Campaign on your own time
AFSCME union members at a political rally.
This is a topic that really rankles me — public employees who campaign for their favorite candidate or cause in the classroom, the prison or in the courthouse.
I love public employees. They do the jobs that are needed by society — educating our children, picking up our garbage, protecting us from harm and guarding those who have broken society’s laws. I appreciate the work they do and am glad that our tax dollars go keep them employed.
However, when one of my child’s teachers stood in front of the classroom and encouraged students to go home and tell their parents how to vote for school board, congress or governor, it crossed the line. I pay taxes for them to teach my children, not lobby me through them.
I’m not naive — I know unions lobby for candidates who will vote pro-labor, so I wasn’t surprised when I received e-mails showing an AFSCME Council 24 union representative encouraging fellow members to take “lost time” to campaign for Tom Barrett.
“Lost time” is essentially time taken of the job to do union work, which is paid by the union. By taking lost time, an employee preserves their seniority, sick and vacation time and retirement benefits with the state.
The initial email was forwarded to more DOC employees by Gina Toutant, who works at Fox Lake Correctional facility and is the Local 1005 president. The initial emails are vague as to what the political activity is. Granted, the initial email from East Central District Field Representative Todd Wetzel doesn’t mention Barrett. But pull up the AFSCME 24 SEPAC page and you’ll find a happy picture of Tom Barrett and his family along with headlines disparaging Scott Walker.
The person who provided these emails is an employee of the Department of Corrections and union member, and has asked to remain anonymous. Aside from the initial email, which was sent from an AFSCME Council 24 address, all of the subsequent emails were sent from and to DOC email addresses. According to the employee, these are state-issued accounts that can only be accessed from computers in state institutions.
I don’t pay people to do their political business on my time, and as taxpayers, we shouldn’t stand for it. In fact, state statutes and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development have guidelines for state employee political activity, including no soliciting votes for a partisan candidate, no direct or indirect soliciting for a partisan purpose and no use of state property, materials, supplies or equipment in connection with political activity. Seems pretty clear that there is to be no political activity at work –period.
State computers, state-issued emails and paid time off to campaign — I think there are some violations here. Calls to determine if any official complaints have been filed went unreturned.
I know this won’t make any difference to die-hard Barrett fans, but should taxpayers pay for their employees to use state computers on our time to arrange for partisan campaign activities? I don’t think so, and I think most people who pay the taxes in this state would agree.
Will this have any effect on the election in 15 days? Probably not. Barrett is trailing badly and unions don’t have the pull they used to. Hopefully someone in charge at the prison or the Attorney General’s office will sit up and impose some sanctions on this type of blatant behavior so the unions get the message that we are tired of their political shenanigans. Give me a call J.B., I’ll share the information with you.
Shouldn’t this also apply to Walker and Barrett?
While this has always been ‘assumed’ by many, it is a pleasure to read that a reporter actually has the strength to write about it. Thank you.
Call J.B. V if you want to. You get a zero for fact checking on this one, it’s what you get for taking your directions from Charlie S. LOL
“I don’t pay people to do their political business on my time, and as taxpayers, we shouldn’t stand for it.”
You don’t. That’s why it’s “lost time.” Without looking at the contract for the state workers in question, I couldn’t be certain, but I’m all but sure, being familiar with similar collective bargaining agreements, that these workers would not be in pay status while on lost time. Council 24 is paying their wages; I can’t be certain about benefits.
“In fact, state statutes and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development have guidelines for state employee political activity, including no soliciting votes for a partisan candidate, no direct or indirect soliciting for a partisan purpose and no use of state property, materials, supplies or equipment in connection with political activity.”
These guidelines are about doing political work on state time, which lost-time workers are not doing. As you state:
““Lost time” is essentially time taken of the job to do union work, which is paid by the union.”
“I guess we know where this union stands on the upcoming election.”
Yep. Unions are democratic organizations where the members decide on organizational policy. So a union can vote to endorse a particular candidate. In this case, SEPAC endorsed Tom Barrett.
“However, when one of my child’s teachers stood in front of the classroom and encouraged students to go home and tell their parents how to vote for school board, congress or governor, it crossed the line. I pay taxes for them to teach my children, not lobby me through them.”
That’s not right. This individual, and I stress ‘individual,’ teacher shouldn’t be doing that. But that’s not a matter of a union policy telling its members to do this. I’ve never heard of a union doing this — and I can be pretty certain that none would ever do this.
But to the point, you’re conflating in this last part I’m quoting what one individual does with what a union in general does, the lost time program. The latter is perfectly acceptable, and part of a collective bargaining with the state. If I had to guess, I’d probably hazard that the Council 24 contract in question included lost-time language in a contract first ratified during a Republican (read: not union- or public sector worker-friendly) legislature. Lost time is legitimate. Whether you like it or not is another matter; but it can’t be called into question as a practice.
Thank You for putting the FACTS on the table Peter. If Charlie S would have done his fact checking before “breaking” this story even his hate mongering wouldnt have broken it. Likewise then the (only 2) media outlets (which this blog is 1) so as they are called wouldnt have reported it as “news”. Interesting how Wisconsin’s “responsable” news media actualy works. Little news and much speculation..and less fact checking. I highly doubt it was a member that submitted the e-mail, smells like ticked off managment to me. But since the “source” will remain un-named, even though other people were named, that “fact” probably will go un-checked.
Spoke with the person who forwarded the emails. They are not in management, but a line employee in one of the correctional facilities in central Wisconsin. All of the names within the story are also actual employees. Believe me I checked before running this. I know who the source is and I will protect their identity. I’m sorry you don’t think this is news, but I think a union using dues to take state employees off line to campaign for a candidate while they complain out of the other side of their mouth that the state furloughs (put in place by a Democrat Governor) are harmful and dangerous is a little bit specious.