The Union Label - May 2nd
Posted on May 2, 2006 at 2:51 pm by Chuck Muth
FIGHTING BACK
Today, Fox News Channel began airing a new commercial by the Center for Union Facts (CUF), which highlights the abuse of union members by labor leaders. The script reads:
Male Voice Over: What do you love about your union?
Young Woman Cashier: You know what I love? Paying union dues, just so I can keep my job.
Middle-Aged Male Factory Worker: I think it’s great that my union dues are going to politicians I don’t even like.
African-American Construction Worker: I really like how the union discriminates against minorities.
Middle-Aged Waitress: Nothing makes me feel better than knowing that I’m supporting their fat-cat lifestyles.
Voice Over: Corruption. Discrimination. Politics. And forced dues. Find out the facts about union officials at unionfacts.com
Group of Workers Together: Thanks, union bosses.
UNION BOSS GETS BARELY A SLAP ON WRIST
“The union president who was sent to jail for leading an illegal subway and bus strike that crippled the nation’s largest mass transit system was released Friday after serving less than half his ten-day sentence. Roger Toussaint, head of the Transport Workers Union Local 100, was greeted as he left jail by a mob of supporters chanting, ‘Roger! Roger! Toussaint!’”
- Associated Press, 4/29/06
PHOTO ID
“I’m told that the Local 888 of the United Steelworker’s Union in Newport News, Virginia had an election recently. It seems that in order to vote in this union election you had to show a photo ID. Odd, isn’t it. The USW is highly supportive of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is highly critical of the idea that voters should have to show photo IDs to prove they are who they say they are when they vote in local, state and federal elections. But when it comes to union elections, photo IDs are just fine.”
- Talk show host Neal Boortz, 4/27/06
HERE’S A SHOCKER: TEAMSTERS BACK DEMOCRATS
“Pennsylvania Teamsters officials on Monday endorsed Gov. Ed Rendell’s re-election bid and the campaign of state Treasurer Bob Casey, also a Democrat, to unseat U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn Hills. International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. ‘Jim’ Hoffa, who spoke at the Teamsters Pennsylvania Conference annual meeting here, denounced Santorum, claiming the senator has opposed efforts to raise the federal minimum wage. ‘What are we going to do with him?’ Hoffa asked more than 300 delegates at the Hershey Hotel. ‘Throw the bum out.’ . . . For Rendell, the union had more than an endorsement. Hoffa also handed the governor a $100,000 campaign contribution.”
- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 5/2/06
END OF THE LINE FOR ANOTHER HOFFA?
“Oregon Teamsters leader Tom Leedham has run twice against James Hoffa for the union presidency and lost. What makes him think he can win this time? ‘I think the difference now is that Hoffa has a record, a dismal record, to say the least,’ said Leedham, who was in the area Sunday garnering support for his campaign. ‘More Teamsters are realizing that flashy PR and a famous name does not build power in a union.’
“Whether Leedham’s message resonates with the 1.4 million members of the Teamsters union remains to be seen, and the election is not scheduled until the end of the year. But he believes the early backing his campaign has received is a positive indicator. In four weeks, Leedham was able to gather signatures from 55,000 union members when only 35,000 were required to launch the candidacy.
- Kansas City Star, 4/25/06
$50/HOUR LETTUCE-PICKERS OF THE U.S., UNITE!
“Earlier this month, Senator John McCain received a rough ride when he spoke before the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C. McCain, who will likely seek the Republican nomination for the 2008 Presidential race, did not impress AFL-CIO members with his proposed guest worker program for illegal immigrants. While the labor movement tends to be sympathetic towards illegal immigrants, others in the labor movement oppose illegal immigration on the grounds that it depresses wages.
“During the question and answer session that followed his speech, union members challenged the merits of a guest worker program. For his part, McCain offered his audience $50/hour to pick lettuce in Arizona. A number of delegates indicated they would be more than happy to take him up on his offer. But McCain replied, ‘You can’t do it, my friends.’ Union members were not impressed with having their work ethic questioned.
“Senator McCain, if I were offered $50 an hour to pick lettuce, not only would I pick lettuce but I would pick carrots, radishes, tomatoes and any other produce submerged beneath the ground. For $50 an hour I might also concoct a smashing balsamic vinaigrette dressing.”
- Aaron Goldstein, Intellectual Conservative, 4/17/06
MIAMI CARD-CHECK VICE
“About a quarter of the 425 janitors and other contract workers employed by UNICCO Service Co. at the university (of Miami) have been on strike since early March over alleged unfair labor practices. They want to form a union, but the company has disputed their organizing tactics. … Service Employees International Union…has supported the workers…(and) want UNICCO to agree to a process called card check, granting union recognition if a majority of workers sign cards in favor of joining. That process tends to be easier for workers to form unions compared to having a secret ballot.”
- Associated Press, 4/25/06
AMERICANS OPPOSE UN-AMERICAN UNION TACTIC
“Unions attempting to replace the traditional secret ballot elections with coercive ‘card check’ campaigns that allow union organizers to individually pressure workers into signing unionization cards are finding their tactic opposed by the vast majority of Americans. A survey conducted last month found Americans support the traditional secret ballot election over the coercive union-supported practice by a margin of 75% to 12% with 13% undecided.”
- Labor Reform News, 4/24/06
HOW THEY HATE WALMART, LET ME COUNT THE WAYS
“Walmart is the most hated business in America, even more so than the tobacco companies. The liberals hate the fact that people love to shop at Walmart and that they are non-union. Liberals also hate the idea of people getting whatever they want for cheap.”
- “Cepan,” RedState.com
THE WAR AGAINST WALMART
“There is no candidate. There are no ballots. There won’t be an Election Day. And yet it may be the hottest, highest-stakes political contest in America today. It’s the campaign against Wal-Mart.
“A year-old effort to force the nation’s No. 1 private employer to change its business practices has evolved into a Washington-style brawl: tens of millions of dollars spent by Republican and Democratic political consultants using polling, micro-targeting, ads, e-mails, direct mail, grassroots organizing and strategic war rooms.’
“Their fight centers on some of society’s most vexing trends, including the rising cost of health care, the painful realities of globalization and the waning relevance of organized labor.
“Wal-Mart’s main opponents are the Service Employees International Union, which started Wal-Mart Watch, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which funds a separate campaign called WakeUpWalMart. com.”
- Associated Press, 4/24/06
UNIONS TARGETING EDUCATION REFORM GROUPS
“A liberal, union-backed group based in Michigan has launched a project to monitor and criticize education reform ideas coming from several prominent and well-respected state and national think tanks. The ‘Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice’ announced the ‘Think Twice Response Project’ last month as a means of criticizing and diminishing the credibility of innovating education reform ideas coming from five state think tanks and three national think tanks whose recommendations are often at odds with liberal teacher unions and other defenders of status quo education policies and practices.”
- Labor Reform News, 4/24/06
