Limited Government Group Blasts Napolitano

Arizonans In Action blasts Governor Napolitano for her the meet and confer status she granted to state employees on her way out. Here is the information from their release:

Arizonans In Action Opposes Governor Order to Confer Special Status on Unions

"This order circumvents the legislature and is nothing more than a payback to special interest groups and unions in the waning days of the Napolitano administration."-Nathan Nascimento, Executive Director of Arizonans In Action.

Phoenix, AZ-Arizonans In Action (AIA) Executive Director Nathan Nascimento today condemned outgoing Governor Janet Napolitano for issuing an executive order granting public employees "meet and confer" status with government agencies.

Nascimento said that the order "circumvents the legislature" and was "nothing more than a payback to special interest groups and unions in the waning days of the Napolitano administration."

The order is designed to increase union activities by mandating agency supervisors to sit down with union representatives at least four times a year. "That is just the first step," said Nascimento. "The next will be to begin issuing greater demands upon the agencies, and begin rapidly organizing a brand new union infrastructure within the government to make good on those demands."

"If Governor Napolitano truly believed that this was an important issue to Arizonans, why did she wait until days before she is set to leave office and why did she slide it in under executive order. This is an end-run around the legislature, who would normally enact such workplace rules. Lawmakers ought to be outraged, as should the people of Arizona," he added.

The order expedites the process of union organization by allowing for a ballot election to organize if 30 percent of the workplace requests it.

AIA is calling upon incoming Governor Janice Brewer, who is set to replace Napolitano when she becomes the new Secretary of Homeland Security in late January, to repeal the executive order when she takes office.