Union suing state for using prisoners to clean up roadsides (more blue state buffoonery)

MPLS Star & Sickle ^ | 4-27-05 | Conrad Defiebre

[Rakkasan1]

A state employees union complains in a lawsuit that up to 1,200 low-paid Minnesotans being put to work cleaning up littered highways are "outside consultants" whose new duties violate state labor law.

"Inside consultants, maybe," quipped Brian McClung, spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose "Operation Clean-Up" launched this month taps crews from state prisons and county jails.

On Tuesday, Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) took its legal challenge to Ramsey County District Court.

The union says the effort unfairly takes work from its members at the state Department of Transportation, allowing the department to leave job openings unfilled while paying prisoners as little as $1 a day. State law, the suit says, requires an official finding that work cannot be performed by available staff before outside consultants are hired.

[Rakkasan1]

time to change the law. this is plain stuuuuuupid. will we have to replace the monkeys at the zoo with AFSCME members since the MN zoo gets state money?

[Texas_Jarhead]

It is a conflict of interest the government are allowed to unionize.

[NonValueAdded]

So cut the budget, lay off enough state workers that the clean up job cannot possibly be performed by existing staff, and use the prison labor. If you ASFCME, that's what they asked for.

[Rakkasan1]

you got that right.

[Texas_Jarhead]

"It is a conflict of interest the government are allowed to unionize."

Should have read, It is a conflict of interest that government workers are allowed to unionize.

[C210N]

as little as $1 a day...

That math is plain wrong, since the $1 is a Net value:

Cost of imprisonment, food, clothing, medical care, education, legal counsil, etc: $99 per day

Pay for roadside clearing: $100 per day

Net pay per prisoner: $1 per day

[LaineyDee]

A state employees union complains in a lawsuit that up to 1,200 low-paid Minnesotans being put to work cleaning up littered highways are "outside consultants" whose new duties violate state labor law.

I thought the prisoners were as "inside" as they could get.....hmmm?