Excellent advice, Ray. I guess it boils down to making the boss think it was his idea. I used to have a boss like that, whose first response to everything was "No!", unless we used that tactic.
I still work partime for another guy, who uses much the same tactics about pay. For me it wasn't a problem because, being part time, I wasn't dependent on the money. For the full time guys it was a real issue and turnover was quite high, although due to the nature of the industry it would have been anyway, but there wasn't any love lost between employer and employees. I think he used that tactic as a source of power and control over his employees.
Maybe you can use your special relationship, as the only full timer, to develop a way to get him to respond to you more appropriatly.
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"...perhaps the world needs a little more Canada" - Jean Chretian, 2003.