[I]n campaign videos and on the stump, Christine Hallquist talks about the importance of labor unions and recalls a positive relationship with her employees while leading the Vermont Electric Cooperative for more than a decade.
However, the main union at the company, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, has decided not to endorse in her run against Gov. Phil Scott, despite his feuds with the labor movement during his two years in office.
“At this point in time, with input from membership, the general tone is I can’t see we have over 50 percent on either side,” said Timothy LaBombard, president of IBEW 300, of the union’s position on the governor’s race.
“Those who dealt with her, there’s not a big influx there of support or negatives, it’s basically a wash right now,” he added. “The negatives are due to some of the workings as an executive and therefore that bleeds over as a candidate because that’s such a big part of her life.”
The electrical workers’ position was part of the reason that the Vermont AFL-CIO, one of the state’s biggest union groups which includes the IBEW, decided not to endorse either candidate in the governor’s race, according to federation president Jill Charbonneau.
“We did not close the door, we just said we did not feel like endorsing just yet,” she said.
That makes AFL-CIO the only major union not backing Hallquist, who is also the country’s first openly transgender gubernatorial candidate with major party backing.
Hallquist has been endorsed by the Vermont branches of the National Education Association and Communication Workers of America. On Friday, the Vermont State Employees’ Association voted 2-to-1 to endorse her, said the union’s executive director, Steve Howard.
LaBombard declined to offer specifics about why union members who worked for Hallquist didn’t support her. “I don’t want to put them in a spot that would jeopardize their positions and make them feel uncomfortable,” he said.
Jeffrey Wimette, the former business manager at the local IBEW, has no such reservations. He represented the union in negotiations during much of Hallquist’s time leading the electric coop.
“I couldn’t rely on her word. Essentially, she would say things and then come back and say, ‘No I can’t,’” he said. “She’s an intelligent lady, but I just couldn’t trust her, so I kind of wrote her out.”
Wimette said that Hallquist deserves credit for some of the changes at VEC, which was on the verge of bankruptcy when she took over, but that her senior managers were pivotal in turning around the company financially, making major improvements in safety and improving relations with the union.
“I worked well with her senior leaders and that was where we got things done, it wasn’t necessarily with her involvement in the matter. In fact, we decided to disengage with her to get things done,” he said.
Hallquist has been making one particular claim during her campaign that Wimette said is misleading.
In a video posted to her website in March, Hallquist talks about sitting down with the union early on during her tenure at VEC and explaining that they needed to work together to have a chance at turning around the company.
“Then when 2008 and ’09 came along and we had the financial crisis,” she says to the camera. “We turned to our union again for solutions and they came up with a list of financial things that could be done that was incredible, and, oh by the way, they offered a pay freeze, which we all took part in.”
Wimette said the union did not “offer” to freeze their salaries, but agreed to it because they were told that otherwise members would be laid off.
“She came forward and said, ‘We’re going to terminate these employees if you don’t accept this wage freeze,’” he said of Hallquist. “The union came together and said we don’t want these unionists to be fired.”
Hallquist did not dispute that version of events, but explained that tough decisions needed to be made to shield customers from the company’s financial struggles after the recession hit.
“The point was I wasn’t going to pass along a rate increase to our members,” Hallquist said. “I would just say that was an important and difficult time.”
She added that her relationship with the union improved during her time at the company, and noted that employees went from being on two-year contracts when she started to five-year contracts when she left.
“It was definitely positive when I left, but when I came there it was horrible,” she said of her relationship with the union. “In the beginning there was a lot of hostility, so that was part of the work I did as CEO was grow the culture.”
Hallquist said this improved state of relations with the union was part of the reason that she felt comfortable leaving negotiations to her senior leadership later in her tenure.
“I think he might be playing some old tapes there,” she said of Wimette’s description of their relationship.
Wimette is not entirely new to the political arena himself.
A few months ago, he found himself in the middle of a pitched battle between the governor and state employees union, as the only labor representative on the body that reviews candidates to the state’s Labor Review Board. He has since resigned due to a dispute around his selection process.
He was appointed to the body by Scott’s labor commissioner, and said on Thursday that he supported the governor, especially if the other choice is Hallquist.
“I’m not going to vote for Christine, but I am gonna vote,” he said. “So if it’s between Phil and Christine, I’m gonna vote for Phil.”
