"From Maine to California, unions have been negotiating just how deep the concessions they'll give to management will be. (...) Democrats have similarly capitulated to GOP demands for major cuts in social spending under reasoning succinctly laid out by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): "We're broke."
The Salinas hospital workers' response, in essence, serves as a rebuttal: No, you're not broke. And we can prove it.
These hospital workers in Salinas are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. They're sick of watching their healthcare siblings get screwed because the republican party managed to get a feeding frenzy going on the Middle Class, their education, and their standard of living.
Chris Christie got the ball rolling, and when the corporate loving right saw that someone with enough confidence and girth could intimidate and everyone would back down, conservatives every where followed suit. I don't have to tell you what happened in Wisconsin and here in Michigan. If I do have to you're not paying attention anyway, and this story doesn't mean anything to you.
Unlike the losses in those states, these Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare workers are just saying no, and then taking the story of how well things really are for the pigs at the top straight to the media. And they appear to be backing down because for now, the cuts on the ordinary Middle Class workers are on hold.
According to (Nat'l Union of Healthcare Workers spokesperson Leighton) Woodhouse, the union’s research into executive pay at Salinas uncovered the fact that the hospital’s outgoing CEO, Sam Downing, will receive a nearly $4 million payout, most of it in so-called “supplemental” pensions, in addition to his normal annual pension of $150,000. Woodhouse said the union took its finding to the L.A. Times, which ran an expose on April 28. (The reporter who wrote the story would not confirm that the NUHW had supplied the figures, noting that, like most newspapers, it does not reveal sources.)
In the wake of the news, California's state assembly held a well publicized hearing on the executive pensions and voted to perform an audit of the hospital.
So Christie, Walker and Snyder were test cases for the rest of the corporate butt kissers to watch and clone. Well guess what. Now, so is Salinas.
Get them where their gods are hiding, right between the driver's license and the kids' pictures.
Attack, attack, attack!