The Kind of Leadership Middle Class and Working Families Deserve

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.seiu2001.org/blog/Default.aspx?p=the_kind_of_leadership_middle_class_and_working_families_deserve

Posted by: Dawn McKay on 11/2/2010 at 7:29:00 AM

As we head to the polls today and choose Connecticut's next chief executive, perhaps we should think about the leadership model followed by our state's current and previous governors. This election is our chance to begin to undue 20 years of a "race to the bottom" and to help more middle class and working families reach for the top -- without gasping for air along the way.

For too long, Connecticut's workforce has taken what little it can get from employers just to hang on to a job -- any job. And as our state's economic recovery has lagged and prospects for the thousands of our friends and neighbors who are still unemployed have failed to improve, the stagnation has worsened.

Small businesses and municipalities are increasingly saying they can't afford to provide healthcare, defined pensions or livable wages to their workers. In their drive to cut prices, keep taxes low and improve productivity, too many employers -- public and private sector alike -- are viewing labor only as a cost, not an asset.

On the other hand, many successful businesses have adopted an approach based on an honest respect for its workers and their families. Instead of being squeezed for every possible dime of profit, their workers are improving efficiency and increasing productivity as a result of a culture of innovation the model creates.

This is a different paradigm. And it brings me to the choice we will make today for the next governor of Connecticut.

I'm a single mom with two teenage boys, and I work as an environmental analyst in the State Department of Environmental Protection's Wildlife Division. I'm involved in local community theater and regularly participate in civic activities, so I rarely have time to watch the latest reality television show. But when the opportunity to get involved in this year's election through our Union surprised me with a knock, I answered.

FULL story at link.