Washington union won’t protect whistleblowers

By Glen Morgan | Freedom Foundation

Kristi Brumfeld worked for 13 years at the Washington State Employment Security Division. She cared about her job, belonged to her union, and believed her union cared about her. Unfortunately for Kristi, her union actually sided with management against her.

There are thousands of workers like Kristi around the state, employees whose concern for their work includes a desire to do the right thing and expose corruption when they find it. In Kristi’s case, she uncovered evidence of corruption and collusion between a vendor and some of the upper management in her department. Kristi had family members with law enforcement backgrounds, so she felt she should report the corruption as a whistleblower.

It appears, however, that she didn’t file the proper paperwork in the proper order to obtain official whistleblower protection under state law. Consequently, irrespective of the merits of the corruption she uncovered and reported, her job was put in jeopardy.

at Freedom Foundation.