When John Pederson, Steve Gottwalt and King Banaian scheduled Friday night's town hall meeting at St. Cloud's Public Library, they had no way of knowing that public employee unions were planning on disrupting it. Things didn't get ugly immediately but it didn't take long before things got out of control.
The first question of the night was directed at Dr. Banaian, the economist, not Rep. Banaian, the Minnesota House member. Here's the statement and question: "Study after study has shown that right-to-work lowers wages for all workers. Is this true?" Banaian said that there are many studies on the subject but no conclusive evidence in either direction, in the minds of labor economists.
After that, the meeting went downhill fast. When Rep. Gottwalt attempted to respond to a different question posed by a union member, a different union member interrupted, asking "Are you wearing your legislator's hat or your Coborn's hat"? When Rep. Gottwalt replied that he's no longer employed by Coborn's, the man who interrupted quickly apologized.
That was the first time union members in the audience interrupted. It certainly wasn't the last time. In fact, union members in the audience made interrupting the rule, not the exception.
In fact, the most confrontational moment came when Rep. Banaian was answering another right-to-work question. Jerry Albertine interrupted, saying “Don’t sit there with your hairspray and your tie, you’ve never worked labor, and say you know what the unions are about.”
That was a statement Rep. Banaian forcefully responded to, saying that he's a college professor who's paid union dues to the IFO for over a quarter century.
There were approximately 100 people in the room, with approximately 60-70 of those people union members. AFSCME had a strong presence at the meeting. AFSCME was clearly visible in their bright colored logo on the back of their windbreakers.
Several times, Rep. Gottwalt mentioned how union members, many of whom are nurses, have told him that they want the choice of whether to be in a union or not. At one point, a person in the audience suggested that Rep. Gottwalt was lying, saying that it was convenient that these union members didn't have names and that they wouldn't come forward.
Rep. Gottwalt said that Friday night's union antics are why they haven't come forward, saying that they don't want to deal with the unions' retribution to those 'wandering from the faith'.
The meeting lasted a little over an hour. During that time, 2 questions were asked about Photo ID, another question asking for a law requiring a legislative panel review whether legislation was constitutional and one question about the closing of the Aviation Program at St. Cloud State. All other questions were about a potential right-to-work constitutional amendment.
If not for the presence of St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, the meeting could've taken a nasty turn, mostly attributable to the unions' disruptive, disrespectful behavior.
The unions quickly turned the event into an us vs. them confrontation. They came armed with the predictable chanting points. They came intent on using each of those chanting points. They didn't come to discuss. They came to start a full-fledged confrontation.
They succeeded in that last point, though it's safe to say that they didn't change anyone's mind on the issues they cared most about.
Comments