The Republican candidate for Governor of Connecticut responded today to a recent accusation from the president of the nation’s second largest teachers’ union. Tom Foley rejected the suggestion that he’s against public employee unions.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, was in New Haven on Friday. She praised Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy’s record with teachers. And she criticized his Republican opponent, saying Tom Foley wants to be like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who passed legislation that weakened collective bargaining rights of public employees.
“And he wants to follow the path of Scott Walker which is to create, to basically divide workers from their communities," Weingarten said.
“I’ve never said that I was anti-union or anti-public sector union or I would do any of the things that Scott Walker did,” said Foley.
However, at a candidate forum in January, Foley praised what Walker did in Wisconsin and said it could be done in Connecticut. Foley has talked about needing what he calls a Wisconsin moment in Connecticut. He says that means changing the balance of power in the state, where the legislative and executive branches are controlled by Democrats. In June, he told the AFL-CIO political convention that he would stand by the 2011 concession reached with state employee unions and he has no plans to undo collective bargaining rights.