Don’t you love the way professionals can spin information?
I caught this little instance in yesterday’s Star-Advertiser story by Derrick DePledge on HGEA’s request to reopen contract talks with the state.
The story was pretty straightforward. HGEA is asking to reopen negotiations under a “favored nation” contract provision.
The HGEA’s contract contains a “favored nation” clause that enables the union to seek the same gains won by other public-sector unions during the collective bargaining process.
The move had been anticipated since UPW ratified a new contract earlier in the month.
So far, so good.
Then down in the story comes the administration response.
Donalyn Dela Cruz, an Abercrombie spokeswoman, said the administration is waiting to receive official notice from the UPW that the union ratified the new contract before formally responding to the HGEA’s demand.
“We’re open to talking with HGEA,” she said.
What? “We’re open”????
If I understand the rest of the story correctly, it doesn’t matter one whit whether the administration is “open” to further negotiations. It’s their contractual duty. They agreed to the “favored nation” clause and now it’s being invoked by the union. It doesn’t look like the administration has any choice in the matter of whether to resume talks with the union.
Perhaps it’s a positive phrase, indicating that the administration isn’t going to resist the call for new contract talks. But the phrase does take a legal responsibility and makes compliance sound like a voluntary act of good will.
I’m not sure why that bothers me, except that it doesn’t accurately reflect the reality of the situation.
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No, Ian, you’re not alone — it bothered me too. Sounded to me like a statement a spokesperson would make, lazily, trying to say the right thing — or trying not to say the wrong thing — without taking the time to run a response up the food chain to get it more accurate and less tone deaf.
Ian, I don’t think that we should place too much faith on comments or “info” delivered by “pee are” folks… in this case it was probably meant as some kind of smiling face act.
My thoughts are in another direction. With “most favored nation clauses” why do we need more than one gigantic public employee union? In the current circumstance, competition between unions only results in greater complexity without benefit.
“it doesn’t matter one wit whether ”
They are all half wits.
So, that s/b; “it doesn’t matter one whit whether …”
“Don’t you love the way professionals can spin information?” No I don’t like the way they spin info. They should try another way. But hey. Many professionals don’t do that. They have integrity. As they say. All spin doctoring is done by “professionals” but not all professionals do spin doctoring” They said it.