The Union Label - October 21, 2006
Posted on October 21, 2006 at 6:57 pm by Chuck Muth
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
“Brian M. McLaughlin, a Queens assemblyman who as head of the nation’s biggest municipal labor council personified New York City’s politically powerful labor movement, was arrested yesterday on federal racketeering charges involving embezzlement, receiving bribes, fraud and money laundering. Conviction on all 43 charges could send him to prison for decades.
“A 186-page indictment charges Mr. McLaughlin, 54, with illegally obtaining $2.2 million from taxpayers, labor unions and contractors over the last decade since he became president of the New York City Central Labor Council, a federation of 400 union locals.”
- New York Times, 10/18/06
TWO BAD UNION BOSS APPLES
“When control of one of the country’s largest and most influential labor unions is at stake, nothing is left to chance. So as 1.4 million North American Teamsters decide this month who will be their next president, the campaign rhetoric between incumbent James P. Hoffa and challenger Tom Leedham has rivaled the most heated political election.
“Mr. Hoffa, running for a third term, has called his challenger an enemy of the union, an embezzler of union dues and — in the ultimate organized labor indignity — has accused him of ties with Wal-Mart. Mr. Leedham, who has run two failed campaigns for union president against Mr. Hoffa, in turn has accused the incumbent of graft, incompetence and squelching an investigation into ties between the Teamsters and organized crime.”
- Washington Times, 10/16/06
WHINING ABOUT WAL-MART
“Wal-Mart ‘has officially declared war on the Democratic Party’ just three weeks before the Nov. 7 midterm elections, according to a group that wants to ‘change’ the nation’s biggest retail chain by unionizing its 1.3 million employees,” reported CNS News on October 16.
“’Rather than embrace our positive vision for a better America, Wal-Mart has officially declared war on the Democratic Party, elected leaders and every American who believes we should pay workers a living wage, provide affordable health care to all, protect American jobs and keep America safe,’ Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com, said in a statement Friday.”
What a weenie. Big Labor has been waging a non-stop war on Wal-Mart for years. Now that Wal-Mart is fighting back, the union agitators are whining and crying about it like a kid who gets his ice cream cone knocked out of his hand.
Mighty, mighty union? Wimps and wusses is what they sound like.
FROM THE E-MAILBAG
In response to my recent column on labor union “card checks,” I received this wonderfully articulate email from a guy writing under the email name of “William Glosson.” The public school grammar is in the original, but I’ve had to delete some of the profanities since my mom reads this newsletter…
“Well by your article I can tell you have never gotten you hands dirty while some (a-word)hole tells you he can not afford insurance for you, BUT HAS A 3 MILLON DOLLAR HOME AND DRIVES A NEW VEHICLE EVERY YEAR!!! And laughs his ass off about (f-word)ING HIS WORKING PEOPLE OUT OF AN HOUR OF PAY!! KISS MY ASS MISTER!! GET A REAL JOB WHERE GET YOU HANDS DIRTY, NOT IN THE GARDEN TURD! ALL UNION!!! IF YOU WERE TO CARRY A LUNCH BOX YOU WOULD KNOW!! MOM AND DAD PAY EVERYTHING FOR YOU!!”
I think that pretty much makes my case about the intellectually-challenged Borg mentality of today’s union movement, don’t you? But Mr. Glosson wasn’t finished. He sent a follow-up email a day later, further exposing his mental acuity.
“You jackoff you do not know (s-word)!! Momma and daddy give you a job in thier factory when your lazy ass got out of school? You have never worked a day in your (f-word)ing life! I got tired of jackoff’s like you trying to (f-word) someone for nothing but pleasure. you are nothing but an EDUCATED (f-word)ING IDIOT! I have dealt with (a-word)HOLE’S LIKE ALL MY LIFE!! LOOK dowen your nose at people that would just like to have a job and raise a family.Have you ever worked in a (f-word)ing cotton mill? I did, and the MEN I worked had been there 43 years, and 28 years. I just started I made .75 cent an hour less than the lead man. YOU ARE A (c-word) WITH A KICK STAND!”
Such anger. Such hostility. I can’t believe the Teamsters aren’t running THIS guy for president of the union against Hoffa. He’s perfect!
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“President Bush signed the SAFE Ports Act into law last week, and the longshoremen’s union is finding reasons to celebrate. You don’t find that reassuring? Neither do we. . . . (T)he real ILWU ‘victory’ was its success in stripping from the final version of the bill a provision that would have barred a broad class of former felons — including those convicted of ‘dishonesty, fraud and misrepresentation’ — from obtaining a port security clearance for at least seven years after their conviction.”
- Wall Street Journal editorial, 10/20/06
