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AP: SWANSON ALLEGES UNION BULLYING WITH ORGANIZING EFFORT AFOOT
By Michael B. Brodkorb | April 26, 2007
"Minnesota's largest state employee union acknowledged Thursday it is attempting to organize lawyers within Attorney General Lori Swanson's office, and the process has apparently turned ugly.
Swanson, a first-term Democrat, accused leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5 of threatening to launch a campaign to 'demean or disparage' the office if she didn't allow them to proceed.
'If I didn't agree to their demands (union officials threatened) that they would do a blog attack and they would try to plant unfavorable stories in the press,' Swanson said.
The threats, she said, were made in the past week to Brian Bergson, a top adviser and spokesman to Swanson.
The two AFSCME leaders implicated, executive director Eliot Seide and political action director Jim Niland, were unavailable for comment Thursday. AFSCME spokeswoman Jennifer Lovaasen disputed Swanson's account of how things transpired.
'We did not threaten to go to the media about working conditions,' she said, adding that AFSCME leaders asked to speak with Swanson about questions reporters were posing to the union. 'We were being courteous by notifying them of media inquiries.'" Source: Associated Press, April 26, 2007
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2 Responses to “AP: SWANSON ALLEGES UNION BULLYING WITH ORGANIZING EFFORT AFOOT”
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April 26th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
How ironic…I attended an AFSCME convention several years ago and saw Mike Hatch, who was running for AG at the time, get a $10,000 check from AFSCME. I wonder how much Swanson got from AFSCME. Funny how the worm turns, unions are great in other State offices, but not hers!
April 27th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Oooooo a “blog attack”…. heaven’s to mergatroid!!!!