In the State’s history the state agency charged with administering employment laws and has had various names. The Division of Unemployment Compensation, the Department of Human Resources, the Department of Labor. Whatever the name, the binding link has been the fair representation of Kansas workers.
Today, the current head of this agency is working to put her own moniker on the agency…The Department of ”l’ll Do Anything For Business.” In her short tenure, Karin Brownlee is establishing a record so anti-worker you’d swear she was a card carrying member of the Pinkerton Agency of the 1800s.
Let’s consider her busy agenda:
- Introduces legislation to undo the employment standards law to ensure no worker is granted unemployment compensation unless they were strictly part of a lay-off.
- Introduces legislation to prohibit the Department of Labor from representing workers who are victims of wage theft.
- Introduces legislation to eliminate the statutory authority of the Department of Labor to inspect private company worksites for health and safety hazards.
- Introduces legislation to give business interests authority to select all Workers Compensation judges, ensuring injured workers never get a fair hearing in the system.
- Eliminates a majority of unemployment compensation judges, intentionally creating a backlog of unemployment compensation claims.
We could go on, but quitely frankly, we just don’t have the room.
If she is to be given credit for anything, we guess it would be for not trying to hide her true agenda. She doesn’t like workers! Never has. She makes no bones about it. This is the same Karin Brownlee that as State Senator tried to push through changes to work comp laws so punitive toward injured workers that her own brother, who had been disabled in a workplace accident, testified against the bill. Think those family dinners were awkward? Nah, he probably wasn’t invited. He was a worker.
Well, we’re guessing Secretary Brownlee hasn’t ever held a real job. Except for maybe the occasional babysitting gig back in the day (no offense to day care workers). How else can you explain her heartless disregard for or ignorance of what Kansas working families are facing each and every day.
The agency that was once charged with simply giving Kansas workers a fair shake has unfortunately become the coroner’s office for worker rights. Death due to Brownlee!
Make no mistake, there are no signs leading to a place for working families on Governor Brownback’s Roadmap for Kansas. Unless, of course, it’s the tire marks over their backs.
Pingback: Karin Brownlee, Secretary of “I’ll Do Anything for Business” | Wichita / Hutchinson Labor Federation