Mayor Bernero, last week during an interview with Paul W. Smith, you made the case that as governor you would have a better chance of developing good working relationships with government employee unions based on your experience as mayor of Lansing. Speaking of Lansing union officials, you said “they have accepted concessions because we’re in tough times, because they see effective leadership."
How would your approach to unions be different from that of Gov. Jennifer Granholm? What sort of concessions would you call for state employees to make? How would you persuade them to agree to make these concessions? If the unions ultimately refuse, do you have a backup plan?
(Read Paul Kersey's previous questions for Virg Bernero and Rick Snyder here and here.
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