A top Saginaw County Republican official says he lost his $45,000 a year job with United Way because of anti-union comments he made in an interview in his political capacity with a TV station.

Saginaw County Republican Party Chairman Tim Kelly says soon after the story was aired on NBC affiliate WEYI Channel 25, United Way of Saginaw County CEO Cherrie Benchley told him July 24 he could work through Aug. 8 and then receive two weeks’ severance.

Kelly claims Benchley told him during a meeting that his interview had been seen on television by officials with organized labor and they they would pull their funding from the Saginaw United Way if he wasn’t let go. Kelly said that discussion was held in front of another United Way employee.

In an email to Reporting Michigan, Benchley commended Kelly for the job he did as grant coordinator.

Benchley wrote that “the unions did not make any direct threats regarding Mr. Kelly’s public comment.” She added, “It is our policy not to make public comments regarding the employment of an individual.”

Kelly said he was hired May 4 as the United Way of Saginaw grants coordinator.

In the interview with the local TV station,  Kelly is quoted as saying about unions:  “I think they’ve outlived their usefulness, certainly here and across the country. … Unions used to be for the common man. Now we’ve got them set up as this special class that we no longer can afford.”

Here’s the video that Kelly says cost him his job: http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/video.aspx?id=328504