The administration wasn’t interested.” Others say Shumlin and the legislature should have seen the budget troubles coming. “It was widely known that state government was spending above available revenues for the last few years,” said Mike Smith, who served as secretary of administration under Republican Douglas. “This was masked in large part by federal money that eventually was going to be gone. The process of getting personnel costs in line should have begun two years ago.” Fissures emerged between Shumlin and the teachers’ union even before voters went to the polls last fall. During a five-day teachers’ strike in South Burlington last October, Shumlin told Vermont Public Radio such strikes should be outlawed, prompting complaints from union leaders that he was blaming them. Relations between the unions and the governor have only grown more tense since Shumlin’s January announcement that he was looking for $10.8 million in personnel savings. The VSEA outright dismissed the notion of reopening the state employees’ contract it signed a year ago. “That’s not going to happen. It’s really that our members can’t afford to do that,” Howard said, characterizing the proposal as a tax on state workers. “To say we’re going to take money out of the pockets of 6,000 hardworking state employees before you’ll ask the wealthiest people in the state to pay another dime is hard for them to stomach.” Last week, Shumlin’s secretary of
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