When lawmakers last year were contemplating what to do about the pension system’s growing shortfalls, Lt. Gov. Molly Gray was the first Democrat in leadership to break with her party to denounce a controversial plan by House Speaker Jill Krowinski to cut benefits, hike the retirement age and ask employees to pay in more.
On Thursday, the Vermont State Employees’ Association paid her back. The union representing about 6,000 state employees has announced that it is endorsing Gray in the Democratic primary for Vermont’s sole U.S. House seat.
Gray’s chief rival in the race, Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, was a key player in brokering the pension deal between labor unions and lawmakers that ultimately became law this year after the House and Senate unanimously overrode a veto from Gov. Phil Scott.
But VSEA Executive Director Steve Howard said that while the VSEA’s members are “grateful” for Balint’s work, Gray stood out for coming out first — and not backing down.
There remains a feeling among the union’s membership, Howard said, that Balint was “a little too slow in coming to the position that the Speaker’s plan needed to not see the light of day.”
“Molly was extraordinarily brave in coming off the sidelines very early in the midst of the pension fight,” Howard said. “(She) spoke clearly and decisively against the Speaker’s proposal and then withstood a withering amount of attack that was sent her way.”
The VSEA’s board of trustees makes the decision about who to endorse based on recommendations from its legislative committee. A council of about 150 members has veto power if they disagree with the board’s pick.
“During my term as Lieutenant Governor, and before that, serving statewide as an Assistant Attorney General, I’ve seen firsthand the crucial work our state employees do,” Gray said in a statement. “It’s why I’ve stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them to defend against proposed pension cuts.”
The state’s public-sector unions have been split in this hotly contested primary. Balint has the backing of the Vermont affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents about 6,000 health care and higher education workers in the state. The Vermont AFL-CIO, which has just under 11,000 members, had endorsed state Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, who has since dropped out of the race and endorsed Balint.
Gray and Balint have similarly pro-labor views. Each, for example, have said they support the passage of the PRO Act, one of the national labor movement’s most important legislative priorities. (The bill has passed the U.S. House and is stalled in the U.S. Senate.)
Also running in the Democratic primary are Louis Meyers, a South Burlington physician, and Sianay Chase Clifford, who recently earned the endorsement of the Vermont Progressive Party and has said she’ll back “any legislation that makes it easier for workers to unionize.”
Besides Gray, VSEA announced a suite of endorsements in other primaries Thursday, including Peter Welch for U.S. Senate, David Zuckerman for lieutenant governor, Chris Winters for secretary of state and Rory Thibault for attorney general. The union also endorsed several Democratic candidates in contested primaries for the state Senate and House.