Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9412280081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Allen, who also pledged to reduce the size and cost of government, wants to idle about 1,100 employees in 1995 as part of his plan to balance the budget and cut taxes. He already has fired about 450 workers.
A handbill distributed by the Virginia Alliance of State Employees includes what the union describes as ``some of Gov. Allen's more infamous lies.''
Citing an Allen letter to state employees shortly before the 1993 gubernatorial election, the alliance noted that the Republican pledged to boost wages, depoliticize the work force and include workers' ideas in his effort to remake government.
Allen is proposing a pay raise of 2.25 percent this coming year. That is less than the inflation rate of 2.7 percent and ``in effect, [is] giving employees a pay cut,'' the handbill said.
The union also said Allen is going back on a promise to remove what he described in his letter as ``political gamesmanship'' from the business of state government.
The governor has drawn fire from Democrats and pressure groups for installing friends and, in some cases, their relatives in high-paying state jobs.
``Gov. Allen has proved himself the master of political gamesmanship,'' the alliance said. ``His budget is an attack on his political opponents.
``He designed his tax cut to make anyone who votes against it to appear to support high taxes, when actually they are voting to save Virginia's state services.''
The alliance also attacked Allen for firing employees with little notice, for dismantling a workers' counseling program and for excluding workers' representatives from the Blue Ribbon Strike Force, a government reform panel that recommended cutting 16,000 state jobs by the time Allen leaves office in early 1998.
``Under the governor's budget proposal, essential services are maintained,'' Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe said. ``We have to move away from the notion that state government has to grow.''
The state has more than 106,000 employees. The alliance and the Virginia Governmental Employees Association, which is not a union, are the state's principal public employees' organizations.
The alliance was formed several years ago by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Communications Workers of America and the United Steelworkers of America.
Both organizations have initiated lawsuits against the Allen administration, alleging unfair labor practices and challenging the statutes under which non-political, career bureaucrats were fired.
by CNB