Whitman Attack Takes Aim At Firefighters' Right to Negotiate
With polls showing her losing ground in the race for governor, billionaire candidate Meg Whitman has turned her TV attack machine onto a new target: your right to negotiate.
Whitman’s latest attack ad zeroes in on collective bargaining. In it, Whitman basically says your hard-won right to negotiate fair contracts are the source of California’s problems.
The ad confirms Whitman’s publicly-stated desire to take away your right to fair, face-to-face contract negotiations. If she gets her way, you lose your voice in setting pay, benefits and working conditions.
The Whitman attack ad also depicts public employees – like firefighters and CHP officers – who devote a 25-year career to service and retire at 55 as freeloaders laying on the beach.
“In my 32 years in the fire service, I’ve never seen a candidate try to take away this simple right – your right to negotiate for your pay and benefits,” said Lou Paulson, president of California Professional Firefighters.
“If there was any doubt that Meg Whitman is on the attack against people like us, this ad seals it.”
CLICK HERE TO WATCH CPF VIDEO ABOUT BROWN’S PRO-FIREFIGHTER RECORD
According to The Sacramento Bee, Whitman’s attack twists facts and is “mostly misleading.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE BEE'S ANALYSIS -- "WHITMAN ATTACK ON BROWN TWISTS FACTS."
Employee Rights: The Brown Record vs. The Whitman Rhetoric
Jerry Brown
- Authorized collective bargaining for state employees
- Opposes efforts to silence voice of working people in politics
- Signed nation’s first firefighter cancer presumption law
- Vows to make change through negotiation, not through attack ads
Meg Whitman
- Take away ... your right to negotiate
- Take away ... your political free speech rights
- Take away … more workers’ compensation protection
- Take ... drastic pension rollbacks to the ballot
