Rice, pinto beans, Malt-O-Meal and raisins found a new home in a local Madison food pantry, as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 171 protesters delivered a food shipment to Wisconsin Union Director Mark Guthier's office Friday morning and found him absent.
The protest was in response to a comment Guthier allegedly made regarding the dissolution of 16 union-represented jobs in the past two years and the freezing of 25 jobs, supposedly saying the cuts were necessary to put food on his family's table. Guthier denied making the statement.
According to AFSCME Local 171 Treasurer Mike Imbrogno, the Union claimed poverty, froze 25 jobs that are union-represented and hired 158 limited term employees in the past fiscal year, who make \a fraction of what full-time workers make, with no benefits.""
""They're saying that, even though there's all this work to be done, we don't want to pay for it, and we're going to pay substandard wages and give no benefits,"" Imbrogno said. ""That's ridiculous. Guthier got a $20,000 raise, which would be about a year's salary for a custodian.""
""I've never said anything like that,"" Guthier said. ""I don't even know how they're linking these things. We definitely have not let 16 people go in the last two years.""
Other Local 171 workers questioned the lengthy renovations planned for the Memorial Union and Union South, and their high cost and unknown end date.
""We've been asking for the copies of the Wisconsin Union master plan under the open reference law and [the Union is] refusing to give it to us,"" said Mark Thomas, a Local 171 union steward and Memorial Union food service worker.
Upon Guthier's absence, Imbrogno presented the food to Wisconsin Union Associate Director Ken Gibson, saying, ""It's really a gift to the administration. We know that you make a lot of money, but we also know that things can be tough, so we want to make sure that you're not going hungry, you're kids aren't starving, and maybe you can use some of that money that you're saving to hire some permanent workers.""
""We have certain needs, and some of those needs are fulfilled by Limited Term Employees. We also have some full-time positions that are being filled with LTEs that will eventually be converted,"" Gibson said.
""Well,"" Thomas said, ""if Mr. Guthier wants to eat the food, he can come down to the pantry to get some of it.\
