August 17, 2004
March Madness

Washington state's famously productive unionized public employees are threatening to march off the job:

Lougheed wore a button with "I'll Walk If I Have To" on it, saying that meant he and others were willing to march to get their way.

But Devereux, the union executive, suggested a more ominous interpretation. "It could very well mean people walking off their jobs in September," Devereux said.

"People are furious over proposals for contracting out and not being sure where wages are" going, Devereux said.

Just make sure to switch off the lights on your way out the door, dude.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 17, 2004 12:35 PM
Comments

I too wonder if anyone will notice these employees are not working if they do go on strike.

I'm pretty confident these State employees don't have the right to strike and by doing so may set up an interesting confrontation with a lame duck governer who hasn't announced any plans for other elective office. I'm sure Locke's response to any "strike" will be placed in the context of his future asperations for elective office, private employment, or the likelihood of an appointment in a possible Kerry Administration.

Will Locke have the steel of Reagan and fire these "strikers"?

Posted by: Gary B on August 17, 2004 01:38 PM

He didn't do anything years ago when there was a strike. It will be more interesting to see how Gregoire and Rossi react to the strike.

Posted by: Tim Ford on August 17, 2004 01:46 PM

Recall the Marysville teacher strike from last year. Our would-be governess, can't-be-bothered-to-meet the-court-date AG refused to even take a position vis a vis state law and striking state employees. Let alone act on it!

As an aside, I'm always amazed that people who willfully refuse to work at the job for which they were hired are then offended at the concept that they just might be replaced with someone who does want the job.

Posted by: chunkstyle on August 17, 2004 04:23 PM

A little off topic, but has anybody caught the ads the governess-to-be has started running on TV. Shades of John Kerry, her only qualification is she singlehandedly 'got all that tobacco lawsuit money' for the citizens of Washington. Wow, are the Washington voters THAT gullible? (On second thought, don't answer that...)

Posted by: TimF on August 18, 2004 09:47 AM

March Madness for geeks:

http://www.supermasterpiece.com/features/ludwig/column01.html

Posted by: Stephen on March 15, 2005 12:10 PM
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