Labor activist Patrick Crowley, who's been on the warpath lately against Governor Carcieri (Pat, we suspect, would say it's the other way around), sends word of this rally:

Community Activists, Organized Labor and Religious Leaders Will Join In Calling On State Leaders To Promote Economic Justice For All Rhode Islanders

                       

What:Thousands of people – including community activists, organized labor, religious leaders and hard-working Rhode Islanders – will march through Providence to the State House to attend a rally promoting economic justice for all Rhode Islanders.

 

When:  Friday, May 2nd 4

4:00 pm: Photo Opportunity: Westin Ballroom, March to State House

5:00 pm Rally

 

Where: RI State House Lawn

 82 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02903

 

Who: Master of Ceremony:

George Nee

Secretary/Treasurer, Rhode Island AFL-CIO

           

Speaking Program:

Paul Booth

AFSCME National Organizing Director

           

Sarita Gupta

Executive Director, National Jobs with Justice

 

Bob Walsh

Executive Director, NEA RI

Secretary-Treasurer, Working RI

           

Roxana Rivera

SEIU Local 615 Commercial Division Director

           

Why: The country is on the brink of recession and Rhode Island is in the midst of an economic crisis. How we move forward together out of this crisis will impact every Rhode Islander and will impact how communities across the country move forward.

 

On May 2nd, we will unite around a vision of Rhode Island that will protect and promote the dignity of every Rhode Islander. We will unite around a vision of a state that honors and respects hard work. We will fight for economic justice for all Rhode Islanders.

With various people and groups gearing up for Earth Day a week from tomorrow, the most interesting local effort may be plans by Local 99 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to dedicate its solar-powered union hall, which it bills as largest completed solar project in Rhode Island.

On Thursday, April 22, 2008 at 11:00am, the IBEW Local 99 will dedicate its solar energy project, providing clean, renewable power to its union hall. The solar panel array is located outside of the union hall, 22 Amflex Drive in Cranston, RI.

 

Installation of the solar panels was performed by the men and women of Local 99, headed by Business Manager Allen P. Durand. The project demonstrates the extensive capabilities and training of Local 99 members, which are vital to the future of renewable energy projects in the state. The dedication of the solar project is fittingly being held on Earth Day, serving as a reminder of the need to encourage alternative energy projects.

 

Elected officials, union leaders, and environmental advocates will be in attendance at the event.

As I've written before, I think the ProJo's Ed Achorn writes a very good column. While N4N might not agree with everything he says, his writing is clean and elegant, imbued with a knowledge of history (and a love of baseball), and his weekly Tuesday piece is generally pointed and provocative -- qualities that are highly desirable in opinion writing.

And I can totally get with the view that a more competitive two-party system would be good for Rhode Island. As Achorn wrote this week:  

Needless to say, competitive elections would be great news. One-party dominance in any system is bad for the public. Nothing sharpens a politician’s focus on the common good, and diverts his gaze from the blandishments of special interests, more than a tough re-election battle. Real elections, with a real chance of shifting power, are the ultimate ethics reform.

But Rhode Island will never get healthier unless good people run for office, from both parties. There is no better time than now to give it a try. Operation Clean Government (ocgri.com) is planning a nonpartisan candidates’ school for April 12 in North Kingstown, to help citizens master all the details of running for public office. Candidates must file papers by the third week in June to get on the ballot.

A challenge even by a political unknown with little chance of winning does much good. It means an incumbent no longer has the luxury of running unopposed.

Yet as I've noted before, some of Achorn's embellishments strike his critics as less than fair:

One union leader calls Achorn’s invective one-sided and highly selective: "He’s extremely anti-labor, at least in terms of public employees. He also engages in a certain amount of name-calling, like referring to [RI AFL-CIO president Frank] Montanaro as ‘Boss Montanaro.’ Referring to labor leaders as union bosses is the equivalent of using ethnic slurs. You don’t see them referring to [retired industrialist] Henry Sharpe as a robber baron. They don’t refer to lawyers as shysters, so why are they calling a labor leader a union boss?"

So it's not especially surprising that one of the rhetorical bits in Achorn's column this week has inspired a sharp response from the executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, who is also the secretary-treasurer of Working Rhode Island.

Sent: Tue 4/1/2008 7:27 PM

To: letters@projo.com; rwhitcomb@projo.com

Subject: Letter to the editor

 

 

Journal editorial columnist Edward Achorn’s bias against public employee unions is well known in Rhode Island.  This time, however, he has gone well beyond the bounds of propriety.  His statement that unions have “storm troopers” to do their electoral bidding (“The only thing to fear is apathy itself”, Tuesday, April 1, 2008) would make the propagandists from the regime he attempts to evoke proud.  The Journal should be embarrassed and ashamed that a member of its editorial board, and an editor of these pages, equated Nazi soldiers with union members, and should apologize immediately.   Your readers, and all union members, should expect no less.

 

Robert A. Walsh, Jr.

Labor activist and rabble-rouser Patrick Crowley is live-blogging from the Take Back America 2008, a progressive convention in Washington, DC.

Pat sends word that he can also be heard on the radio. 

Charlie Bakst follows up today on the Clinton-Cicilline contretemps of the last week:

Did she in fact apologize?

“Well, he and I talked it over.”

Cicilline says he also received a phone call from Bill Clinton.

The campaign’s treatment of Cicilline had jolted the mayor. He said last week it might cause him to question his backing Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.

Cicilline yesterday declined to discuss details of his chats with the Clintons but did say he’ll vote for her in next Tuesday’s primary. He said that if Obama sweeps Rhode Island, that could nudge him, as a superdelegate, to side with the Illinois senator at the Democratic convention.

I wonder if I’d be as generous as Cicilline about being told to stay away from Hillary Clinton Sunday. It infuriates me when a union bullies its way into influencing who can or cannot attend political events. And if I were a top Clinton ally, as Cicilline has been, I’d be enraged that the campaign would freeze me out.

But he said yesterday that, as upset as he might be with her aides, they are not on Tuesday’s ballot. She is, and, “I have great respect for Senator Clinton.”

We knew that Giovanni Cicione, RI GOP chairman, is no fan of the union movement, but he's really steamed about plans to use a Teamsters Hall in East Prov as a voting place in our March 4 primary.

From Republican central:

WARWICK, RI - Rhode Island Republican Party Chairman Giovanni Cicione today offered his heartfelt congratulations to Barack Obama for securing recently announced endorsement of the Teamsters. 

“I guess that explains the recent push to certify a Teamsters Hall as one of only four primary day polling places in the City of East Providence”, said Cicione. Clearly the Rhode Island Board of Elections is standing firm with the Kennedy’s and the many other early adopters who have know for months (or years even) that Barack was the best choice for the Democrats.

Despite a long history of political support from the Clintons, democratic leaders in Rhode Island are showing a level of buyer’s remorse not seen since the second time we paid for the new Jamestown Bridge. 

“The rental of a polling place which for the other 364 days of the year serves as a union hall and hive of political activity shows a new respect for efficiency in government,” continued Cicione. “Only in Rhode Island would our hard working elections officials have the creativity to devise a strategy that allows union leaders to Xerox their message for change one day and cast their vote for change the next day without ever leaving the building.”

The Teamsters Hall was removed from the approved list of polling places for the 2006 election after reports of illegal campaigning, intimidation of candidates, and general purpose union thuggery. “I’m sure we are all confident that those tactics will not be repeated this year given that this is a time of change and audacious hope. Given the clarification by Board of Elections Director Bob Kando that a primary is not in fact an ‘election’ under his interpretation of the law, I guess the rules don’t apply anyway, concluded Cicione, who called East Providence a “model” of fair elections for the state.

“I’m sure the Clinton camp is comfortable that their candidate will be given the same fair shot in East Providence that a Republican would receive despite the fact that their own political machine is being used to rig the system against them.”

Providence Mayor David Cicilline has got to be really pissed with the Clinton campaign to make this kind of statement, following his being banned from her event this weekend:

Cicilline said he will stay away on Sunday, but this may cause him to question his support for the New York senator, who he has stumped for locally and in New Hampshire during that state’s primary.

“It’s obviously something for me to think about very carefully, because I am very disappointed in the decision of the Clinton campaign. I’m not prepared to say more than that today. I obviously have tremendous respect for Senator Clinton, but I’m very disappointed in the decision of her campaign today,” Cicilline said.

Take-aways from this:

-- If it wasn't already abundantly clear, the Cicilline-firefighters hatefest will remain an issue should he indeed run for governor, with Cicilline touting his stand against the union, and the firefighters excoriating Cicilline at every chance. During a taping of Newsmakers today, Arlene Violet wondered aloud: if Rhode Island has some of the highest firefighting costs in the nation, why isn't Cicilline hitting on that as part of his message?

-- The Clinton campaign totally botched this. Considering how Cicilline stepped down as chair of her RI campaign for similar reasons, he was more than willing to be a good soldier. Yet the Hillary forces have succeeded in alienating him, continuing some of the campaign's self-inflicted blows. The New York Times has a front-pager today on campaign spending, a different facet of how Clinton has hurt herself.

Also joining us for today's taping was Pat Crowley, Bob Walsh's right-hand man at the National Education Association Rhode Island, and a peripatetic union-media figure in the Ocean State.

Taking issue with statements made by Governor Carcieri during his recent Newsmakers' appearance, Crowley asserts that rejiggering the state's tax structure is a needed fix for improving the budget. Suggestions that the wealthy are leaving the state are mistaken, Crowley says, and he says they should foot a larger part of the bill.

In talking with Crowley off-set, the activist, chairman of the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee a leader of the Lincoln Town Council, told me about elements of a possible compromise for extending hours at Twin River, thereby possibly increasing state revenue from the facility:

1. Twin River would be allowed to open 24 hours on Friday and Saturday, and any Sunday before a Monday holiday;

2. Twin River would be allowed to stay open until 3AM during on weekdays;

3. The Town of Lincoln would receive 4 percent of the revenue from all gambling machines during the expanded hours (2AM-9AM on weekends, 2AM-3AM on weekdays);

 

4. These changes should be enacted legislatively and not by executive order, given the people the right to have their interests protected by law.

In related news, Dan Kennedy today reports a setback for proponents of casino in Middleborough, Massachusetts.

By his own admission, energetic labor activist Pat Crowley, a bete noire for conservative Rhode Islanders, had a little time on his hands recently, so he catalogued the number of blog mentions devoted to him on Anchor and the Ocean State Republican. The answer: 47.

Pat, who clearly wears the other side's opprobrium as a badge of honor, asks whether he should at least get a prize. 

In an reverse image kind of way, I was reminded of how a critic of John Conte, the tightlipped former district attorney of Worcester, Massachusetts, once created a Web site documenting Conte's habitual lack of comment.

Battles involving janitors are nothing new at Providence College, and supportive members of the PC community plan to march in support of the workers today at 3. According to PC's Student Labor Alliance:

Providence College students will hold a rally to encourage the creation of an inclusive, beloved community on campus, and in support of a just contract for the contracted janitors at Providence College. In the spirit of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, the rally will embrace the nonviolent message preached by Dr. King, and his "objective (of) a truly brotherly society, the creation of the beloved community." Students regard this opportunity for justice for contracted janitors at Providence College another step in creating the beloved community, one that is founded on the values shared by its people, including the realization of the dignity of workers.

 

Contracted janitors reported that they have been facing harassment and intimation from their supervisors at the workplace. Students, especially due to their strengthening unity with janitors, believe that a just contract cannot come from a climate of fear at work. As Martin Luther King said when supporting the sanitation workers in Memphis, "We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are... determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children. And that we don't have to live like we are forced to live." Contracted janitors at Providence College are invaluable to the functionality, but more importantly, the spirit, of the campus community.  Their work has been undervalued, but the Providence College community has been presented with an opportunity to see change.

 

As clearly stated in its mission, Providence College "encourages the deepest respect for the essential dignity, freedom, and equality of every person."  In keeping with the mission of the College, all workers -- students, faculty, and Hurley janitors alike -- deserve the dignity that is essential to being human.

Paul Doughty, president of the Providence firefighters' union, sends along this news:

Pleas by the City of Providence to force the recusal of Frank J. Montanaro, an arbitrator appointed by Fire Fighters Local 799 to serve on its team for City-Union contract talks, and to convene a meeting of the arbitration panel to respond to the City’s demand have been rejected by Attorney Michael C. Ryan, the panel’s neutral chair.

 

In correspondence dated January 15, Mr. Ryan stated for the record that he “decline[d] to take any of the actions proposed [by the City]” because he has “neither apparent authority nor a reasonable basis to attempt to remove a party-appointed arbitrator from consideration of any of the merits of the case.

 

“Doing so,” Mr. Ryan continued, “would be contrary to the best interests of the statutory process.” He also declined to convene the panel separately to address the City’s requests, noting that, “There is always time during scheduled hearings for the panel to meet privately about any issue.”

 

Paul Doughty, President of Local 799, today said that he was “pleased, but hardly surprised” by Mr. Ryan’s ruling.

 

“From day one, the City’s actions on this matter have not made any sense whatsoever, “said Mr. Doughty.  “In essence, the City argued that a paid advocate for our Union’s position somehow must be a neutral party. This is absurd on its face. Mr. Ryan understands the issue quite well, as he clearly indicated in his letter.”

WPRO's Dan Yorke is reporting that Governor Carcieri hopes to save $10 million by putting forth a new requirement that would compel state workers to work 40 hours, rather than 35, per week. "It's going to happen, because they've got to change the climate, the culture," predicts the talk-meister.

The Warwick City Council might have done Mayor Scott Avedisian a favor by forcing his hand in the firing of the city's crossing guards. While the cause-and-effect is clear, it removes a bugaboo that had become a source for criticism and jibes with the current environment of austerity and diminished public funds.

Still, if Avedisian runs in the Republican primary for governor in 2010, we can count on Steve Laffey to remind us that it was the city council that precipitated this action.

Meanwhile, in another expression of the current moment, the ProJo's editorial board today comes down on Paul Doughty.

Mr. Doughty said that he saw nothing wrong in charging the taxpayers for no work done on their behalf. That’s just the way it works. Such arrogance and sense of entitlement is all too common in some public-employee union chiefs in Rhode Island.

The case raises several issues the public should pursue:

• Did Mr. Doughty break any laws, such as those involving fraud, in collecting paychecks while failing to show up for work for three years? Did his supervisors break any laws or regulations in failing to keep an eye on this practice? The union contract lets the president take time off for union business, but it does not specify how much. Can he demonstrate that he was, in fact, working on union business every hour of that time? Can anyone prove that he was not?

• Mayor Cicilline is ultimately responsible for making sure Providence taxpayers get their money’s worth. Is he on top of this problem?

• Was Mr. Doughty, in fact, eligible for expensive overtime if he was not working for the public during the time he claimed to be doing union business?

• Why do those who supposedly represent the citizens — in this case, former Mayor Vincent Cianci, before he went to jail for running City Hall as a criminal conspiracy — negotiate contracts that force taxpayers to pay for union activity that often directly conflicts with taxpayers’ own interests? That practice must be stopped, not only in public safety, but also in public education.

• The public must be kept better informed about what is being negotiated in contracts. To that end, all public-employee union contracts, by law, should be posted on the Internet and made readily accessible to citizens. Meanwhile, citizens have a duty, too: to study those contracts closely to learn just what the taxpayers are funding, and demand that contracts serve the public’s interest.

As things now stand, Rhode Island pays an inordinate amount for fire protection, while dealing with great difficulties in affording local services and facing massive state deficits. The arrogant behavior exemplified by Mr. Doughty, in collecting his paycheck while providing little of value to the taxpayers, needs to be squeezed out of the system.

In remarkable contrast to the acrimony that preceded their current pact, the Providence Journal and the Providence Newspaper Guild reached agreement yesterday on a new three-year contract, intended to run from January 1 through the end of 2010. The deal includes a three percent raise in the first year; two percent or whatever is received by the Teamsters or the Pressmans' Union, whichever is higher, in the second year; and the same raise as the other unions in the final year.

Members of the Guild, which represents more than 400 reporters, photographers, and other workers at the ProJo, are scheduled to vote on the contract January 9. The union's bargaining committee has unanimously recommended voting in favor of it.

The Guild's last contract agreement, in 2003, came after four years of a divisive union-management battle that left many employees with a bitter taste following the Belo Corporation's 1997 acquisition of the ProJo. The pain of the last battle, as I reported earlier this month, left both sides in a decidely more collaborative state of mind. 

"It's a pleasant change," Guild administrator Tim Schick says. "To be in a situation where you can have constructive dialogue and work at problem-solving, not just in terms of this round of bargaining, but in what's been going on in the last couple of years [is] a lot more preferable than duking it out and litigating everything. It's the way labor relations should be practiced. It doesn't mean we resolved all our problems .... but we currently have a better situation than most newspapers do."

Schick calls the agreement "a reasonable deal given the state of the economy and what's been going on in the newspaper industry right now." Initial feedback "is that most people are satisfied with it. There are aspects that some people don't like, but ultimately we'll know where the members stand on January 9."

The deal comes as the ProJo reports today that Belo is writing down the value of Rhode Island's statewide daily:

The Providence Journal is worth less today than it was 10 years ago, when it was bought by Belo Corp., of Dallas, Texas.

The same is true for a newspaper in Riverside, Calif., which Belo also bought 10 years ago.

To account for the decline in value of its Providence and Riverside newspapers, Belo will have to lower the value of the assets it carries on its balance sheet. Belo’s net worth — the amount by which the company’s total assets exceed its total liabilities — will probably drop, too.

The write-down in the value of the Providence and Riverside properties will also result in a charge against Belo’s earnings for the three-month period that will end Dec. 31, according to a document that Belo has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C.

Here are some of the additional highlights of the new contract agreement, as described on the Guild's Web site:

Medical benefits: No change, employees will still pay 15 percent of the health care co-pay.

Upgrades: Upgrades for 31 employees, with wage increases ranging from of 5.2 to 8.7 percent

 

Sales goals: The Company will now provide advertising reps with sales incentives within 10 business days of any new goals period.

 

Short-term disability: Employees will now receive 70 percent of their total pay while out on STD; except following childbirth, which will remain at 100 percent.

 

Cell phone policy: Employees required to use their cell phones for work will receive a minimum of $50 a month in reimbursement.

 

Mileage reimbursement: The auto allowance has been increased to $50 a week.

 

Online video: A two-year trial period between Company and Guild has been agreed to on the use of online sound and video on ProJo.com.

 

Leaves of absence: Long-term disability leaves will be capped at one year and a system of light duty work will be implemented for employees injured on the job.

I love baseball, and these pre-winter days are filled with my longing for the coming of pitchers and catchers. But sometimes the game just makes you shake your head. To wit:

-- MLB turns the other way when steroids and home runs bring fans back, because, as we know, chicks love the long ball.

-- Jim Rice gets dissed year after year in voting for the Hall of Fame.

And the latest insult:

-- A group of execs and scribes just voted to induct former commissioner Bowie Kuhn, but not labor leader Marvin Miller -- one of the game's most influential people -- into the Hall of Fame! Ridiculous!

In a telephone interview, Miller, 90, reacted with laughter and blunt words.

“Bowie Kuhn was a negative factor for baseball,” Miller said.

Could it be argued, Miller was asked, that the union’s gains through free agency were aided by Kuhn’s presence and Miller’s tactical ability against him?

“Without any question,” Miller said. “If he hadn’t existed, we would have had to invent him.”

Kuhn died in March at age 80.

This was the third time Miller had been rejected for the Hall of Fame. When asked whether he would request that his name be withdrawn from future consideration, Miller said he had thought about it but added, “I still want to cool down before I take any action.”

Kuhn was elected by a 12-member executives/pioneers committee made up of executives and former executives, newspaper reporters and former players.

Nine votes were needed for election; Kuhn received 10, and Miller 3. Kuhn was commissioner from 1969 through 1984, and Miller was executive director of the union from 1966 through 1983.

The current commissioner, Bud Selig, has supported Miller’s candidacy.

“I was surprised that Marvin Miller did not receive the required support given his important impact on the game,” Selig, also a former team owner, said, according to The Associated Press.  . . . .

The voting makeup of the veterans committee has been changed twice since 2001. The original 15-member panel was abolished, and instead, votes were extended to include every living member of the Hall. That group failed to elect anyone in three attempts.

In the two previous veterans committee elections, Kuhn’s total dropped to 14 from 20 and Miller’s rose to 51 from 35. Now, the veterans committee uses three panels — the two whose results were announced Monday and another for players. That committee will meet and vote next year.

In a news release, the union’s current executive director, Donald Fehr, criticized Miller’s rejection. “It was very disappointing,” Fehr said. “Over the entire scope of the last half of the 20th century, no other individual had as much influence on the game of baseball as did Marvin Miller.”

Fehr called Miller “the owners’ adversary” and said the panel was filled with a majority of representatives of ownership. “The failure to elect Marvin Miller is an unfortunate and regrettable decision,” Fehr said. “Without question, the Hall of Fame is poorer for it.”

Dale Petroskey, president of the Hall of Fame, said that the executives/pioneers panel was chosen by the board of directors of the Hall and that all 10 candidates were given fair hearings during discussions Sunday.

Petroskey, however, would not say which voters supported Miller and which ones voted against him. Harmon Killebrew, the former Minnesota slugger, was on the panel.

“Who knows what’s on people’s minds?” Killebrew said. When asked whether there was negativity against Miller, Killebrew said, “I didn’t get that feeling.”

Petroskey said Miller would get another chance from the veterans committee in two years and said the membership of the executives/pioneers panel could be different then.

“I’m sure today was disappointing for Marvin Miller, but he’ll have another chance,” Petroskey said. When asked whether Miller would still be a candidate should he withdraw his name, Petroskey said, “We’ve never really had that before.”

Hot on the heels of the news of the state's worsening budget outlook, Governor Carcieri has a 3:30 meeting tomorrow with union leaders George Nee, Ron Coia, Bob Walsh, Dennis Grilli, Lucie Burdick, Marcia Reback, and Michael Downey.

A variety of things today concerning the mayor of the celebrated city:

-- An arbitrator has sided with Providence firefighters in one part of their ongoing dispute with City Hall. Desite the resolution of this element, a reconciliation seems very unlikely at this time. From Greg Smith:

The arbitration award, which was made public yesterday by the firefighters union, settles employment terms for the period July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005. The long-running and bitter confrontation between Mayor David N. Cicilline and the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 799, now moves to arbitration of terms for 2005-2006.

Rank-and-file union members are “very excited” by the award, declared Firefighter 1st Class Paul A. Doughty, union president. “They think it’s really vindicated our position and exposed the mayor as the unreasonable one” in the acrimonious collective-bargaining relationship . . . .

Cicilline’s exasperation with the outcome was voiced by his appointee, lawyer Vincent F. Ragosta Jr., who complained in a written dissent that the award shows “a patent laxity” in its rationale and often fails to state a factual basis for its decisions.

“…Insulating Providence firefighters from co-sharing a relatively small fraction of the city’s onerous health insurance costs is nothing less than an affront to the city’s hard-working citizenry, many of whom are uninsured, and many of whom pay as much as 50 percent of the cost of their health insurance benefits,” Ragosta wrote.

-- Dan Barbarisi, meanwhile, reports on Cicilline wading into the battle over the city's Comprehensive Plan, which is poised to be approved on its first passage tonight by the City Council:

He stressed that the controls built into the plan will ensure that no local zoning changes will occur until the neighborhood plans are finished, and said that this is a critical time for Providence to have a strong plan in place because of the massive infrastructure changes happening in the city.

“There are very serious dangers if the Comprehensive Plan is not enacted,” Cicilline said, pointing to the possibility that the state will exert more control than the city in determining uses for the land opened up by the shift of Route 195.

“If the Comprehensive Plan were not enacted, local leaders would lose a great deal of control,” he said.

Cicilline said that the plan addresses issues of job creation and development pressure, and the public vetting process has been unprecedented in this state.

-- Cicilline was due to receive the recommendations this morning of a Poverty, Work & Opportunity Task Force that he discussed during his January 2007 inaugural address. He charged the group "with developing strategies to reduce poverty by creating more opportunities for low-income familes." As the city noted in publicizing this event, nearly 25 percent of Providence residents, and 36 percent of children, are below the federal poverty line, so making improvement in this area is vital.

Although the International Association of Firefighters, Local 799, the union representing Providence firefighters, has taken a serious public-relations hit in recent days, union president Paul Doughty remained unbowed during a taping this morning of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers.

Doughty rejected suggestions that the firefighters are seeking overly generous benefits, saying that arbitration has yielded results close to what they are seeking.

Asked why Local 799 continues to act against Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, considering how an outstanding contract dispute remains in arbitration, Doughty took note of Cicilline's expected 2010 gubernatorial run and said that firefighters want the rest of the state to be aware of the mayor's labor record.

While Cicilline might work the issue to his advantage, Doughty's comment suggests that firefighters may remain a thorn in the mayor's side during the next campaign season.

Newsmakers will be broadcast Sunday at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64.

Off the set, there were indications that Local 799's plan to picket a disaster drill on Sunday, thereby putting a big crimp in it, might be canceled today. Amanda Milkovits has details on this in today's ProJo.

Meanwhile, writing at Anchor Rising, Andrew has this tart observation:

When you manage to get David Cicilline and Don Carcieri and Bob Kerr and Gio Cicione all aligned against an action you're taking, it's time to consider that you might be doing the wrong thing. Bob Kerr says it best in today's Projo, talking about the Providence Firefighters' Union plan to use a picket line to impede Saturday's statewide disaster drill...

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — you can earn a year’s pay in one horrible night.

But don’t do this. Don’t put a lasting stain on a fine tradition. Don’t let this showdown with the city lead you to do something that insults the very thing you’re supposed to stand for.

If you do this, if you use the picket line to screw up a statewide terrorism drill, you lose. You lose credibility and respect and professional standing. You come across as petty and arrogant, even childish. You are having a snit, and your snit is dangerous....

This one is going to stick to the firefighters union for a long time. It will be cited as an example of a union that lost its way and let long-standing grievances lead to a dumb and dangerous slap at the city union members are supposed to protect. It is a gift to anyone who sits on the other side of the bargaining table.

It is also an insult to hundreds of people who are very good at what they do.