Labor & Employment Law

Worker Deaths Belie Politicians? Portrayal of Public Employees

By Mike Hall

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), New Jersey Chris Christie (R) and politicians around the nation are running campaigns to demonize public employees and lay the blame for state budget problems at their feet.

They conveniently ignore the dedicated and many times dangerous work public employees do every day–like AFSCME Local 379 member Billy Rhynalds and Teamsters (IBT) Local 117 member Jayme Biendl, both of whom were killed recently on the job.

Rhynalds was setting up traffic cones Feb. 2 after heavy rains struck western Washington, flooding roads and knocking down power lines. When a cottonwood tree fell on the highway, it hit and killed Rhynalds.

Biendl, a corrections officer at the Monroe (Wash.) Correctional Complex, was murdered Jan. 29 as she worked alone in the prison chapel.

Rhynalds had a reputation for volunteering to work extra shifts in emergency situations and going out of his way to help people. Washington State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond says Rhynalds was:

the kind of guy that would volunteer for extra shifts and do things to help keep the traveling public safe because that’s what our guys do.

His wife, Betty Rhynalds, told the Seattle Times:

What he loved most about his job for the Department of Transportation was helping people.  He’s been in a flood situation before. And he would snowplow. Highway 18 was his road to plow in the snow, and he was very proud of it. He would say: “I groomed it very well, and I didn’t put anyone in the ditch.”

His daughter, Aimee Sherrill, told KOMO News:

DOT jobs are very dangerous. They risk their lives every day to keep the roads safe. And that’s exactly what my dad was doing.

Rhynalds is survived by his wife, two children, three grandchildren, five sisters and three brothers.

Biendl, who was named Officer of the Year in 2008 at the Monroe facility, was working alone in the chapel. But Tracey Thompson, IBT Local 117 secretary-treasurer, told the Seattle Times:

She was feeling unsafe about this because she’s off in the chapel and oftentimes supervising lots of inmates, and she had let her supervisors know that she was not feeling safe. My understanding is there were repeated complaints.

The state Department of Corrections (DOC) was hit with a $53 million budget cut for the current fiscal year that has forced staffing reductions throughout the prison system, but a spokesman told the paper the budget cuts had not affected staffing at the chapel. However, Thompson said:

Under the existing staffing model that the Department of Corrections has a solo officer is in the chapel, which is ridiculous. I am absolutely beside myself with the fact that it takes one of our members being murdered for the department to listen to our pleas to stop cutting staff and eliminating programs and putting staff at risk.

The investigation into her murder is continuing, but DOC officials say the suspect is a three-strikes offender serving a life sentence for rape convictions.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 13, 2011 (boomark / email).