After the state employee's unions won a court decision blocking planned furloughs, Governor Don Carcieri has announced that 1,000 people will receive layoff notices.  He has instructed his department heads to come up with a list of those hired most recently.  The move is being made in order to close a budget deficit.  As the Governor stated, layoffs were not his first choice,

"I don't want to do this. It could be much smoother, much easier and much fairer if everyone could just agree to take a very small pay reduction this year. We wouldn't have to do that," he said. "Every day that goes by the situation gets worse, not better. I have to start now to affect any kind of savings this year."


He also added:


"The Legislature didn't appropriate the money to make salary payments, so now I've got to come up with a way to do it and I've got few tools to work with."


     So to summarize, the unions fought tooth and nail so that their members wouldn't have 12 furlough days.  Instead, approximately 1 out of 12 state employees will lose their jobs.  Great job!  I think if I were a member of one of those unions, I would want my dues refunded.  Then we have people like Michael Downey, President of Council 94, who doesn't quite seem to understand what is happening.  He called the Governor's decision "sour grapes," and said, "It's a knee-jerk reaction to a case that was just heard today... and to then go say 'I'm going to lay people off,' that's not right."

     Is it just me, or is there a disconnect between Michael Downey and the union leadership and reality in general?  The Governor needed to find savings, so he decided on furloughs.  The unions fought that idea and won.  Don't Mr. Downey and his colleagues realize that those savings still need to be found?  Don Carcieri's decision to layoff 1,000 employees isn't sour grapes, it's fiscal reality.