As Shift has reported, Jay Inslee isn’t one to actually work much during the course of his regular workday. He does, however, always find time to meet with various special interests groups to shore up support for his re-election campaign.
According to a newsletter from the Washington Federation of State Employees, Inslee made a rather odd, highly partisan promise to state public-employee unions. During the meeting he told top AFSCME union officials, “We know the Freedom Foundation is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to strip people of their rights… I intend to be vigorous in fighting with you against those who want to diminish working people’s rights in the state of Washington.”
Of course, Inslee made no mention of any one of the sleazy schemes these unions have been caught doing “to diminish working people’s rights” lately. The Freedom Foundation points out,
“Inslee neglected to address any specific issues, nor did he elaborate on how informing forcibly unionized workers that they no longer have to pay dues and fees amounted to stripping people of their rights.
“For that matter, he was also mum about the SEIU 925 and 775 being ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines after getting caught in an elaborate scheme to camouflage millions of dollars in political spending it didn’t want its own ‘members’ to know about.”
No, for our green governor, the mission is not to hold these unions accountable for taking advantage of their members and engaging in illegal activities. It’s about attacking and taking down organizations like the Freedom Foundation who are fighting to hold these unions accountable to the law.
Rather than doing the people’s business (helping to pass a supplemental budget), Inslee is spending his time catering to special interests. And, rather than working for accountability in government, Inslee is working to ensure special interests have free reign over the people.
Our green governor’s statement is truly disturbing, but it’s not surprising. In fact, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from Jay Inslee.
