Pelto Responds To Union Attack

You’ve got to wonder if union supporters of Democratic Governor Dan Malloy are inflating the threat of Malloy critic Jonathan Pelto’s candidacy for governor. The president of a major state union kicked out a news release today claiming “During the 2001 nursing home strikes Jonathan Pelto was paid to devise strategies to defeat workers fighting for decent wages, benefits and improved staffing.” If Pelto places his name on the ballot, his historic support of unions will poach votes from Malloy. Some unions are trying to undercut Pelto’s union veracity. Pelto responds:

In recent weeks, one political pundit called me a “union stooge,” while the former Democratic Party Chairman, John Droney, referred to me as a “liberal ideologue.”

But this morning, in a “What the _____” moment, the President of SEIU 1199NE, the great union that represents 19,000 Connecticut health care workers issued a press release attacking my life-long commitment to collective bargaining, unions, and the historic role 1199 has played in our state and nation.

The President of SEIU 1199NE writes,

“Running for governor is a serious endeavor and it is important to understand who has paid Jonathan Pelto in the past and not just his current rhetoric as a potential candidate.”

Here is the truth;

In 1984 I was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives via a Democratic primary in which 1199 was one of my earliest and most important supporters. I won that primary in no small part thanks to the work of 1199 and a variety of other unions.

From my first day as a legislator I worked hand-in-hand with 1199 to ensure that state workers at the Mansfield Training School were protected as the state de-institutionalized its residents.

Ten years later, I left the legislature with what I believe was the highest AFL-CIO COPE rating of any legislator.

And my professional life has been spent fighting alongside public employees, unions and their members.

According to today’s SEIU 1199NE press release, the explanation for this unwarranted attack is as follows,

“In 2001, while workers were fighting statewide for fair wages and better staffing to care for patients Jonathan Pelto was a paid consultant to the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, the nursing home association battling workers. Pelto devised strategies to portray workers as undeserving and greedy.

When the future of low wage health care workers was on the line Jonathan Pelto sided with the association paying him to defeat workers,” SEIU 1199NE President David Pickus said today. “Now as a potential candidate he is seeking support from unions but he had no support for unions in 2001 when he was strategizing against Connecticut workers and aligning himself with disgraced former governor John Rowland.”

Pelto devised strategies to portray workers as undeserving and greedy????

NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!

While the event in question was more than thirteen years ago, I remember it well.

The 2001 nursing home strike was a carefully orchestrated event that ended with Rowland and the Connecticut Legislature taking emergency action to allocate over $100 million dollars in increased funding for nursing home staff. In fact, as some older union members will recall, the legislative language that went with the increased funding included the unprecedented step of requiring nursing homes to spend that additional money to improve staffing levels and increase what everyone recognized were unfairly low wages.

Over the following years, rather than portray Connecticut’s nursing workers as undeserving and greedy, 1199 and the nursing homes worked hand in hand to pressure the governor, as well as Democratic and Republican legislators, to increase funding for long term care facilities and their staff.

At the time, my company, which was called Impact Strategies, Inc., helped a variety of groups, including a number of unions, better position their issues in the public arena.

While my client in this case was one of the nursing home associations, we all worked to expand funding for nursing home care and I still have the powerful direct mail pieces that I designed that were used urge the families of nursing home residents to contact the governor and legislature and demand adequate funding for long term care.

It is hard to imagine how or why SEIU 1199NE would destroy my position and take the facts so out of context.

Having watched the quality of care that 1199NE members provided my grandfather at the Hebrew Home in Hartford, it is beyond offensive that they would suggest that I “devised strategies to portray workers as undeserving and greedy.”

The only thing I can imagine as to why they would engage in this unwarranted and unfair attack is that SEIU 1199NE is holding a “GOVERNOR’S FORUM” with Dannel “Dan” Malloy on Saturday, May 31st at Manchester Community College.

Rather than provide me with an opportunity to come and address 1199 members, someone in the union took it upon themselves to trash me and my record.

As a potential candidate for governor, it would have been far more appropriate had they invited me to come and sit down with members and talk through these issues.

The level of animosity displayed in the 1199NE press release reminds me of Gandhi’s famous quote;

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

While I wish the union would have provided me with the opportunity to set the record straight,  I assume rank and file healthcare workers will take the time to discover that I am and have always been an extraordinarily strong supporter of the hard-working people who belong to SEIU 1199NE.

As this campaign season progresses, I look forward to making my case about why rank and file members of 1199 and Connecticut’s other unions should join in my campaign as we confront the incumbency party and demand the major changes Connecticut needs if we are to become a state in which all of our citizens can lead better, more fulfilling lives.