Public workers need an equal dollar service payment!

Already public workers and desperately needed programs have taken drastic cutbacks. Our state's teachers, higher education staff and faculty, and state agency employees have borne the brunt of Tennessee's state revenue crisis. Higher ed workers are facing additional layoffs at UTHSC in Memphis, at community colleges like Roane State, with more job cuts threatened for hundreds maybe thousands next year.

In the face of all of this we have done the only thing we can: stand together and fight back. In these last few days of the 2010 General Assembly we have real opportunities for our campaign to win major victories. One of the key fights will be winning passage of an equal dollar one-time payment to all public workers.

However some in the state senate are playing politics and making calculated decisions based on personal ambition for higher elected office. We need to remind them that Tennessee deserves real solutions from our elected officials in Nashville, not more cut-backs and political posturing. Many such solutions have been proposed and there is broad agreement. 

In yesterday's Tennessean newspaper Rep. Mike Turner and Sen. Jim Kyle put forward a series of budget proposals including an equal dollar one-time "service payment" for all public workers - state agency employees, public school teachers and higher education staff and faculty. UCW fully supports rewarding hardworking public employees who improve the lives of all Tennessee residents every day. We also feel that any such payment must include full funding for higher education workers, must remain an equal dollar for everyone and must include all public workers including those who have less than three years of public service.

It is up to us to win a just budget for our families, and for our communities all across the state. Take action here.