Promoted from diaries. - Moe Lane
For those who haven’t read my bio, my background is in collective bargaining and employee relations. I cut my teeth on the union side as an understudy to an old-time liberal Democrat trade unionist. His mantra was, “Before they do anything, make sure they think about what you’ll do about it.” After a stint in the private sector, I went to work for the State government representing the employer in dealing with labor unions. That is actually very common in both public and private sector labor relations since the union side is the best place to get good, hands on training in labor relations practices.
I began working on the employer side at the depth of the depression brought on by the oil price crash of ‘86. Gov. Cowper (Democrat), elected with great state employee union support, took one look at the revenue and budget projections and announced “All bets are off” to the Democrat constituencies accustomed to having their hooves in the trough. There ensued a decade of concessionary bargaining and labor strife. The times broke the back of the old-fashioned independent association that represented the bulk of State employees and the State’s largest unit came to be represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The old association had acted like a labor union, AFSCME acted like a political party and a whole new education began for me.
