For Chafee, The Question Is: Did Father Know Best?

“THE OPPOSITE OF RIGHT PART IX”

On February 14, 2010, the Providence Journal reprinted a letter by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a federation of government employees dated April 16, 1937 in which President Roosevelt declared: “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.” While Rhode Island Democrats try to figure out whether they should agree with the patron saint of their party, President Franklin Roosevelt, or with their modern day masters, the public employee union bosses, the RIGOP has searched the archives and has found an interesting letter about state employees unions that may be of interest to at least one current gubernatorial candidate.

On April 28, 1966, then Governor John Chafee sent a letter to the Rhode Island Senate explaining why he vetoed a bill that gave Rhode Island state employees the right to collectively bargain as a union. Governor John Chafee saw the “organizational problems inherent where the machinery designed for private industry is imposed on State employees”. He explained that “since wages, hours and practically all working conditions are now established by laws enacted by the General Assembly … or regulations”, collective bargaining for state employees will “inevitably” lead to “bad relationships between …employees and the State” resulting in “the public [being] the loser.”

Unfortunately, the would-be Governor Lincoln Chafee won’t follow the sage advice of the former Governor John Chafee when it comes to state public employee unions. Candidate Lincoln Chafee wants “the endorsement of organized public sector unions” (Warwick Beacon 1/5/10) and has “urged” the House Finance Committee “to leave benefits alone” for public sector union employees (ProJo 1/13/10). Said Republican Party Chair Giovanni Cicione: “Despite a recent WPRI 12 Poll that shows voters think labor has too much power by a margin of 57% to 31%, Linc Chafee ignores this enduring warning from his father and embraces the same public employee unions that his father fought against.” “I wonder who Linc will defer to on this question,” asked Cicione – “his respected late father or his more recent benefactors – the fat cat public employee union bosses.”

News Release: Rhode Island Republican Party