Union policy presents a tough campaign issue for Bills
by Catharine Richert, Minnesota Public Radio
July 5, 2012
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Last month, U.S. Senate hopeful Kurt Bills was across the river in Hudson, Wisconsin, to support Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who was facing a recall election launched by Democrats angry about his efforts to dismantle public employee union rights.
Bills, a Republican who is running against DFL incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said Walker's campaign to scale back public sector union costs was a good idea.
But in the same breath, Bills also said he was proud to be a lifelong union member.
"I understand trade unions. I'm in a public union right now with the teachers union," Bills told reporters. "[I'm] totally an advocate for collective bargaining rights, and think that unions have a great place in our country."
As it did in Wisconsin, union policy presents a tough situation for Bills: he's been a union member much of his professional life, but he's also an outspoken critic of the organizations.
Bills has been a government and economics teacher at Rosemount High School for 15 years — long enough to be at the top of the faculty's pay scale, according to his union contract. And Bills has made his career a fundamental part of his campaign, pledging to bring "Economics 101" to Washington, and touring the state in refurbished school buses.
But before being elected to the Legislature in 2010, Bills already had a reputation for aggressively criticizing his union's activities and policies. As a legislator, Bills' critics say he sought to undermine the teaching profession by supporting legislation that would have made unions voluntary, changed how teachers are licensed, and made performance, not seniority, the grounds for layoffs.
Bills portrays his union record as nuanced, not contradictory. While he believes that workers should be able to negotiate pay and benefits with their employers, he argues that those contracts can become too expensive and that unions should use dues to better train employees.
But Bills' colleagues say his campaign is hypocritical.
