Here's comments from one of the Correction Officer's union officials:
[Kevin Brace, the steward at the Northern Correctional Institute, wrote a letter to Moises Padilla, an outspoken union leader in Cheshire], "I am pleading with you to please stop talking to the press about SEBAC, and to let things work themselves out. I am not censoring your right to free speech. I am just pointing out to you that sometimes the best intentions don't always produce the best results.
Fair enough -- controlling the message is important. There is balance to be struck, and frankly messages often need to be tailored to different groups. Tailoring can make very different suits out of the same cloth, without changing the cloth and keeping the suit functional.
But then Brace himself falls completely down:
"I believe our union made a huge mistake by voting the SEBAC agreement down,'' Brace wrote. "It was our members' self-imposed ignorance that kept them away from the informational meetings that we held. Meetings that if you had attended might have put your apprehensions to rest.''
I'm pretty certain, however, going on to call your own membership stupid and lazy is not an effective way to influence people towards adopting your position.
Is Brace representing the interests of his members?
Or did he just throw them under the bus so he could curry favor with state political leaders, "Look, it wasn't us (your friends), it was those darn dumb members of ours! We can't control what they do when they won't listen!"
With friends, and leaders, like this who needs enemies?
From what I was reading in the paper and listening to on the radio before the deal was officially voted down, I had a feeling it was going to be defeated because the rank and file was feeling their leadership had abandoned them. The leaders' actions since then certainly reinforce that narrative.
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