BOSTON (
MyFoxBoston.com) -- Republican candidate for governor Charlie Baker called Governor Deval Patrick's decision to transfer hundreds of managers to union jobs "an unusual move and obviously an eleventh hour move given that he made this decision two weeks before the election, and a couple of months before the end of his term."
The move does raise questions about whether or not Governor Patrick's decision is a thank-you to managers, or if it's meant to give the union a boost in time for the election. When asked if it's protecting taxpayer dollars, Patrick told Fox 25 political reporter Sharman Sacchetti, "Well, it follows the law."
The timing is curious for the governor to move 500 of his managers into the National Association of Government Employees Union.
The move means those managers get raises, and protection when a new governor takes office. Patrick denies it's about paying back his loyal managers, and said "the issue was raised about four or five months ago."
But Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a nonpartisan research institute, said, "NAGE has been after this for the better part of a decade," and questioned the timing. "Whichever governor is elected, he or she is going to want to have the right people in place. This prevents that from happening. Frankly the person who is most hurt is the taxpayer."
We still don't know exactly who was moved or from which state agencies.
Patrick's office told Sacchetti a final list hadn't been completed, and when she asked the governor himself, he said "they work mainly in transportation agencies."
In a statement, Martha Coakley said she supports Governor Patrick's right to negotiate these agreements, and as governor will work to ensure future negotiations provide the best value for the commonwealth. A Coakley spokeswoman also told Sacchetti she found out about the move through the media.
The union sent a statement blasting Charlie Baker, accusing him of politicizing the lives of 500 hardworking state employees. The union said they'd been misclassified for years, and that Baker himself should have fixed it when he was in the Weld administration.
