What obligation do taxpayers have to provide security indefinitely to a for-profit corporation engaged in a protracted labor dispute so it can continue operating with cheaper workers after locking out its unionized workforce?The Stand reports that Washington State Senator Don Benton, R-Vancouver, who is part of what has been dubbed the “Millionaire Coalition Caucus” of wealthy legislators who control the State Senate, is the subject of an ethics-related probe himself. The State Auditor’s Office is investigating his dual role as a State Senator and as the Clark County Director of Environmental Services, a $114,000 position for which The Olympian noted “he has no obvious qualifications” and was hired by Republican colleagues without posting the job or interviewing any other candidates. (In the process, Benton’s state pension could reportedly triple to nearly $70,000 a year.)
None, says the Governor’s Office, local law enforcement and labor leaders.
But state Sen. Don Benton (R-Vancouver) disagrees. In fact, he is so angry that Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has stopped providing Washington State Patrol escorts for state grain inspectors to cross a union picket line at the Mitsui-United Grain Corp. terminal at the Port of Vancouver that he filed an ethics complaint last week against the governor. Benton claims that Inslee “has unlawfully involved himself in a labor dispute, using his executive authority in an attempt to force a private corporation to negotiate with a labor union.”
Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, said Mitsui-United Grain is trying to “starve workers into submission,” and having government-provided escorts facilitates this strategy and has caused the dispute to drag on longer. He added:
(Ending the escorts) rightfully puts the state in a neutral position regarding this management dispute. While the state provided escort services, United Grain was able to carry on business as usual while depriving some 50 workers of their jobs and providing little incentive for the company to reach a negotiated settlement with the union.
But Sen. Benton sees things differently and in his ethics complaint against Inslee says the governor “has jeopardized a multibillion-dollar industry in our state.”
