By Brake

Dec 2, 2008 1:56 PM | Link to this

Most regular folks know that when a union is formed just to support the boss then that union aint worth joining. Any time the working guy forms a union so he will have someone trying to look out for him the next thing you know here comes the brown nosers. Brown nosers always come out swinging, supporting the sheriff because they think that he will do something nice for them and let them keep working. Its a sad day when the working people are afraid to stand up for themselves against an oppressive employer who intends to take away their jobs.

By ras

Nov 30, 2008 11:46 PM | Link to this

Larry Lynch is paid $1,000 a month by CEC. Lynch assigns county prisoners to be housed, at tax payer expense, at the downtown jail. CEC takes care of Lynch and Lynch makes sure CEC has enough prisoners to remain profitable. Maintain their margin so to speak. Lynch does it with taxpayer money and knows that a person would have to monitor daily head counts for both facilities to prove it. The problem being, CEC is a private company and not subject to Texas Open Records Act. If you are waiting to see leadership in County government, I hope you are not holding your breath. A real sheriff would manage the facilities and lease the extra space to offset the expense of housing prisoners. If Lynch fires CEC he would lose his sweet deal.

By Outsider

Nov 30, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this

Fred reminds me of one of those guys I used to hear talking about how great the union was out at General Tire and when they were on strike it seemed almost yearly. Where are those guys now? (Hint: Not at General Tire) The main cause current automotive crisis can be summed up in three letters UAW. But union pro or con is not the point.

If you have an illness, you treat it. If you have cancer, you cut it out. From what I have heard from my friends in the SO this association was set up and run by a few unpopular characters within the jail as a way to give them some credibility, and most deputies and jailers never even knew of it's existance. When privatization came to the forefront, it wasn't the association who organized those who showed up at Commissioners court every tuesday but the real leadership in the jail who initially spoke to the media.

Then suddenly the association president with his CLEAT Rep. in tow gets on t.v. running down the sheriff, and the media makes it sound like he speaks for all employees when in reality he spoke only for himself and a few friends at that point. Rather than form a second association other deputies and jailers interested are urged to join the current one with promises of new bylaws and equal representation. Then suddenly we have allegations of "Union Busting" on the part of the sheriff to stop any changes in the association's bylaw revisions.

Bottom line is if there was some secret plot to privatize the jail,why would the sheriff have moved so quickly to promote someone to fill the captain vacancy over there. The sheriff now has four years till he has to face the voters again, and the "MCSOA" has no seat at the table in the decision processes if they continue to work against him, and trash him publicly. The decision is his and the Commissioner's, do we have an illness that can be treated, or is it cancer and cut it out. Many people's career hang in the balance, and rely on cooler heads prevailing. That's why there is so much controversy.

By Hewitt Citizen

Nov 30, 2008 3:14 AM | Link to this

So far a privitization goes and overcrowding at the jail, there are 200 beds at the currently private downtown jail that are being used by CEC to house out of county inmates and federal inmates. When you consider the total jail population at the moment is anywhere from 850 to 1000 inmates, 200 additional beds would go a long way.

The downtown jail can be taken back from CEC by the county according to the contract (at least that's what the Commissioners were talking about as an option.) So why not do so?

Maybe that's some of the leadership that we're about to see.

By Fred

Nov 29, 2008 5:30 AM | Link to this

Waco and McLennan County have been anti-Union for decades. This is one of the reasons that Waco has not grown in over one hundred years (like Dallas, Austin and San Antonio). No Organized Labor is one of the reasons that Poverty pervades Waco (fifth highest in the State) with the wages being dirt-low. And now the Waco Tribune (the Rag of Slaughterhouse Waco) is doing it's part in the Union-Busting effort in full support of Sheriff Lynch and the anti-labor effort. Workers in Waco are going to get "beat down" at the mere mention of the word.....Union. And Waco has the rampant poverty and dirt-low wages to prove it.