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Self-dealing. Hypocrisy. Elitist cronyism. Union busting. Subterfuge. What comes to mind ... multinational corporations, greedy capitalists, the “old boy network,” secret cabals? Where can such inequity be found ... Lagos, Nigeria; Washington, D.C.; Antwerp, Belgium; Berkeley City Manager’s Office? Certainly. 

While the ears of many of us are still ringing from our city’s administration, in late December, telling unionized workers that there was no money to pay them the wages they sought, a new assault of clanging cash registers and jackpot prize alarms may force others to get either a hearing, or, at least, reality check. 

After courageously holding the workers’ net wage increases to 3 percent per year, the City Manager was gifted with a 9 percent increase for one year plus other perks. Apparently flush with victory, he shamelessly accepted these spoils of empire and acquiesced as his cohorts among the ruling elite sat in line for increases ranging from 23 percent to 6 percent. The justification for their pay increase is the same argument the rulers rejected from the unionized workers. 

Compare those special public servants to the electricians and communications techs who, when seeking to renew their long-expired contract, openly fretted about taking funds that otherwise might go to needed social services like the warm water pool and homeless people programs. 

While recent boom times have enheartened many job seekers, none have fared as well this past decade as the itinerant administrators. Like snake oil salesmen, they ply their dubious wares to a market clamoring for relief from all manner of perceived ailment. Seldom does the plight of the fooled or disappointed consumer affect the itinerant’s progress in appropriating more of the wealth. 

This exemplifies a condition, some would say a sick one, which pervades our society: to a significant degree, the people whom are least able to bear a burden are the most likely to shoulder it. Responding to such dissonance is a longtime Berkeley tradition, but, perhaps, the people who held the tradition are deaf, or tired. It may be that silence is the only appropriate response to the realization that a subtle parasite has invaded our sensibility. Are we to announce to the world that we too have succumbed to the same infestation we’ve castigated others for? Maybe it’s better to slink away and pretend that the fact does not exist. Visualize public servicing. 

Pat McCullough is union steward for the city’s IBEW Local 1245.