Photo by Letitia E. Minnick
Just ask Boy Scout Kevin Anderson who found himself entangled in a political mess between a union bully and the Allentown Mayor. All Kevin was trying to do was a good deed by devoting hundreds of hours of his time and effort to clear a pathway for walkers in Kimmetts Lock Park on the Lehigh River near Dauphin Street.
Enter Nick Balzano, SEIU local President (a fact that the SEIU is still denying on their website, referring to Balzano as a member of local 32BJ, but not President) and his fight with Mayor Ed Pawlowski over layoffs of SEIU workers back in July. At that time, the city gave Mr. Balzano and his workers the opportunity to choose between a deferment of half of their promised pay increase of 8.9% or face layoffs. The SEIU workers and Mr. Balzano decided to opt for the layoffs, perhaps thinking that the Pawlowski administration was bluffing.
Photo by Letitia E. Minnick
I don't know about you, but not many people I know of are getting 8.9% pay raises, and if they were offered somewhere around 4%, as the city offered Mr. Balzano's union members, they would accept it with glee. But back to the bully and the Boy Scout.
At a recent city council meeting, Mr. Balzano rallied against the loss of these jobs in a five minute diatribe and threatened Kevin for doing his good works at Kimmetts Lock Park, along with allegedly declaring that no one but a union member should be allowed to push a hoe, plant a flower, or clear a walkway in any of Allentown's parks. Let me suggest that had the SEIU union members been doing their jobs while still employed with the city of Allentown, the pathway at Kimmetts Lock Park wouldn't need clearing by any volunteers.
Mr. Balzano would do well to remember that the Allentown Park system belongs to the taxpayers and not the union. Those same taxpayers have been paying Mr. Balzano and his workers for decades and, as the conditions of the walkway prior to Kevin's good work at Kimmetts Lock Park suggest, perhaps not getting their money's worth.
Photo by Letitia E. Minnick
So, why would this guy go after a Boy Scout? For the answer to that, allow me to quote Anna Julia Cooper, who wrote, "Bullies are always cowards at heart and may be credited with a pretty safe instinct in scenting their prey."
It seems, however, that Nick Balzano's instincts were off when he scented Kevin Anderson to be easy prey. After a backlash by everyone from Glenn Beck to Congressman Charles Dent, Nick Balzano and a half dozen or more of his cronies joined the ranks of the other laid off workers of SEIU local 32BJ.
I guess somebody from the Service Employees International Union finally decided to take out the trash.
Comments
It is unfortunate that unions aren't what they should be... I was raised in a union household and have seen both the good and bad of the AFL CIO. This incident is certainly not going to improve the "union image". It is even more dissapointing to see how someone so caught up in his own agenda could be so short-sighted as to lash out at a volunteer, let alone a boy scout. You would think that someone representing the Service Employees International Union would understand the meaning of the word SERVICE. As for Kevin... I am grateful for his intentions and his efforts and wish him well on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout. I guess the entire nation is getting an idea of how passionate we Allentonians are about our parks... and our boy scouts.
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