Dayton: Allegations of union payback ‘reckless, irresponsible and wrong’

September 15, 2014 by
Delegates cheer Gov. Mark Dayton's arrival on the floor of the AFSCME Council 5 convention.

Delegates cheer Gov. Mark Dayton’s arrival on the floor of the AFSCME Council 5 convention.

BLOOMINGTON – Addressing 500-plus union activists dressed in T-shirts bearing his likeness, Gov. Mark Dayton took direct aim Saturday at accusations that his support for a new law extending collective bargaining rights to child care providers and home care workers amounts to “payback” for unions’ backing.

Dayton called those allegations – a preferred talking point for his Republican challenger, Jeff Johnson – “reckless, irresponsible and wrong.”

Dayton added that his support for the new law is consistent with his longstanding belief in the value of collective bargaining, and he likened it to Johnson’s longstanding support for lower taxes. Noting Johnson’s pledge to roll back tax rates for the wealthiest Minnesotans, Dayton quipped: “I don’t accuse him of offering a payback to the rich Republicans who are helping finance his campaign.”

Dayton’s remarks came on the third and final day of AFSCME Council 5’s annual convention. About 700 members of the state’s largest union of public employees attended as delegates, and they showered cheers, hugs and applause on the labor-endorsed, DFL governor.

Gov. Mark Dayton poses for a selfie with a delegate to the AFSCME Council 5 convention.

Gov. Mark Dayton poses for a selfie with a delegate to the AFSCME Council 5 convention.

The affection appeared to be mutual, as Dayton reflected on receiving his first labor endorsement of the 2010 campaign from Council 5.

“Without you I would not be here today, and I will be eternally grateful to your leadership and your membership for their support,” he said.

Council 5 President Judy Wahlberg, who introduced Dayton to the delegation, said the governor’s race offers a clear choice between continued progress and a return to “attacks on our very right to exist.”

Indeed, Johnson, a Hennepin County commissioner with ties to the Tea Party, has said he wants to “go all Scott Walker” on Minnesota, a reference to the Wisconsin governor’s move to strip most public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

In addition, Walker and Republicans in the Legislature slashed aid to Wisconsin’s public school districts and state colleges by $2.6 billion – more than any other state – in order to offset tax cuts enjoyed disproportionately by the state’s highest earners.

How is the Walker economy working for Wisconsin’s middle class families? Not well, Dayton said.

Wisconsin ranks last in job growth among Midwest states since Walker took office four years ago, and a comparison of economic indicators in the two states during that time overwhelmingly favors Minnesota. The gopher state’s economy, Dayton said, has grown 42 percent more than Wisconsin’s, as measured by gross domestic product per capita, and incomes grew 11 percent faster in Minnesota than Wisconsin.

“Does anyone want to trade Minnesota for Wisconsin?” Dayton asked, crediting the state’s entrepreneurs, business leaders and skilled workforce for creating economic growth.

While Wisconsin lawmakers have cut support for schools, Dayton and DFL majorities in Minnesota have moved to restore funds borrowed from public school districts in order to balance the state budget, while expanding all-day kindergarten statewide and replacing “Republican deficits with DFL surpluses,” Dayton said.

“I need you to remember what it was like to work with a Republican governor or a Republican Legislature … and I need you to vow to never let that happen again. I won’t give you a payback; I’ll work together with you, and together we’ll build a better Minnesota.”

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Expenses, stress mount for essential employees during Tea Party shutdown

October 15, 2013 by
Federal workers and supporters demonstrate against the federal government shutdown outside the Social Security Administration offices in Minneapolis.

Federal workers and their supporters demonstrate against the federal government shutdown outside the Social Security Administration offices in Minneapolis.

Gloria Jones and May Sy Lawrence won’t get paid for doing their jobs until Tea Party Republicans in Congress get serious about doing theirs.

Jones and Lawrence are essential federal employees – officially classified as “accepted employees.” As they have throughout the 15-day shutdown, they showed up for work today at the Social Security Administration offices in Minneapolis, but they won’t see their wages until members of Congress – who are getting paid – pass a clean budget to fund the government.

On their lunch break, Jones and Lawrence joined a demonstration outside the Social Security Administration, calling on Tea Party Republicans to end the shutdown and stop holding the economy – and the federal government – hostage. [Click here to add your voice.]

Republicans in the House initially allowed the government to shut down in an attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. When that failed, they tried using the shutdown – and a looming deadline to extend the nation’s borrowing authority – to gain leverage in budget negotiations.

Jones said Tea Party Republicans might not be so cavalier about shutting down the government if their paychecks, like hers, depended on it.

“If they were in our shoes what would they do?” she asked. “They need to get their act together and end this now.”

About 19,000 federal workers in Minnesota – and 800,000 nationwide – are either out of work or working without a paycheck.

The strain is, perhaps, greatest on essential workers, who, unlike furloughed workers, must continue to pay for child care while they are at work, transportation to and from work, and other expenses – without the benefit of a paycheck.

Lawrence said the shutdown already has taken a toll on her family’s ability to meet its financial obligations. She called her mortgage company to ask for some relief from monthly payments during the shutdown, she said, and was denied.

“It’s pretty stressful,” Lawrence said, “especially when you have small children. We need to get it settled as soon as possible because it is affecting everyone.”

Lawrence, Jones and their co-workers at the rally today are members of the American Federation of Government Employees. Members of several other organizations joined them today, including the largest union of state government employees in Minnesota, AFSCME Council 5.

“At AFSCME, we’re familiar with shutdowns,” said Council 5 spokesperson Jennifer Munt, referencing a 20-day state shutdown in 2011. “We don’t like them because they hurt everyday people.

“We took Minnesota off the Tea Party choke chain. The Republican Party in Washington needs to do the same.”

Social Security Administration workers brave the rain to join a demonstration against the government shutdown outside their Minneapolis offices.

Social Security Administration workers brave the rain to join a demonstration against the government shutdown outside their Minneapolis offices.

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Letter to the Editor: In this election, union members must keep their eyes on the prize

September 24, 2012 by

Mike Mazurkiewicz

I’ve been retired for a few years now. Although I don’t always know (or care) what day of the week it is, I do try to stay informed, and I brush up on national, local and postal issues – especially those affecting seniors and retirees. That leads me to some thoughts on something I do care about – the important 2012 presidential election. We have one political party saying government is the problem. The other says it’s the solution. It’s that simple, right?

I’m not so sure.

I see it this way: While government will sometimes be a problem and other times a solution, it will always be the prize. Why else would candidates and political parties spend millions upon millions of dollars on a job that doesn’t pay much? Because with the prize comes enormous power and control. The party winning the prize will have a dramatic impact on your jobs, your family, your retirements – and the future of our country.

Will they be a solution or a problem? Who deserves the prize? Cynics will say this election is a question of the lesser of two evils. Others will say it’s the evil of two lessers.

Maybe, but maybe not. I have voted in every election since I was 21, and over the years cast my vote for different political parties based on what I felt was important. But during the last few decades or so I have become increasingly disgusted with and opposed to the party that calls itself “conservative.”

Their policies turned our country’s budget surplus into a multi-trillion dollar deficit. What’s conservative about that? They continue to say that tax cuts for the wealthy will have a positive, “trickle down” effect for the middle class. But have they? No, they haven’t.

Now these “conservatives” want to double down on trickle down. I cannot simply stand by and let them run our nation into the ground and turn us into a third-world country.

I watched with disgust as “conservatives” approved (but didn’t fund) an unnecessary war, voted for wealthy tax cuts and sent American jobs to foreign countries via the passage of NAFTA and CAFTA. They warn us about their opposition party’s “socialist” policies, but they willingly sold the debts their policies created to Communists in China, and actually made socialists out of us all by using taxpayers to bail out Wall Street and the Banks. (Apparently profits belong to capitalism, but socialism is OK for losses).

“Conservatives” really stuck it to postal workers with “Postal Reform,” which put the only government agency that regularly made money into bankruptcy.

Oh sure, they say they care about us middle class people – while we’re in the womb! But after that – well, you’re on your own. Forget about supporting education, good jobs, social services, health care and a clean environment; you have to use your own personal responsibility and care for your own needs, until you’re needed for the next war.

I won’t allow the same political party most responsible for the declining state of our union try to tell me that they are the solution. And I won’t let its “Tea Party” faction try to convince me that their outdated and failed ideologies are a “new direction.” I’m not even going to listen to them anymore.

Well, maybe just a little bit. I did watch some of the Republican National Convention. What a joke! They accuse the president of not doing his job when they have done nothing but obstruct every piece of progressive legislation he proposed. They condemn the president for proposing a plan that is identical to a plan their own candidate proposed while governor of Massachusetts. They’re not just clueless; they’re shameless.

The fact is that our Congress hasn’t been doing its job – unless you think supporting an oligarchy while dissolving a democracy is their job. I’m done putting up with them.

– Michael Mazurkiewicz, St. Paul Area American Postal Workers Union retiree

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