Members of a Burlington city employees union are pushing back after their president declared a “unanimous endorsement” of Burlington mayoral candidate Carina Driscoll Wednesday.
Several members of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees told Seven Days that they do not support Driscoll — and never knew about the endorsement vote.
“There was never an email, never a discussion, none of the union members voted,” said Ted Miles, a Burlington code enforcement inspector who is a member of the AFSCME union. Miles, who said he’d cast his Town Meeting Day ballot for incumbent Mayor Miro Weinberger, also questioned the critiques that other union members had for the current administration.
“It was definitely not any kind of unanimous endorsement by any stretch of the imagination,” Miles said.
Union president Karl LaBounty stood by his claim that the endorsement was unanimous. He said about 20 people — from the AFSCME local 1343, council 93 executive board, department representatives and “a couple” of members — voted in favor of Driscoll, LaBounty told Seven Days Friday. About six of those 20, including LaBounty, actually live in Burlington, he estimated. The union represents approximately 400 Chittenden County municipal workers.
“Everyone present” voted in favor of Driscoll, LaBounty said.
But “none of us were aware of any notice [of the vote] that went out,” said Matthew Perry, a city code enforcement inspector union member. Perry said he would have preferred that the union didn’t take a political stance.
Driscoll, who will face Weinberger and independent Infinite Culcleasure in the March 6 election, also described the endorsement as “unanimous.” She later told Seven Days that she relied on LaBounty’s assessment.
In the two days since that announcement, Driscoll has touted the endorsement on social media and in a press release. “This endorsement is a vote from within city government for change,” she said in her opening statement Thursday evening at a mayoral forum moderated by VTDigger.org.
Weinberger has received endorsements from the Burlington Fire Fighters Association, the Burlington Police Officers Association, and the Vermont Building and Construction Trades Council, which includes local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 300, and the Plumbers and Pipefitters UA 693.
It’s the first time that the AFSCME union has offered an endorsement in recent memory, said Nate Lavery, the union vice president, and it could have been handled better.
“We went through the process, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of all its members,” said Lavery, who works as an inventory control specialist for the Department of Public Works. “It was amateur of us, how it went down.”
LaBounty said that no email went out about the meeting, but said that agendas, and later minutes, were posted at each work site.
There is no typical process by which all unions endorse political candidates. Sean Ploof, president of the Burlington fire fighters’ union, said that his group allowed all members to vote through an online survey.
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Thanks, 7D, for this important follow up. This smells bad.
Whenever a union offers a unanimous endorsement for a candidate or political party , as a taxpayer, I’m going to go the other direction . Unions are important in fighting for their members rights but their interests are usually opposite to mine . In a way it’s a good thing they have endorsed Driscoll . It makes it clear whose interests she will be fighting for . It won’t be for the people who would pay her salary .
So let’s run the numbers here. 400 union members and only 20 people voted. That’s only 5%. And only 6 of those live in Burlington. That’s 30% of those voting and 1.5% of the voting membership. BUT WAIT, not all of those 20 people who voted are rank-and-file members. Apparently, there was only “a couple.” A couple is two. So two members…out of 400. Quite the mandate!
Everything about Driscoll smells bad. Lets hope the people of Burlington use some common sense and send that grifter packing!
Sadly this is not the only SNAFU attributed to the Afscme president. Rumor has it that he allowed the election for VP to be run HIS way. He got all the ballots sent to his house, so I guess he was able to pick who he wanted and not the folks who actually voted…IF there were any actual voters. Time for a new president Afscme members. Carl sounds sketchy to me. Im glad Im not mixed up in his mess
Driscoll gets her bad smell from her stepfather Sanders who is bankrolling her bid. Despite her saying she would not use her connectons to get elected. That speaks volumes about her trustworthiness or should I say, lack thereof. Cronyism is alive and well in Burlington.
Hey Saysme…… Where can I read the facts and truth of your last comment for myself? Sounds like a good read. Or a bunch of BS. Either way, enlighten me and everyone else. Thanks!
Some union members think that if their individual views differ from a position taken by the union a grave injustice and misrepresentation has been perpetrated. To call this presumptuous and self-righteous is a substantial understatement. Unions and other organizations who endorse political candidates typically have a process for doing so and one that is unlikely to involve polling the whole membership. The outcome will rarely please every member, but individual members do not speak for the union or organization as a whole. I expect some members of other organizations who have endorsed other candidates also have conflicting views and allegiances.
This story smacks of dirty politics, a poor understanding of the endorsement process, or both. The Weinberger campaign may have had no hand in this smear, but it does have a habit of accusing opponents of misinformation in the very act of spreading distortions and making false claims all its own.
Bill Clinton had to cope with his idiot brother, Bernie Sanders has to cope with his snowflake daughter and her desire for easy money. I guess she feels like shes too important to apply for a real job? Ironic that rich progressives are just as lazy and entitled as wealthy conservatives. Carina, you need to work at a job you earn on your own for a few years, put in real effort, develop actual skills, and demonstrate to us all that you are a minimally capable person. Burlington voters are not as stupid as you seem to think.
Outsider- You are correct in ONE thing. The ballots were sealed in an envelope and mailed to the president’s house, they have to go somewhere. They Were NOT opened by the president and were not counted by the president. The opening of the ballots was done at a union meeting where many stewards were present.
Michael- YOU ARE CLUELESS. There was no dirty politics, there were no misunderstanding of the process. The issue was that the union represented a vote by 200 members as a unanimous vote. That was not the case. Not hard to see that through your opinion that you don’t like the mayor, for whatever personal reason you have is YOUR OWN. There was a mistake made and it was up to the president of the union to correct the information given, and he did not. Instead he wants to blame the members for not being there, but that would be difficult since the members didn’t know of the pending vote. This was reported in seven days and WPTZ, this had nothing to do with the mayor. The Electric Dept polled their members, The fire dept polled their members and this union gave the misrepresentation that they polled their members. You stated that “individual members do not speak for the union as a whole”, but that does seem to be the case of the misspeaking of the president. Maybe you should reread the article a little slower to comprehend it better before posting.
It does not take a rocket scientist to pick up the bad smell in this. Carina argues her campaign if for transparency, but she is for transparency when it suits her. Do you really think her as mayor will mean a lot of this underhanded leave the people out of the process will not be present?
This certainly shows how much a lack of transparency her administration would not have. Do you really want to run Burlington back into junk bond status like Kiss did? Steal money from the taxpayers with not telling the taxpayers?
This really is a non-story. It is routine for union leadership and committees to look over the record of candidates, often with an interview, and make an endorsement. Unions follow representative governance and trustees or leadership undertake the serious business of political endorsements. I did so as a representative of about 1,000 Montpelier State employees Montpelier chapter. Union leadership does not determine how their members will vote but are tasked with selecting candidates best aligned with the union values and interest. Tony Redington, Vermont State Employees Association Retiree Chapter member
Certainly, it’s not unheard of for a union board to extend an endorsement, but it seems to me the smart thing would have been to do what the unions who endorsed the mayor did; poll the membership, even if the endorsement had to wait few days. People coming forward protesting that the meeting wasn’t properly warned and they didn’t get a vote casts the initial story and the endorsement in a different light, and that’s too bad.
This is why we need right to work laws. As a former union member and union rep I can tell you that with forced membership union leaders do as they please without any mandates from the membership. Many union members are so frustrated by this that they do not participate in the union at all. There is good to unions but also bad. This is an example of the bad.
Bernie lies to scream “oligarchy” to make votes look right while he builds a dynasty to the left.
https://vtdigger.org/2018/02/23/sanderss-son-may-run-new-hampshire-congressional-seat/