Control board freezes city workers' vacation time

[WNYresident]

Full Story in the Buffalo News

City employees looking forward to longer vacations as they move up the longevity ladder received jolting news Tuesday from the control board.
Two weeks after the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority froze the salaries of all city and school employees, board officials notified the city that the freeze also applies to added vacation time. In other words, all workers who expected to get an extra week of vacation after hitting anniversary benchmarks will remain at their current allotments into the foreseeable future.

"It was something of a surprise to us," city Human Resources Commissioner Leonard A. Matarese said, adding that the latest twist could further complicate negotiations with several large unions.

Full Story in the Buffalo News

[WNYresident]

My Favorite part

"It's all getting very frustrating," said Robert P. Meegan Jr., who learned about the vacation developments from a reporter. "You have some multimillionaires on this control board who want to take every last penny from the working class."

They act like the are getting paid minimum wage and nothing more. They should be happy they got what they have been for so long.

[WNYresident]

"There's not much negotiating you can do when everything is frozen," Matarese said. "It pretty much eliminates any ability to get concessions from the unions, because we have nothing to trade in exchange for any changes."

You get to the point where you take what is given or look for a new job. It's sad it's come to that point but they should just look around buffalo.

If they would like to point out areas our politicans are hiding funds or hiring thier friends they should start to point it out now. Those funds could be used for a few of thier perks.

[WNYresident]

Common Council Majority Leader Marc A. Coppola said he doesn't think additional vacation time should be part of the freeze since, he claimed, it doesn't put money in employees' pockets.

It's not money in thier pocket but it's a cost to the tax payer. When a employee is on vacation someone fills in for that employee. There's over time perhaps taken by other employees to make up for that employee. Everything cost someone money somewhere.

[citymouse]

Sorry to hear you feel that way. Meegan is right. You just don't seem to understand.
People were hired to do a job. The managment (city) negotiated an agreement with the workers just like any other industry. The city saw this coming did nothing and now want to break all the legally binding agreements they negotiated. This administration has been around ten years. They dug this hole.
Now the people that are getting hurt are the workers and thier familys and you are telling people If you don't like it go find another job. Work some where for twenty years, and you people can slam them all you want but most of them have been there when your house was on fire, or when your business was broken into, garbage was picked up or your waterline broke in sub zero weather. How about plowing your streets for sixteen hours?
They are skilled at what they do and that is all. who is going to hire all these middle age men and women? You? How does these people losing thier homes and filing for chapter 13 helping the local ecomomy?
these services still have to be provided. If the city can't afford them they can't afford them, no matter who they get to do it.
Maybe we should just bill the county residents by adding another penny sales tax? I wouldn't like that, would you?
In the last few years when cuts have been made, give backs have been the mainstay of negotiations and raises have been few, have you seen any work slowdowns?
Under the eyes of a hostile public these guys still do thier job to the best of thier ability, and you are happy to see them get slapped again.
There is no reason to freeze the vacations they don't amount to an increase in expense. It is just another way to harass the worker.
Here's another example. The current city comptroler questioned the way the control board was funding some things and made some less painful layoff wise but equally financially prudent suggestions to them.
They proceeded to cut his audit staff in half and give him money to contract the work out. In doing so they had the equal pleasure of laying off the president of the white collar union and eliminating any position he could bump to.
But they have no agenda, and are open to all suggestions. Give me a Break.
Got any ideas? Or just more smart gloating comments?

[WNYresident]

Now the people that are getting hurt are the workers and thier familys and you are telling people If you don't like it go find another job

Honestly I'm not a cold person at all. This is no different when a family own business in the community is put out of business from a big box retailer. It's life. You have small businesses which invested years into thier businesses and just can't compete with some of the retailers which come into the area. So everytime a union member goes to a walmart, bestbuy etc to get thier shopping done think about the little businesses which go away. It's happens to everyone, no one should be immune to it.

[citymouse]

Granted but when it comes to the public servant there seems to be a certain amount of gloating and meanspirited remarks that you don't have when private business goes under.

[citymouse]

You also have to look at it in another perspective.
I have nothing but admiration for some one who starts a small business. Aguy who comes from a working class background and has the brains and balls to take the chance and succeed.
I don't mean some rich guy who's father gave him a few hundred grand or more to do something with his life and he succeeds, but if he fails he still has his" trust" to fall back on.
I mean the guy who takes a seconed mortgage on his house to get his business going.
It takes long ours and a long term commitment. I know I would not take the chance.
Some of us chose the other route and went to work for others, I think most do. They say you will never get rich working for some one else and it is probably true.
Both have to survive which ever way they chose to go, and one group would not get along with out the other.
I would never gloat or take satisfaction if some one like that lost thier business and hope they would show as much compassion if I lost my job.

[WNYresident]

Some of us chose the other route and went to work for others, I think most do. They say you will never get rich working for some one else and it is probably true.
Both have to survive which ever way they chose to go, and one group would not get along with out the other.
I would never gloat or take satisfaction if some one like that lost thier business and hope they would show as much compassion if I lost my job.

Define rich? Working 20 years and getting a good chunk of your salary and health insurance is close to being rich depending who's looking at it. IF items like pension cost/healthcare were a fix cost then we the taxpayer can budget. IT"S the ever growing increases which we can't afford.

I also believe sometimes doing things in house is cheaper than contracting everything out. You have contracts without limits to healthcost/pension cost. I wasn't represented when someone signed those contracts. I know i wouldn't.

I know people won't like to hear this but why do people think a union should get a automatic pay raise just because time has passed.

[citymouse]

First off rich to me is Donald Trump a self made man who started with thirteen million in his pocket. Rockafellers, Vanderbilts. Whitneys they are the rich. Born into money. There are quite a few in Buffalo. You would be surprized. They call it old money.
Bill gates is rich too. I have a lot of respect for him because he started with nothing. Tom Galisano is another. The Rigas family, but thats another side of it. Bob Riches father. All self made, they took the chance. it wasn't handed to them because one hundred and fifty years ago somebody struck oil and cheated all the farmers out of thier land to get more.
As far as these automatic raises you keep refering to, some one must have turned the auto switch off because I haven't gotten a raise in two years and in the eight years before I had five years I did not get one.
Has any of your costs gone up in the last few years. What do you pay for gasoline? I don't pay any less.
How about milk? gas and electric? School tuition for your children? Car Insurence?
Just like every one else we need cost of living increases. I don't know about any one else, but we haven't been getting them.
I am not complaining but I don't understand why you are, as a city resident you see these services are provided to you each and every day, no matter the weather and in spite of manpower cut backs. hen you figure in inflation your actually paying less.
Where are we getting away with anything.
Turn the switch back on, I need these automatic raises i keep hearing about.

[citymouse]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by WNYresident
You have contracts without limits to healthcost/pension cost. I wasn't represented when someone signed those contracts. I know i wouldn't.

Yes you where. Masiello was elected by a majority of the people of Buffalo to represent them. He speaks for you because more people who voted wanted him to as opposed to those who didn't. It is called taxation with representation.
If the majority disagree with what he did on there behalf there is a simple remedy.

[WNYresident]

The remedy is simple but not when you have an army of political parties all connected within the system. Look at how many "Voters" you have in the unions, the firemen, the police, the connected families who vote to keep things exactly how they are.

[citymouse]

So you say. If that is true they must be the only ones who vote. In the county executive race only thirty two percent of the eligible voting population came out.
The other sixty eight percent can't all be civil servants,
Say that the thirty two percent all voted the same way. The sixty eight percent that did not vote could have concivibly beat them two to one.
Where is the problem?

[WNYresident]

In the county executive race only thirty two percent of the eligible voting population came out.

Of thge 32% that came out what was the percentage of people who work for the government/thier families versus private citizens not connected to the machine in anyway?