Romney’s Long Assault On Firefighters - Salon

[WillyT]

Romney’s long assault on firefighters
Mitt Romney has a long history of attacking firefighters and their unions, going back to his days in Massachusetts
BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD - Salon
MONDAY, JUN 11, 2012 11:11 AM PDT


Mitt Romney carries boxes of pizza for firefighters at Engine 24,
Ladder 5 in New York on May 1. (Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong)

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Mitt Romney came under fire this weekend from Democrats after he suggested that we shouldn’t hire more firefighters. Then top Romney surrogate John Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, doubled down on Romney’s firefighter comments today, telling MSNBC they were not a “gaffe.” This is hardly the first time the presumed GOP nominee has tangled with firefighters.

In fact, he has a long, bitter history with them. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney often ended up sparring with firefighters and their unions. He proposed stripping collective bargaining rights for firefighters and police officers in a city that needed a state bailout, and cut funding to a fire station to be built on the site where six firemen died. He also proposed tripling the state police budget to deal with homeland security concerns in the years after 9/11, but didn’t offer a dime for firefighters, angering many at the time.

In 2004, when the city of Springfield was facing bankruptcy, Romney proposed a $52 million bailout package that included suspending collective bargaining and civil service benefits for the city’s unions, including public safety officers. “He hates us,” Robert McCarthy, the president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, told the Associated Press at the time. “Unions are what made this state what it is,” he said, but Romney “won’t even talk to us.” Romney spokesperson Nicole St. Peter defended the suspension of union benefits, telling the AP that the “control board” the governor appointed to oversee the city’s finances “needs maximum flexibility to restore Springfield’s financial footing.” The Democratic-controlled state Legislature eventually overrode Romney and preserved the bargaining rights, though the control board remained controversial in the city.

It’s worth noting that stripping the union rights of firefighters was further than Wisconsin Gov. Walker was willing to go; he exempted public safety workers from his reforms. But when Walker’s fellow Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio went after police and firefighters’ union rights, he was rebuffed by voters in a referendum last year.

In Massachusetts, Romney also cut state funding for a new fire station to be built in Worcester on the site of a notorious building fire that killed six local firefighters in 1999. The state had earmarked $2 million for the project, but Romney cut it, saying the local governments, and not the state, should pay for such projects. Eventually, the governor agreed to $1 million of funds, but only after a local uproar.

Frank Raffa, president of local firefighters union, “said local firefighters were insulted by the governor’s action,” the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported in September of 2004. Worcester Mayor Timothy Murray said Romney showed “a lack of understanding” about how the community was affected by the deaths of the firefighters at Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building several years earlier. “This is the final resting site of our heroes,” said state Rep. Vincent Pedone, a Democrat from Worcester. “This site cannot be a drive-through McDonald’s.”

Before that, Romney proposed increasing the size of the state police’s homeland security budget from $850,000 to $2.7 million. But it gave nothing to firefighters, port security or other agencies involved in efforts to respond to disasters. Lexington Fire Lt. Ken Donnelly, then the secretary-treasurer of the state firefighters’ union, told the AP in January of 2004 that it was “outrageous” that fire services were being “ignored.” He noted that firefighters were critical in responding to terror attacks and the post-9/11 anthrax scares.

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More: http://www.salon.com/2012/06/11/romneys_fight_against_firefighters/

[DirkGently]

1. Oh, the paradise once Romney rids us of horrid waste of ... teachers, cops & FIREFIGHTERS?

[msongs]

2. if dems can't cram this down mittens' "campaign" they deserve to lose lol nt

[JDPriestly]

3. Romney would never risk his life for anything.

He doesn't understand what courage means, what it is worth.

First women, now firefighters. He'll pick on police officers next and then the whole country will be on to him.

[Quantess]

4. Who doesn't like firefighters?

Firefighters are possibly the most positively viewed profession, ever.

[Quantess]

5. Time for a kick!

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I hope these police and fire unions see this

Sad to say but many of them have been courted for decades by the rethugs and have given them their votes in return - time and time and time again. It's like an addiction. I know here in Philly, the FOP endorsed crazy Corbett and one wonders when they will finally get "buyer's remorse" (seems they may have when they endorsed a Democrat - Patrick Murphy - for State Attorney General). The fact is that they are "next" despite the lying denials by Corbett.

It took alot for the GOP to throw some of their most loyal constituencies under the bus, but they have, and like the zombies that they are, the rest of their thugs are falling into line to pummel them too.