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PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Former Warwick Mayor and U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee has won the endorsement of a major second teachers' union that four years ago had endorsed his leading opponent in the race for governor -- Democrat Frank T. Caprio, the current state treasurer -- when he first ran for state office.
On Wednesday, Larry Purtill, the president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, confirmed that his 11,000-member union did not interview any of the other candidates for governor before endorsing Republican-turned-independent Chafee's run for the state's top office.
Chafee also has the backing of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.
In the official union announcement, NEARI executive director Robert Walsh said: "The National Education Association Rhode Island stands ready to help elect Linc Chafee. We believe that Linc Chafee understands the critical role that public education at all levels plays in our state.
"Linc Chafee is an experienced leader we can trust. We will work to ensure that our more than 11,500 members understand the stakes of the upcoming election, and that they have the resources they need to make an informed decision and participate fully in the process,'' he said.
The choice was not a surprise. Caprio has been in the union's cross hairs for at least two years, with Walsh using an in-house newsletter to slam Caprio and "other opportunistic politicians...[who] continue to make public statements that not only illustrate their lack of understanding of how pension systems work, but their contempt for our members.''
Chafee and Caprio have both proposed radical changes in the state-subsidized pension system for state employees and public school teachers.
Purtill said the NEARI believes both their plans are based on invalid assumptions about potential savings.
But Purtill said Caprio was "one of the people leading the charge to cut the pension system in recent years'' after promising his union, in his endorsement interview four years ago, that he would not. "He said he wouldn't make any changes to the pension system, and then went ahead and did it.''
Purtill said Caprio has also "made gestures we believe have been anti-union, anti public employee.''
He cited, as an example Caprio's public pledge of financial support to the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition, a conservative leaning citizens group whose leaders say they are dedicated to reducing the influence of unions at the State House.
By contrast, Purtill said, Chafee has had "a history of being very supportive of unions,'' and the union trusts that he will be "straight-forward.''
To earn the endorsement, Chafee first had to fill out an NEA questionnaire in which he was asked to state, with check marks, whether he agreed with the union's positions on key issues.
In the questionnaire, the NEARI stated its support, for example, for increases in state funding for "K-12 public education to reduced reliance to the property,'' and its opposition to any law that "universally imposes mandatory health care premium sharing'' public employees, ''and the 2006 law championed by Republican Governor Carcieri to provide tax-credits to corporations that donate scholarship money to private and parochial schools. Chafee agreed.
The union stated it support for legislation to require binding arbitration on all issues both monetary and non monetary when an impasse exists in the public sector negotiations, and specifically contract negotiations for public school teachers.
Again, he agreed.
But he disagreed with these NEARI statements: "NEARI opposes any further reductions in benefits in Rhode Island's teacher and state employee pension systems. NEARI supports making vesting in the pension system a property right. NEARI opposes conversion of the defined benefit pension system into a defined contribution system.''
In an addendum, Chafee wrote: "As I have publicly stated, I believe that state government has an obligation to honor the commitment made to employees who are currently in the state pension system. I would, however, consider moving all new hires to a hybrid plan similar to the federal government.''
