Will Wallingford unions avoid layoffs?

Now that Wallingford Mayor Bill Dickinson and the Town Council have signaled their intentions to hold the line on spending next year, the unanswered question is: How will the town and school unions respond?
It’s important because the budget is going to be a lot easier for the mayor to manage and for resi-dents to live with if it does not result in substantial layoffs. Most people like a lean budget until they find out that their school is going to have one less teacher or that the pothole in front of their house can’t be repaired for days because there are fewer Public Works employees.
The mayor and council cannot prevent layoffs. Only the unions can do that.

So far union leaders have said virtually nothing to the newspaper about concessions to avoid layoffs. We do know the town unions are negotiating. As of late last week, School Board chairman Mike Votto had not even instructed Superintendent of Schools Dale Wilson to begin negotiating. That may have changed.
My gut tells me the teacher’s union is not going to rush into negotiations. I say that for several rea-sons. 1) Wilson said last week that there is a $1 million dollar surplus that could be used to offset the cuts made by the mayor. 2) School officials have also said they may be able to use additional federal money to offset cuts. 3) Votto is a professional educator himself. Playing hardball with the school unions is playing hardball with his union brothers and sisters. He cannot be expected to approach it the same way as a non-educator. But don’t blame Votto. Blame the fact that there aren’t more people interested in running for the school board. 4) The teacher’s union is very savvy and influential. Politi-cians don’t like to admit it, but their chances for re-election is influenced by a thumbs up or down from the teacher’s union. I don’t blame the teachers for that. They have every right to organize and influence the process. It’s not their “fault” that they have become good at it.

Let me know what you think.