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Brian Schweitzer possible presidential campaign, 2016/Labor and employment
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- In 2013, Brian Schweitzer approved a 5 percent base pay increase for state workers.[1]
- During a 2011 interview on "PBS Newshour," Schweitzer explained that he prepared Montana for the economic downturn by negotiating with state employees. He said he "negotiated no increase in salaries for the next two years, no increase in benefits, no increase in their insurance benefits. They agreed. And here was the deal. I praised them for doing the work that matters in Montana. I praised them for going first. I cut my own salary by $11,000. And then we started cutting the rest of government."[2]
- During the same interview, Schweitzer explained his position on collective bargaining. He said, "I think, if you eliminate the ability to collectively bargain for our public employees, then they are effectively negotiating one person at a time. And that’s why we created collective bargaining in this country. It is true that some states don’t have collective bargaining for their public employees, and some do. It’s working very well in Montana. And part of the reason it works in Montana is I say that it is a shared responsibility. And when we get into tough times, I ask them to share the responsibility. And, in Montana’s case, it’s worked. We’re running balanced budgets. We have a budget surplus. In fact, we have $328,474,612 in the bank today, partly because our state employees are doing more with less."[2]
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