Malloy’s Quid Pro Quo

To the Editor:

Quid Pro Quo.

A familiar phrase, but what does it signify? The law says that a contract does not exist between two or more parties until a quid pro, where each side receives something for giving something else. This is unfortunately only too common in politics where and when an unwritten and an unspoken quid pro quo exists.

Any attempt by Governor Malloy to deny that such a quid pro quo exists with respect to public employee unions is a farce and an insult to our intelligence. He owes his election to certain groups and the unions were one of them.

The farce is in telling us that he demands sacrifices from everybody, including public employees; he will lay off hundreds of them, so he says. I have and you have seen thousands of hardworking men and women walk through the company gate when a government contract was terminated. That is the truth and not the farce we are being told. Public employees are for the most part protected by their vital function in the public sector from massive layoffs which many of us have experienced firsthand. Public employees by having a virtual monopoly on their jobs cannot also ask for the same pay and benefits as those who must frequently seek other jobs and also perhaps, relocate, but in fact they get more when you count all their fringe benefits.

The New Deal of FDR and the Square Deal of Teddy Roosevelt are not representative of the workplace today where only public employees can be reasonably certain of a job until retirement. It is time for a Fair Deal and that means everybody.

You have seen what can happen in Wisconsin. The governor there faced up to the inevitable. He and his State Assembly abolished collective bargaining of public employees. I congratulate him for the political courage he displayed. You have heard the famous phrase from one of our Founding Fathers: “Gentlemen, we either all hang together or we will all hang separately!” We must seek and persist on social justice for all and this includes public employees.

The present course which Governor Malloy pursues imposes more burden on those of us in the private sector who already have been strained to our limit. The course advocated by Governor Malloy in asking for higher taxes strains reason, fairness, and hope for a speedy economic recovery.

Governor Malloy, think of us, the ordinary men and women, the unknown faces in the crowd, those without lobbies or power blocks and not those who wish to perpetuate a favored stance. Help us and not those who are presently the favored elite. Stop the red ink from flowing and end the cause of most of this drain of our resources to benefit privileged groups or eventually these policies will bankrupt our state. Choose!

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Appleblossom Lane, Newtown                             March 30, 2011