If only those out-of-state conservatives making jokes about the “socialist paradise” that is Vermont could get a load of the state of labor in Vermont, they might change their tune.

Consider: Two of the most effective union organizations in the state (the Vermont NEA and the Vermont State Employees Union) have faced a coordinated effort by the current Republican administration to undermine, even eliminate them. That same administration has worked to undermine prevailing wage laws to the best of it’s ability. Now the administration’s number two man is looking to be promoted to the top position, promising more of the same focus on outsourcing and arbitrary firings to break the VSEA, undercutting the salaries and benefits for union brothers and sisters working in education, taking a hatchet to collectively bargained pension agreements.

And to this date, Dubie has been endorsed for governor by two “fellow” unions of the NEA and VSEA: the Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont and two International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers locals.

Solidarity forever, eh?

In the case of the leaders of the fire fighters union, they’ve always had a thing for Republicans in this state. Go figure. What do they care, I guess? Nobody messes with them, they’ve got theirs, screw the other workers and vulnerable folks – unionized and otherwise – in the state.

The IBEW is simply a case of phenomenal foolishness. A Brian Dubie administration would be an extension of the same administration that brought them the Fairpoint fiasco, driving a stake into the livelihood of IBEW rank and file across the state. Endorsing Dubie is akin to ritual suicide.

And now, according to sources within Labor, those same IBEW interests may have an ally in acting AFL-CIO President Jill Charbonneau. What’s their issue? What trumps every other principle – even the very right of collective bargaining itself?

Two words: Vermont Yankee. The IBEW has transformed its entire existence into the political arm of the Entergy Corporation, and at an AFL Executive Board meeting  on Sunday the 26th of this month, they will try to use their muscle to make the AFL-CIO proper follow suit… and given that the sympathetic Charbonneau reportedly has a relative employed at VY, they may well succeed.

More on how we got to this sorry state of affairs below…

Back during the VT Yankee Senate debate, sharp eyes might have noticed an odd contradiction. Traven Leyshon, President Of The Washington County Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO put out a personal statement in opposition to VY’s relicensing. Clearly, there are many on the Executive Board who opposed the aging, dangerous plant – even while they support the workers. When the IBEW announced it would participate in a press conference opposing the efforts in the Senate to hold Entergy accountable, the AFL did not release a statement.

And yet, here was the newspaper photo from the press conference:

Standing to the right of that champion of worker’s rights (cough, cough) and Chief Vermont lobbyist for IBM John O’Kane, you’ll see the director of the state AFL-CIO.

So what was he doing there?

To put it mildly, some members of the AFL Executive Board were not happy.

According to sources, at the AFL COPE convention prior to this press conference, the AFL State Executive Board had a very lively debate on the issue. While there was no official vote, the majority of the Board seemed to support the notion of the union staying neutral on the plant closing (in respect for those members from the IBEW which stood to lose their jobs).

However, the majority did appear to support the union coming out publicly with a demand that the Legislature require from Entergy to include significant funds in in the decommioning fund to retrain VY union workers (possibly even to train them to build and maintain wind farms and other renewable, green, energy plants). Although there apparently wasn’t any kind of an official vote, this approach appeared to have the support of the great majority of the board.

It was also decided that Local 300 (IBEW) rank and file would have to first agree to this strategy. IBEW Local 300 President (and sometimes Democratic candidate for State House) George Clain apparently talked to his members, who – for reasons unclear – rejected the State Federation’s offer to help on this issue, and the whole approach was left to wither. (NOTE: Clain has also been a labor representative on the VT Democratic Party’s Executive Board for some time… more on the odd case of a Dubie supporter on the most powerful VDP committee in another diary)

Why? Hmmm…

After the AFL convention, who directed AFL staff to stand in support of relicensing at the press conference, in defiance of the desires of the group?

According to insiders, that was likely acting Vermont AFL President Charbonneau, who had recently assumed the top spot after the official President had been hospitalized for a serious stroke. What is not in question is that Charbonneau did not confer with the Executive Board over the AFL presence at the Press Conference.

And now it looks like the Entergy-focused elements of the AFL may be coalescing to attempt to hand Dubie a political coup with the absurdity of the Federation’s endorsement.

None of which is to say there isn’t continued opposition to the Dubie/Entergy agenda being rammed through. When contacted, one AFL Executive Board member – Dave Van Deusen – had this to say, indicating he would resign if such an endorsement is made:

In the event that the Executive Board decided to back Dubie (and therefore forsake healthcare reform), I recognize that that would signal a huge disconnect between the average working class Vermonter and the current AFL-CIO leadership. Such a demonstrated disconnect would be so great, so wrong, and so against the interests of working families that I would personally feel compelled to resign my seat on the Executive Board. I will have nothing to do with any effort to elect Brian Dubie as Governor. I suspect that other union leaders would feel the same. BUT AGAIN, I fully expect to leave the September 26th meeting with a united labor movement against Brian Dubie and for the working class.”

One wonders, though – why did labor stalwart Clain seem uninterested in a perfectly reasonable compromise approach by the AFL? Why would a longtime labor activist blind himself to everything remotely connected to Vermont workers except for the controversy surrounding an objectively dangerous nuclear plant, even to the degree of (apparently) scuttling an attempt by the union to pressure its corporate owner into taking more responsibility for its workers?

Consider what Dubie’s plans include, according to vtdigger:

* Widespread government deregulation;

*Mandatory education spending cuts or caps based on the often-disputed assertion there are too many teachers for too few students when the ratios are actually skewed by ever-rising special education teacher needs;

*Shifting resources from K-12 education to preschool and higher ed. (Shumlin would shift money from Corrections to early education);

* Changes in eligibility standards for Medicaid-funded health benefits and strong opposition to government-sponsored health reform, including single-payer. He favors, instead, cost-containment through enhancement of preventive care, hospital coordination and tort reform.

*Unspecified alterations to the current pension system for state workers and teachers.

Real worker-friendly stuff, eh?

Now consider who Dubie shares the credit for his blueprint with:

“We’ve crafted it from you business owners, from you managers, from you employees and George Clain, the members of IBEW,” Dubie told the crowd.

When I first read this, I was angry. Now it just makes me profoundly sad.

Amidst the screw-ups, masochists and self-loathers in the labor community pushing the Douglas/Dubie agenda, there are also a lot of the finest people you could ever meet. Obviously not enough of them in key spots in the IBEW and the firefighters to prevent this exercise in self-flegellation and humiliation – but perhaps there are still enough in the AFL proper to hold the line against this nonsense.

If anybody is ever to take them seriously again as institutions, they’d better hope so.