As we start another year the economic crisis kicked off by the Wall Street bankers continues.
On November 2 Tennessee voters elected a new governor and a new General Assembly.
As candidates many of these newly elected officials bragged about their unique abilities to fix this economic crisis. That is why they must hear from you about how the economic crisis is hurting your family and quality of life. Our already thin paychecks are shrinking by the day as health care costs skyrocket and the effects of 4 years without a pay raise take their toll.
With price increases for gas, food, housing, and this month's insurance premium hike, the only thing that isn't going up is our pay checks.
UT President Joe Diepietro and TBR Chancellor John Morgan recently have both publicly stated the need for salary increases for staff and faculty. You should pat yourself on the back, because of your union membership and the work you've help push forward for UCW’s 2011 campaign these pressing issues are be discussed by top higher education officials.
For some, the Tennessee economy is slowly improving. In fact, for the first quarter of this fiscal year sales tax collections outpaced projections by $46 million, the highest since 2007! For the current fiscal year Tennessee is $78 million above projections.
As these trends continue, we cannot allow the state legislature to use the excuse of a "bad economy" to keep hard-working higher education employees down. There will be no "economic recovery" until working class Tennesseans see improvements in our pocketbooks. We need an equal dollar pay raise for all Tennessee higher education workers and no more job losses.
