Commission Impossible

Have you really thought through the implication of saying the mayor should be muzzled by the office he holds?

This is America where free speech is one of our most cherished rights!

You and the ER both missed that key point. I remember my friend Gordon Casamajor, who was a conservative Republican and one of our most courageous mayors, coming out against the Vietnam War. Should he have been muzzled?

If we had a conservative mayor who showed up to protest the Enloe strike would you have cheered him or her on?

Maybe it depends on whose ox is being gored?

I don't really have a dog in this fight -- my wife and I have decided to use Feather River Hospital for the birth of our child to avoid the imbroglio that the mess at Enloe has become. However, there are a few points that Mr. Gregg glosses over in his post. To wit:

1- Apparently Mayor Holcome felt the office should muzzle him as he spoke as a "private citizen" and not the mayor. By his own actions, he realized that speaking out at a labor rally was unbecoming of the mayor.

2 - The case of Mayor Casamajor is different in that he was a government official speaking out against a government action. Mayor Holcome is a government official taking sides in a private employer/employee dispute. That has the feel of strong-arm government coercion.

Mr. Gregg may have a valid point about the appropriateness of the sitting mayor goring the ox of the area's largest private employer; however, I would appreciate examples/explanations that are germane to the issue at hand versus the generic broadsides he offered.

Dave Brobst

Hey Jim,

Thanks for posting. No, I would not cheer on a conservative mayor for protesting a union strike.

Please keep in mind that Andy said he was not speaking as mayor. So he seems to have muzzled himself in that regard. A point made in the E-R editorial was that even if he says "I'm not speaking as mayor" he is "speaking as mayor". Which you seem to have confirmed.

If Andy's intention was to not "speak as mayor" the best course of action would be not to speak at the rally. Perhaps you could explain to me why he chose to self-muzzle the office of mayor in this instance? There has to be a reason.

My guess is that he understands that a union contract negotiation is about money. Until the contract and/or representation is defined it is very much a private enterprise issue and should be left to the parties to dispute (and the courts if that's necessary).

Opposing a war, or any other public policy decision, is entirely different. Those things are squarely in the realm of politics.

Andy Holcombe and Scott Gruendl could have left the support of local and out-of-town union activities to "non-mayor" councilors. That's the smartest bet, because there's no telling where someone might take the disputes.

This dispute could end nicely in the next 4-6 months when the federal mediator makes their decision. Or it could get extremely ugly and personal in the coming years.

I like Andy, and I don't want him to lose the "Best Chico Mayor Ever" honorific. So, again, my advice to the mayor would be to stay out of this and let others speak on behalf of the union.

Lon

Dave,

It looks like we hit many of the same points.

I don't have a dog in this fight either, except to say that we're having our baby at Enloe around the time that the federal mediator will make a decision.

I really hope we don't get caught up in some hospital-union mess.

Lon

Gee....I don't remember Andy being there.... I also don't remember anyone being "removed" by anyone else.

Strange. I do remember some rude people at the Farmer's market but there was no indication they were from a union at all. In fact, judging from the $100,000 car they were driving I'm guessing they weren't in a union.

Randall,

If someone came into my business and wouldn't leave when we locked up for the night. And didn't leave until the police showed up, I would call that needing to be removed.

Andy may have been there on a separate day than you. I checked my emails and there were at least 2 instances when the ILWU came to Chico. I think the CNR covered the second one.

To be fair my information that Andy was there came from someone on the receiving end of this fun. They were pretty upset that Andy showed up, and said they spoke to him briefly at the time.

judging from the $100,000 car they were driving I'm guessing they weren't in a union.

They were probably in the real estate business:)

Lon

"judging from the $100,000 car they were driving I'm guessing they weren't in a union."

Apparently Randall has never seen what some Teamsters and United Auto Workers union bosses drive.

Ah....I've never seen one of those "bosses" at a union event...this is true. But they weren't at any union event in Butte County. I don't know about the rest of the state.

Here's what is interesting. I recall being at the bank when the ILWU was there. I also recall no news personnel being there of any kind. I don't *recall* Andy being there but to be fair he *could* have been there. I just didn't remember that. I also noted that the article you cited did not identify Andy as being at the event. In any event, if he was at the event it made neither news for anyone reporting the incident or even so much as a memory for anyone who was there - I guess this is really my point. I would think *some* news organization *would* have reported his appearance, if not just the group of folks that seem to report his whereabouts at every event he attends - particularly if it is union business.

I was just guessing about the car. Seems as though the SEIU union that has been suing a member of my immediate family doesn't have anyone who drives a car like that show up at community events. Go figure.

But I certainly have seen my share of rude people in some pretty expensive cars. Your point may still stand, I just didn't recall hearing from anyone who saw Andy there (or any councilmember for that matter).

Randall,

The ILWU sent press releases to all local news outlets to cover their hunt for a local business person. While you may not have seen the news folks there, they definitiely took this photo.

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=oid%3A86338

I was told Andy was there by someone who said they exchanged words with him. How long was he there? I don't know. It doesn't really matter, I think it was a bad decision for him to show up at an out-of-town union protest at the expense of a local business. But all of this ignores the main point of this post.

Should a Chico Mayor take a side in an employer/union dispute? I think Andy Holcombe tried to split hairs when he said he was not speaking as Mayor. He should have just let someone else speak.

Since you spoke in support of the union at the Enloe strike you could have just reiterated Andy's points for him.

On the $100K car comment, that's just plain popularistic nonsense. I've seen people that make far less than me drive much nicer cars than I do. I think all the unionized Associate Professor CSU Chico faculty, who make up to $85,000 plus benefits can afford to drive pretty nifty cars if they want to.

I would concede that driving an expensive car doesn't make you a smart person, nor does it make you a non-union member. It just makes you an expensive car owner.

Lon

Hi Lon:

I couldn't agree more with you regarding the expensive cars. In fact, in my business I find that the wealthier people actually drive older cheap cars. Research has indicated that this is the case as well. The wealthiest Americans drive one of two cars most often (though this data is dated a few years). They are first: a Ford F-150 pickup usually not driven new off the lot. Second: a Jeep Grand Cherokee - again not new off the lot.

Having not been at the ILWU event and saw Andy, I cannot speak to his being there. But the photo does not detail his appearance and one would think that a sitting councilmember at the event would have brought some news response. This idea is derived from the very same principle you bring forward that the Mayor (or in this case a councilmember- councilor if you will) shouldn't speak at an event because it (presumably) elevates the intensity of the argument.

What I find most reprehensible is that the Mayor is being chastised because he spoke out at a semi-public community business that was having the second strike over a 3 year period regarding labor negotiations over a union election that the National Labor Relations Board has deemed acceptable. The appeals process aside – how much longer do the staff of the hospital have to wait? And that same community business argued about delays in an expansion project. Let’s not even begin to discuss the aftermath of other labor disputes with this business and the senior management/board shuffles because they make the circumstances even more outrageous.

The mayor of any community (as the mayor and not as a citizen) not only has the right but the responsibility to speak on behalf of our community – that is what we elect our representatives to do. I do not put my head in the sand and hide from major problems in this community and have been willing to take the risks associated with speaking out – risks that many others in this community do not have the ability to take. Otherwise the very obvious question is “why isn’t the entire community putting pressure on the hospital management and the union to negotiate in good faith?” This is our only hospital and a major cog in this community’s gears. Without the hospital’s successful operation this community would suffer tremendously. For that reason alone I would expect the Mayor, all the Council members, and major community members to urge the hospital to begin negotiating their labor disputes, hire a new CEO, and work with the community to plan for expansion – some of these they have accomplished already. But 3 years is a long time to be fighting your elected labor union. For comparison it is 3 times as long as the Century Project’s delays. And this is not the first labor dispute the hospital has had and not the only contract problem the hospital has experienced. The CEO and two board members resigned in the aftermath of some of these problems.

Mayors in the United States very often speak out regarding labor disputes. A simple Google search will identify many such instances. The very brave Mayor of Salem, Oregon was similarly chastised for defending workers at a mushroom plant in 2001.

We all have a deeply vested interest in the successful operation of our only hospital. And evidently the board in the very recent past has mismanaged its contracts and employees. We hope the new CEO and board members will solve these problems and I personally trust they will. But make no mistake about it – I expect our Mayor to get involved in a labor dispute that takes over 3 years to reach a conclusion. This isn’t about small business or corporations or unions. This is about our community’s only major health care provider driving its workers into the union’s arms by refusing to treat their employees with decency and/or effectively negotiate a contract. I mark the 3 year timeline as the point when the successful election to unionize was made. Certainly it is clear the problems that lead to the unionization existed long before the election.

Disregarding those in this community that would be targeted for speaking out, why isn’t every member of this community urging these two stakeholders (the hospital management and the union) to solve their disputes immediately? And why are others in this community treating a second strike at the hospital in three years as a barbeque and not worth their attention? This is our community, these are our neighbors, and yes – we are Enloe. Let’s start acting like it.