SEIU Parasites Hold Candlelight Vigil, March In Memory Of Communist Dictator Chavez (Video)

Marching Marxists… SEIU Holds Hugo Chavez Memorial Candlelight Vigil And March In Times Square (Video) – Gateway Pundit

The SEIU organized march ended at the statue of Simón Bolivar in Central Park.

The SEIU radicals organized a Hugo Chavez memorial march and candelight vigil in New York City on Friday.

Global Dispatch reported:

Wibailoutpeople.org was one of the few website which still posted the SEIU announcement detailing the “celebration and procession” for the deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

Hugo Chávez in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Jan/26/2003 photo Victor Soares

A memorial vigil was held Wednesday at the Venezuelan consulate in Manhattan, but the union march is raising eyebrows.

“Bring candles will walk to the statue of the Liberator Simon Bolivar in Central Park.” – instructions included in the hispanic announcement which reached out to Fidel Castro supporters as well.

The vigil was held on Friday, March 8, at 6:30pm and took place on 43rd Street in Manhattan. The candlelight procession ended at the statue of Simon Bolivar in Central Park.

The announcement continues:

A Celebration and procession for the life of our comrade Hugo Chávez, an extraordinary human and revolutionary.

Your energy, love and example will not be forgotten.

The revolution will continue until there is liberation for all.

The leftists marched past Times Square in New York City during their memorial for Marxist Hugo Chavez.

Here’s video of the Chavez supporters marching in Times Square.

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Philadelphia-Area Businesses Fight Violent Union Thugs

It Gets Better: Philadelphia-Area Businesses Fight Union Bullies – Washington Free Beacon

Several Philadelphia labor groups allegedly used feces, urine, spit, and fire to persuade businesses to hire union labor and area businesses are fighting back.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Monday ordered members of the International Board of Teamsters Local 107, Pennsylvania’s self-described “most powerful labor organization,” to stop assaulting and spitting on employees, vandalizing vehicles, and obstructing business operations at the Eureka Stone Quarry, Inc.

Jim Morrissey III, whose grandfather started the cement mixing and construction service company, launched the suit after striking drivers dragged a company mechanic from his truck after obstructing the road with nails – an incident captured on surveillance tape.

“He was scared to death, surrounded by six to eight guys he thought were his friends,” Morrissey said.

Local 107 secretary-treasurer Shawn Dougherty downplayed the NLRB ruling.

“This fella’s so litigious that anything that’s said or done with this particular labor dispute is exaggerated,” Dougherty said. “We normally don’t comment on the NLRB decisions.”

Morrissey says he is not anti-labor. He decided to appeal to federal authorities after concluding that local officials would turn a blind eye to the issues plaguing his business.

“I had no choice but the NLRB: They said they were going to put me out of business and they’ve put a tremendous amount of pressure on other groups to not hire us,” he said. “The unions in Philly run the show; it’s a big joke with the police and the politicians – they just look the other way.”

Leo Knepper, executive director at the Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, said the legacy of union dominance in the “Keystone State” has created an aura of invincibility among labor groups.

“When anything threatens [union] interests, they react violently,” he said. “Unions have such a strong influence in local politics that it gives them carte blanche to do whatever they want because no one is willing to enforce the law against these guys.”

Morrissey says union intimidation tactics are no longer effective with the availability and affordability of surveillance.

“When you have them on tape, they can’t deny it,” he said. “Technology changes everything and the unions aren’t savvy enough to get that.”

No company has employed technology as devastatingly as Post Brothers Apartments, a real estate firm engaged in a drawn out and oftentimes violent campaign by the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council over a $38 million apartment development at the abandoned Goldtex shoe factory.

Post Brothers awarded half of its construction contracts to union shops. The council demanded 100 percent of the contracts and began picketing and vandalizing the site when construction began in 2012.

The company launched a public campaign of its own after workers discovered feces and urine scattered at the site, oil dumped on its parking lot, and asbestos installed in walls, according to Post Brothers CEO Michael Pestronk.

The company has posted YouTube videos of union leaders assaulting security guards, shared photos of smashed windshields on a public Google Docs account, and argued its case against the unions through its website, PhillyBully.com.

“Our employees feared for their lives, so we got the equipment for personal protection,” Pestronk said. “It wasn’t some masterful calculation: changing political institutions [or] buying politicians costs millions, posting videos to YouTube is cheap and it gets you public attention.”

The Trades Council did not return calls for comment.

The website is already paying dividends. A union member allegedly assaulted Post Brothers employees Chris Gardner and Matt Hunt in December with a crowbar after they attempted to park their car near the work site. Gardner was arrested for assault when he subdued his attacker, who was not charged in the incident.

The police dropped the charges on Tuesday thanks in part to the company’s photo and video evidence, “but mostly because our attorney threatened to sue the city, the police, and the [district attorney],” Pestronk said.

The young real estate executive said he hopes PhillyBully.com “sets an example” on how to combat union intimidation.

“They’re getting desperate so it appears [violence] has been ramping up,” he said. “The mainstream media is not calling attention to it, so it really helps to use YouTube to subvert them and make them pay attention.”

New media is not the only tactic businesses are using to curb union violence. The eastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Association of Builders and Contractors, which represents open shop construction companies, is now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the union members suspected of burning down a Quaker meetinghouse construction site a few days before Christmas.

“We’ve seen a steady pattern of violence on open shop projects in Philadelphia—anytime open house contractors come in there’s retaliation,” said chapter president Mary Tebeau. “We’re afraid that business owners and developers will bypass this area, so to combat that we came up with a reward to punish those responsible for the bombing.”

A Philadelphia Police Department spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon that there have been no arrests in connection to the incident.

Robert Reeves, president of E. Allen Reeves, Inc., the firm building the Quaker meetinghouse, echoed Tebeau’s concerns, adding that bounties will not do much to deter future violence without institutional change.

“I think there’s a resurgence in violence because unions are contemplating their loss of market share,” he said. “I wish that leaders in the Philadelphia region would speak up against violence. They don’t tolerate it in schools, but they look the other way when it’s their supporters.”

Some politicians at the state level are looking to diminish the amount of influence wielded by unions at the state and local level through labor reforms, including right-to-work legislation introduced earlier this year.

“There are a lot of unfair policies enacted on behalf of Big Labor back when it had clout, but the demographics spell trouble for unions,” central Pennsylvania state Rep. Stephen Bloom said. “The Philadelphia area is still a bastion for union influence, but it’s waning there as it is across the state and the balance of power is shifting and inevitably we’ll get to the point where we’ll adopt labor reforms necessary for economic survival.”

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Union Leaders’ Epiphany Leaves Them Scrambling: Wait, Obamacare Is Going To Drive Up Our Costs?

Union Leaders’ Epiphany Leaves Them Scrambling: Wait, Obamacare Is Going To Drive Up Our Costs? – The Blaze

Imagine the following scene:

A handful of union bosses crowd around an old card table, punching numbers into their calculators. They’ve been up all night. Someone puts on another pot of coffee and a few of the older bosses are starting to fall asleep. Those who are still alert and active scratch their heads and re-enter their calculations.

“Oh, my gosh!” one of them shouts, concluding the all-night exercise. “‘Obamacare’ is going to cost us!”

Yes, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, union leaders (i.e. the same people who campaigned tirelessly in favor of universal healthcare) are trying to figure out a way to avoid paying for the costs associated with “Obamacare.”

From the WSJ:

Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour.

Union leaders say many of the law’s requirements will drive up the costs for their health-care plans and make unionized workers less competitive. Among other things, the law eliminates the caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs used as cost-containment measures in many health-care plans. It also allows children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.

To offset that, the nation’s largest labor groups want their lower-paid members to be able to get federal insurance subsidies while remaining on their plans. In the law, these subsidies were designed only for low-income workers without employer coverage as a way to help them buy private insurance.

In early talks, the Obama administration dismissed the idea of applying the subsidies to people in union-sponsored plans, according to officials from the trade group, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, that represents these insurance plans.

As financial reality sets in, and rather than figure out a way to pay for the bill they helped pass, unions are trying to see if Washington will bail them out.

“Top officers at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the AFL-CIO and other large labor groups plan to keep pressing the Obama administration to expand the federal subsidies,” the WSJ notes, “warning that unionized employers may otherwise drop coverage.”

“A handful of unions say they already have examined whether it makes sense to shift workers off their current plans and onto private coverage subsidized by the government. But dropping insurance altogether would undermine a central point of joining a union, labor leaders say,” the report adds.

No, really, union heads are acting like no one warned them that costs would go up.

“We are going back to the administration to say that this is not acceptable,” said Ken Hall, general secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters.

“I heard him say, ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep it,’” said John Wilhelm, chairman of Unite Here Health, the insurance plan for 260,000 union workers. “If I’m wrong, and the president does not intend to keep his word, I would have severe second thoughts about the law.”

Why? Why? Why didn’t anyone tell these leaders about the costs associated with “Obamacare”?

“It seems someone finally noticed that mandating benefits and imposing regulations has a tendency to … increase costs,” Doug Bandow writes for the American Spectator. “Increases which workers are stuck paying. Who would have imagined such a result? It’s not like anyone warned them, right?”

Click here to read the WSJ’s full report.

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SEIU Official Convicted Of Embezzlement, Faces 180 Years

SEIU Official Convicted Of Embezzlement, Faces 180 Years – Big Government

Former SEIU local president Tyrone Freeman has been convicted of embezzling from the low-wage employees he once represented. He now faces a maximum of 180 years in prison.

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Freeman was considered a rising star in the SEIU. As president of Local 6434, a statewide affiliate of the SEIU representing homecare workers, Freeman represented more than 150,000 union members. Many of the employees who make up Local 6434 make just $9 an hour, but Freeman was making $200,000 a year.

Even so, Freeman apparently felt his salary was not large enough. He used his position as local president to misdirect funds, including thousands to cover expenses incurred during his wedding in Hawaii. The union was also paying some of his personal American Express bills and the monthly bill on his Land Rover.

In addition, Freeman directed more than half a million dollars in consulting fees to a firm run by his wife. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge related to the funds last year.

The LA Times reports that some union members celebrated Freeman’s conviction. Raquel Toribio, who has a son with Down syndrome which requires home care, told the paper, “I’m very happy to hear Freeman’s going to pay for what he stole. It has been a long time.”

The uncovering of Freeman’s lavish spending began four years ago after an investigative report by the ILA Times.

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Detroit Betrayed: The Radical Wrecking Of An Iconic City (Spyridon Mitsotakis)

Detroit Betrayed: The Radical Wrecking Of An Iconic City – Spyridon Mitsotakis

Sometimes it’s better to tell a story backwards, from end to beginning. This story ends on December 10, 2012, when President Obama traveled to Michigan – a state with unemployment over 9 percent. He made a stop in Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, which is bankrupt. There, Obama made the ironic boast: “You only have to look to Michigan where workers were instrumental in reviving the auto industry to see how unions have helped build not just a stronger middle class but a stronger America.”

Of course, the auto industry, like much of the rest of Detroit, is in ruins. This is the state of the city and its main industry… at the end of the story.

Flashback some 20-plus years, to 1988, when Howard Johnson – who had been one of the leading communists in Harlem during the Great Depression – told interviewer Kay Takora about his return home from World War II: “I came back into activity in the Communist Party… I at first became county educational director. New York county was the biggest county organization. From ’46 to ’49. And during that same period, I was assigned to help build a national Negro veterans organization which was called the United Negro and Allied Veterans of America [UNAVA]. And that had the backing of the party and I was assigned by the party to work in that along with my duties as educational director of the county organization.”

Howard Johnson continued, eventually bringing the conversation to Detroit, and to Detroit’s mayor, Coleman Young: “When UNAVA was formed, I was elected national vice-commander in charge of education, which fit my training, and the other national vice-commander was Coleman Young, who was national vice-commander in charge of labor.

Because at that time he was a steward in the auto workers union and [a] very prominent trade unionist in Detroit. Coleman and I were very good friends… I never anticipated he would be a bourgeois mayor of Detroit. But Coleman’s a great guy, nevertheless. But I think that it was his party training that (helped) him to move forward as he did.” (Emphasis added.)

Coleman Young, the mayor of Detroit from 1974 to 1993, was able to “move forward as he did” thanks in part to training he got from the “party” – that is, the Communist Party. Young was, in fact, a secret member of Communist Party USA, as shown by several sources, including Cold War historians Ron Radosh, John Earl Haynes, and Harvey Klehr. Young had a woeful impact on Detroit. If there is any wonder why Detroit often resembles an Eastern Bloc municipality (minus the police state, since Mayor Young made it a routine to attack and neglect the city’s police forces, ensuring that the 1967 riots picked up where they left off), consider that for 19 years the mayor who ran the city economically and socially was a closet Marxist. Carl Levin, senator from Michigan, was Young’s right-hand man as Detroit City Council president during the most destructive years of Young’s reign.

The auto industry had been fully unionized ever since Walter Reuther (then a member of the Communist Party) led the 1936-‘37 GM Flint strike, thanks to the Wagner Act prohibiting firing of striking workers. On the other hand, Japanese auto companies such as Nissan, which outmaneuvered an attempted union takeover in 1953, were able to adapt quickly to demand. The UAW stubbornly held on to the practices of a bygone era, where World War II had reduced their international competitors to rubble and American auto manufacturing stood largely unopposed.

There were remedies. In February 1979, President Jimmy Carter actually offered some good advice. He told a group of governors at a White House state dinner: “Governors, go to Japan. Persuade them to make here what they sell here.” Lamar Alexander, then governor of Tennessee, did just that. He explained to Nissan executives who were deciding where to put their first U.S. manufacturing plant what was unique about Tennessee: it had a right-to-work law. As Alexander wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “In 1980 Nissan chose Tennessee, a state with almost no auto jobs. Today auto assembly plants and suppliers provide one-third of our state’s manufacturing jobs. Tennessee is the home for production of the Leaf, Nissan’s all-electric vehicle, and the batteries that power it. Recently Nissan announced that 85 percent of the cars and trucks it sells in the U.S. will be made in the U.S. – making it one of the largest ‘American’ auto companies and nearly fulfilling Mr. Carter’s request of 30 years ago.”

This is the very same right-to-work law that Carl Levin and the rest of Michigan’s radical-left ruling class oppose.

The choice between ruin and prosperity would, in a sane world, not be difficult to make. There was a time in the 1920s when people from all over the world came to Detroit to marvel at and study the magnificence of Henry Ford’s industrial heartland. That is where the story began. The end need not be so sad. The greatness of Detroit can forever be a fading memory, or there can be a new beginning.

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Builder Alleges Union Torched Chestnut Hill Quaker Site

Builder Alleges Union Torched Chestnut Hill Quaker Site – Philadelphia Inquirer

A NONUNION construction site at a planned Quaker meetinghouse in Chestnut Hill allegedly was vandalized late Thursday night, and the builder says union thugs may be responsible for the suspected arson that could cost an estimated $500,000.

“This is pure and simple bullying, and most likely it was the unions,” said Rob Reeves, who owns the nonunion or “open” shop E. Allen Reeves. “This is the usual bad behavior of bullies that have been tolerated in this city forever. The politicians don’t care, the police don’t care, the business community doesn’t care.”

Reeves said men have been standing outside the construction site of the planned $3.5 million Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting House, one of whom identified himself as a member of a steel union and asked the site superintendent if he would like to hire steelworkers. When the superintendent declined, the man said that “he’s got to do what he’s got to do,” according to Reeves.

Ed Sweeney, business manager for the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, the union for private-sector steelworkers in Philadelphia, said he had not heard about the suspected arson but knows the site.

“I was up there last week and said, ‘Hello,’ to the guy and asked if he wanted to hire any ironworkers, and he didn’t even talk to me,” Sweeney said.

Police said a full report was not available Friday evening, but a preliminary police report said a crane had been lit on fire and that the damage was roughly $500,000. Police searched the site for explosive devices but found none.

Reeves said that whoever committed the alleged vandalism broke into the fenced-off site, brought an acetylene torch and “knew what they were doing.”

The Quakers believe that insurance will cover the cost of the damage and that the repairs can be completed in a few days, said Storm Evans, a member of the meetinghouse’s Client Committee.

She has “a sense of sadness about this, and we hope that whoever did it is OK. There’s some anger about that,” she said. “I am sad that these people are that angry.”

The planned building, which would be the first new Quaker meetinghouse in southeastern Pennsylvania in a century, is to feature a “skyspace” designed by renowned artist James Turrell, in which the roof “retracts and people sit and look into that hole at dawn or at dusk and get a sense of light changing,” Evans said.

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AGAIN! Head of Chicago Teachers Union accuses Teach for America of “helping to kill children”

Karen Lewis is the latest Leftist to play tragedy pimp over the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings. Via The Daily Caller

Only days after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the head of the nation’s third-largest teachers union is blaming Teach For America for helping “kill and disenfranchise children.”

Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers Union, bashed the national organization and one of its vice presidents, David Rosenberg, in a message that appears on the blog of educational policy analyst Diane Ravitch.

“We in Chicago have been the victims of their experiments on our children since the current secretary of Education ‘ran’ CPS,” Lewis writes, calling Teach For America a group of “education missionaries” who view teaching in poor communities as a “stepping stone to a more lucrative career.”br

Lewis admits she is using the Sandy Hook tragedy to advance the agenda of her union.

Lewis, I would imagine, cares about nothing but her wallet. She knows about pushing the teachers union agenda, which likely has not one damn thing to do with teaching kids.

 

Taxpayers Funding 35 Six-Figure Union Chiefs At Transportation Department

Taxpayers Funding 35 Six-Figure Union Chiefs At Transportation Department – Washington Examiner

Thirty five federal employees with the U.S. Department of Transportation are being paid tax-funded salaries averaging more than $135,000 annually, but they don’t do work for the public. They work full-time for unions.

The 35 and their salary data were obtained by a conservative political activist group, Americans for Limited Government, which submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the DOT. A total of $4.8 million was paid by the government for the full-time salaries of the union officials.

“It is obscene that in one department alone, taxpayers are being stuck with almost $5 million in public employee union salary costs,” said Bill Wilson, ALG’s president. “These unions collect member dues and should pay for their own employees.”

Twenty one of the 35 are officials of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, with eight of the 21 being paid in excess of $170,000, according to ALG.

The lowest salary paid among the 35 was an official with the National Federation of Federal Employees who is paid $80,748.

Federal employee unions, led by the largest, the American Federation of Government Employees, aren’t able to negotiate compensation, but they are allowed by federal law to bargain on virtually all other working conditions throughout the federal government. Federal law also requires that departments and agencies continue to pay the salaries of career employees who work on “official time” performing union duties.

For more from ALG, go here.

Official time expenses are tracked government-wide by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In its most recent report, OPM said the Department of Transportation paid more than $15.4 million in such costs in 2010, compared to $12.5 million in 2009.

The OPM report estimated that government-wide costs for official time exceeded $137 million, an increase of 6.42 percent over the preceding year.

“We estimate each agency’s official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency’s average bargaining unit employee hourly wage plus fringe benefits,” OPM said in its report.

“This increase reflects, in part, the increased number of bargaining unit employees and the corresponding increase in official time usage government-wide. Official time costs represented less than two tenths of one percent of the total civilian personnel budget (salary and benefits) for federal civil service bargaining unit employees,” OPM said.

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Union Thugs Demolish Black Man’s Iconic Lansing, Michigan Hot Dog Cart, Yell Nigger, Uncle Tom

Union Thugs Demolish Clint Tarver’s Iconic Lansing, Michigan Hot Dog Cart [Photo-Donation Link] Update: Thugs Yelled “N*gger Uncle Tom” Update 2: Revenge For Americans For Prosperity Catering Gig (?) Update 3: A Romney Supporter, All We Need To Know – Ironic Surrealism

I support Clint:

Early today[December 11, 2012], Clint Tarver, known as “The Hot Dog Guy” here in Lansing had his business attacked and destroyed by out of line and out of control protesters near the Capitol.

Everyone who has passed the hot dog cart knows what a kind and caring individual Clint is. He never fails to bestow a smile or friendly greeting. In no way [did] he provoke this attack, nor any of the behavior displayed toward him.

Beyond the Cart: The Story of Clint Tarver:

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Regardless of your position on current legislation, rebuilding Clint’s Hot Dogs is something we can all support. Please give what you can to get this deserving businessman back out there!

If you would like to help Clint get back on his feet ==> DONATE HERE

Update: Racist, violent, destructive monsters.

Nick Hawatmeh
@NicolaHawatmeh

@NolanFinleyDN Min after union thugs tore down tent, assaulted several ppl. & yelling N*gger & Uncle Tom at man below pic.twitter.com/1ycXkE5g

Update 2: The plot thickens!

The woman (Lorilea Susanne) who set up the fundraising page for Clint has spoken to his wife. Apparently Clint was hired to provide catering for the Americans For Prosperity tent which was also destroyed by union thugs.

*UPDATE* 11:40am – I have spoken with Linda Lee, Clint’s wife. She says he is absolutely overwhelmed with our support, even more so than by the events of yesterday. I would like to clarify the events, however. Clint hired as a caterer for the AFP tent which was torn down. He was much more concerned about the others, and particularly helped to get the women out of the tent. It was when he returned to gather his equipment that the taunts and racial slurs began. He says the working people did not respect the working man. He was not there to be political; he was just there to serve. This is the Clint we know and love. Please, let’s respect him and leave our political opinions out of this. This is about our support for Clint.

Emphasis hers.

Update 3:

Slate:

Romney’s Saturday started off well. He was the star of the Ingham County Lincoln Day breakfast, an eggs-and-coffee-and-county-commissioner-placards affair in the dining room of a Lansing, Mich., country club.

Before he spoke, Republicans heard “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by the Old School Fellas, a zoot-suited amateur doo-wop group. “Mitt’s a good, Christian man like I am,” explained Clinton Tarver, wearing the reddest of the zoot suits.

H/T Claudia Brow

Michelle Malkin links… thanks!

Howie links at Jawa Report… thanks!

My very own Memeorandum thread. Cool.

Zip links… thanks!

Big Fur Hat links at iOwnTheWorld… thanks!

Jim Treacher links at The Daily Caller… thanks!

Bryan Preston links at The PJ Tattler… thanks!

Nice Deb links… thanks!

Ace links… thanks!

Also see:

* Michigan: Union Thugs Assault Steven Crowder “I’ll Kill The Motherf*cker With A Gun!” [Video] Update: Reward For Info Leading To Thugs Arrest
* Michigan Democrat’s House Floor ‘Right To Work’ Threat “There Will Be Blood” [Audio]
* No Wonder Only 7% Of Detroit, Michigan 8th Graders Are Proficient Readers -Misspelled Protest Sign [Pic]
* Michigan: Mob Of Knife Wielding Obama Emboldened Union Thugs Destroy Occupied AFP Tent [Video]

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Obama’s Big Michigan Right-To-Work Lie: Lower Wages

Obama’s Big Michigan Right-To-Work Lie: Lower Wages – Investor’s Business Daily

The president says right-to-work laws mean “the right to work for less money.” So how does he explain the fact that incomes are up in RTW states while forced unionism is a proven job killer?

Campaigning Monday in Michigan as it stood poised to become the nation’s 24th right-to-work state, President Obama spoke the exact opposite of the truth to union workers at a Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in the birthplace of organized labor.

“What we shouldn’t be doing,” he told the small crowd, “is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages. We don’t want a race to the bottom. We want a race to the top.”

Yet looking at the hard numbers, becoming a right-to-work state is a direct line to the top.

According to Michigan’s Mackinac Center, using data taken from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics, private-sector, inflation-adjusted employee compensation in right-to-work states increased by 12% between 2001 and 2011 compared with just 3% over the same period in forced-unionization states.

These good wages came from good jobs. Employment in right-to-work states expanded 2.4% over the same stretch vs. a 3.4% decline in non-right-to-work states. Ironically, Obama is taking credit for jobs created in RTW states.

All Politics

According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, right-to-work states (excluding Indiana, which passed a RTW law in early 2012) “were responsible for 72% of all net household job growth across the U.S. from June 2009 through September 2012.”

This is why people vote with their feet and move to these states. RTW states experienced large population gains of 15.3% from 2000 to 2010, compared to 5.9% in non-RTW states.

Obama did get one thing right, though, when he said the bills that passed both houses of the Michigan legislature “don’t have to do with economics. They have everything to do with politics.”

The president who fought Boeing’s expansion in RTW South Carolina knows it’s all about his keeping union dues flowing into Democratic coffers and maintaining the plush lifestyles of the union leaders who support him.

Freeloading

Michigan law will now bar requiring workers to pay money to a third party, namely unions, as a condition of employment. This has given rise to the big lie that workers who refuse to join a union and pay dues will get a “free ride” enjoying the benefits of union representation without contributing to that representation.

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Union thugs show tolerance in Michigan, Steven Crowder’s face hardest hit

I am late getting home today, something called work gets in the way sometimes, but the big news of the day is that Michigan has become the 24th right to work state, and the union bosses and their thugs are not happy. That happens when you mess with corrupt people’s money. Yes, I am calling many union bosses corrupt, and when the flow of corrupt money is threatened, well, violence soon follows. The Other McCain has video of Steven Crowder getting punched, sucker punched to be exact, four times I think, by a union thug. 

Who to blame for this, theories vary, some will point to certain Michigan Democrats who Tweeted that “there will be blood”

The Michigan House Democrats tweeted out a call to violence today over the right to work bill that was passed by Republicans in the House and Senate.

“We are going to undo 100 years of labor relations.  And there will be blood.  We will relive the battle of Overpass.” -Geiss

The Democrats later removed the tweet.

…But not before Dana Loesch saved a copy of it.

Smitty opines that it was the RAAAAACIST tent that Americans for Prosperity put up that set off the thuggery

It seems that the Americans for Prosperity tent was a hotbed ofraaaaacism, and the 1% were using it as a base for #WarOnWomen attacks. So I guess you can sympathize with the need for ‘honest’, State-fearing Union Goons to protect the turf on which the tent sat, and the power that the Union had accumulated through years of graft.

Note the rage displayed by, not Crowder, but the union thugs. Note also that Crowder could take that guy in the video. But, as Crowder noted on Hannity’s radio show today, things would have gotten very bad for him had he fought back. Crowder also challenged any one of these thugs to a one on one meeting, a challenge they will never take of course. The thug in question has been ID’d as Tony last name unsure as of now, hi Tony, lose your cool much there douche bag? Gateway Pundit has that info

The union official who sucker punched Steven Crowder today in Michigan has NOT been fully identified.
His name is Tony according to Gateway Pundit They do give a last name, but I have not seen enough to post it. I should not have been so quick to report that his name was Tony Cummings. That apparently is wrong, and I apologize for rushing to post that! Dana Loesch has more including info on the thug heard screaming about a gun in the video

Tony shown here showing how to properly debate a political issue, union style

More Proof That Leftists Hate Freedom… As If We Needed More Proof

Michigan Right To Work Prompts Protest Against Freedom – Right Scoop

Michigan is not Wisconsin.

Right to Work legislation in Michigan doesn’t touch collective bargaining for private or public unions. Right to work legislation in Michigan doesn’t include firemen or police in any legislative bill. Right to work legislation in Michigan only makes it a personal decision by an employee to join or not join a union, and makes it unlawful for an employer to fire an employee for not joining or joining a union.

That’s it.

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So of course, the slack-jawed pea-brained Michigan opinion dupes in the media over-act the entire issue. All of a sudden, the middle class will cease to exist if somebody has the choice to negotiate his own deal. All of a sudden, Michiganders didn’t send a majority of Republicans to handle Lansing. All of a sudden, thousands of protesters practice modified Christmas songs to sing in front of the capitol because somehow allowing more freedom is the death knell for America.

Even some union-beholden intelligence-deficient Republicans vote against individual rights when push comes to shove. Mike Nofs, the Republican Senator who pushed for unionization of home-healthcare workers after taking money along with several workers from SEIU for his reelection campaign, said he didn’t vote for Right to Work legislation because,

“I think that in general, working-class workers will not benefit from this,” Nofs said.

He said he thinks workers already have the freedom to decide whether they want to take a job that’s unionized or not.

“When you go to apply for a job, you know it’s a union job,” he said.

“If you don’t like unions, don’t apply for a union job. There are plenty of other non-union jobs.”

Senator Tom Casperson has also said he is against the Right to Work, and though I haven’t talked with him on this issue, has mentioned to others that he believes unions create higher wages and that Right To Work would lessen those wages. Somehow. I guess.

But these fellows are wrong, just as is the predictable media and the fanatical demonstrators that will be bussed in on Tuesday. The protesters are undergoing vigorous training, preparing for clashes with police.

The unions are preparing for war because, quite simply, it is not right for people to be able to take on their own responsibility.

From the Detroit News: ”Humanize the situation. Be clear with your intentions. Introduce yourself,” national labor activist Lisa Fithian, of Austin, Texas, said through a megaphone. “They’re going to do everything they can to criminalize us.”

I’ll humanize the situation. When a man or woman works for someone else he or she can take what is handed out, or he or she can negotiate for his or her own future. Yes, wages are high because of unions, but they also increase the prices of goods which hurts middle America. The unskilled laborer hits a windfall when he makes comparable money and benefits as a highly-skilled specialized laborer.

If equality is what is sought, tell me of the equality between someone who never took the initiative to learn a craft and one who can build something and make it work. People are different, and in companies all across the nation people with special skills negotiate for their own pay. This legislation is about the right to be responsible for yourself.

Of course the argumentative union representatives complain that it would be unfair for people who refuse to join a union to be able to ‘freeload’ from the collective bargaining efforts of the union. Actually, they are more afraid that when a skilled laborer makes a better deal based on skills that he owns as much as he owns his body, that it will be the end of union power over man.

If men and women are allowed to create their own deal and depend on their own ability to succeed or fail, they won’t be “freeloading”. In fact it will cause people to learn skills, an acute need in America.

The only freeloading taking place is that of unions who launder dues into Democrat coffers at election time. If you are of the mind that you do not agree with the Democrat party and you do not wish to feed it, and you belong to a union, you can get out.

So as this whole issue gets overblown with civil disobedience courses being taught in universities and pastors railing at the pulpit against the so-called extreme nature of Right To Work, just remember, freedom isn’t free and slavery comes in many forms.

On Tuesday many people will object to freedom by protesting. In the near future, the unions will try to organize recall efforts for some or all of the Republicans who voted in favor of RTW, including the governor. We will be fed the impression that Republicans are anti-American Nazis and who knows what other drivel they will conjure.

If in America you are not allowed to be your own person, responsible and willing to be accountable to yourself and yourself alone, then there is no freedom anywhere.

A great American author, Eric Hoffer, wrote of mass movements and described the condition of those who do push for solidarity in the collective versus the freedom of man:

Freedom of choice places the whole blame of failure on the shoulders of the individual. And as freedom encourages a multiplicity of attempts, it unavoidably multiplies failure and frustration… Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual?

It is hard work when one decides to be completely responsible but there are empowering side effects that create a confident, vibrant economy and society. By arguing and protesting against individual empowerment, those against Freedom to Work put themselves in direct conflict with the fabric of America.

Power to the people, individually.

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No class union thugs interrupt cancer research benefit

Do the letters F and O mean anything to you thug bastards?

Via NY Post:

Disgruntled union workers put their fight against Cablevision over the fight against cancer at a Times Square protest last night.

About 50 members of the Communications Workers of America Local 1109 disrupted a benefit for cancer research at the Hard Rock Cafe, carrying signs and blaring music as attendees streamed in.

Cablevision CEO James Dolan, whose rock band performed at the event, told The Post that the workers’ actions are “despicable.”

“They think being disruptive for their personal gain is more important than beating pancreatic cancer,” he said. “Their values are twisted. I’m surprised at the depth of their lowness. Everyone who deals with them should take note. It’s shameful.”

The union, which is in drawn-out contract talks with Cablevision, labeled Dolan a “Grinch” for stalling negotiations with 280 company technicians and dispatchers in Brooklyn.

“He is a greedy person pretending to be philanthropist; he’s Scrooge!” barked Tim Dubnau, an organizer for Communications Workers of America Local 1109.

But event attendees said the union members picked the wrong time and place to air their grievances.

“I’m a pancreatic-cancer survivor, and it’s unfortunate that they have to protest an event like this,” said Scott Nelson, 59, who lives in Minnesota.

Trash!

 

Full Metal Moonbat: the perfect description for Michael Moore

LOVE this from Conservative hideout!

Every now and again, a great example of moonbattery is seen.  Michael Moore had a reaction to the Michigan Right to Work Vote that raised the bar to “Full Metal Moonbattery.”  Let’s take a look at some of his tweets, via Red Alert Politics…

Right to work laws essentially prohibit unions from forcing employees who do not want to be union members to pay union dues in order to keep their jobs. It also stops businesses from requiring employees be part of a union as part of their employment agreement.
“This is all about taking care of the hard-working workers in Michigan, being pro-worker and giving them freedom to make choices,” Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said. “The goal isn’t to divide Michigan, it is to bring Michigan together.”

So, in other words, Moore is going to embrace freedom by forcing people to join a union, even if the use of such force is illegal?  Yes, because nothing says “freedom” or “rights” like force, right?

 

Chicago Teachers Union VP Busted Participating In Midwest Marxism Conference

Chicago Teachers Union VP Busted Participating In Midwest Marxism Conference – Big Government

While a guest on a local Chicago radio show, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) VP Jesse Sharkey was questioned over his recent participation in the Midwest Marxism Conference and refused to answer why he was there and what relationship the Chicago Teachers Union has with the conference and sponsoring organization, the International Socialists Organization. Sharkey, who was documented by Breitbart News attending the Marxist conference at Northwestern University last month, appeared caught off-guard and struggled to respond to the question.

WLS radio’s Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft had Sharkey on their show to discuss the ongoing school closing battle between the CTU and the Chicago Public Schools. Sharkey had been discussing the Chicago Teachers Union’s network of coalitions that supported the recent teachers strike, when Proft asked him to address the union’s relationship with “revolutionary movements.”

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Sharkey first stammered that Proft’s question was “McCarthyism,” but when he persisted [Editor’s note: in an effort to keep Sharkey’s response intact, we have done our best to transcribe the stutters and “ums” as uttered]:

Sharkey: What our union has done, is work very hard to build a coalition between people who work in the schools and depend on the public schools and the people who go to school, the students and community… And, uhm, I think the fact that we’re dedicated to that is reflected in the fact that there’s been broad support for the things we’re trying to do.

Proft: Where do the revolutionary movements fit into that coalition? I understand that a couple weeks ago that you appeared at the Midwest Marxist Conference at Northwestern University to talk about the important support that Chicago teachers get from revolutionary movements’ use of the strike weapon. What’s the alignment with Marxist organizations and revolutionary movements?

Sharkey: Ha, ha, ha, look guys, I mean, thanks…

Proft: That’s a legitimate question. That’s actually just happened. That’s actually true. That’s not McCarthyism.

Sharkey: Thanks for the 1950s McCarthyism.

Proft: It’s not McCarthyism.

Sharkey: Uh, uh, well look it, the, the, the um – every time that unions or social movements have raised issues about what’s fair and what isn’t in base and equality, people have branded them as communist. I, I know…

Proft: Wait a second. You spoke? Did you, or did you not, speak at the Midwest Marxist Conference?

Sharkey: I… [pause] No I did not speak at the Midwest Marxism Conference.

Wolf: You were there though.

Proft: You didn’t?

Wolf: You were there.

Sharkey: Uh.

Wolf: You were there. We’ve got you on video there. Why were you there?

Sharkey: Uh. I’m allowed to attend a Marxist conference, like I’m allowed to [inaudible]…

Wolf: Do you subscribe to their beliefs Mr. Sharkey?

Sharkey: Eh. Look, look guys, I mean, if you want to have me on as part of a, uh, uh, witch-hunt…

Wolf: It’s not a witch-hunt. What do you believe?

Proft: You attended this conference, I’m just asking you what value you derive from this conference and how you see revolutionary movements as so described to connect to the teachers unions, that’s all. It’s not a witch-hunt. It’s something you did.

Sharkey: Ah, uh, look gentlemen; I’m not sure where you’re going with…

At that point Bruce Wolf was forced to cut the interview for a commercial break and thanked Sharkey for the “lucid interview.” (Listen to the full interview here)

During the conference, a heavy focus was placed on the relationships between revolutionary organizations, including the International Socialist Organiation’s intervention in the Chicago Teachers’ strike.

In a breakout session about Marxism and education, Sharkey participated by discussing what he referred to as an interesting dilemma regarding the challenges facing a revolutionary movement isolated by geography and chronology in relation to the lack of other concurrent revolutionary movements:

It’s very hard to have a huge struggle in Chicago over the set of things that are being pushed – education reform, or frankly workplace reform – and not have that struggle taken up anywhere else.

Just in the same way, it’s hard to have you know, if one freight way, has got wages that are $10 an hour higher than their competitors. Guess what! The logic is that high wage place gets smashed down, and that’s the logic of the market. And it’s only when you start to generalize that there could be some alternative to that, that you have the ability to push back…

The magic of struggle is just how easy it is to generalize those lessons. Whether it’s Wisconsin or Occupy or the CTU strike.

Sharkey then went on to joke about class discrimination lawsuits over what is considered appropriate attire for female teachers in schools.

This occurred at the same all-day event where, upon being labeled as “not in solidarity” and recognized as a Breitbart News correspondent, I was forcefully removed by a group of teachers, social workers, and others members of the ISO attending the Marxism conference.

WLS radio’s follow-up coverage of the Chicago Teachers Union’s presence at the conference (they were even selling CTU t-shirts in the foyer) provided some additional light on the collaboration between the ISO and CTU leadership.

That is more than local mainstream media provided; two days later, after Sharkey’s appearance at the Midwest Marxism conference, I attended a protest being led by the CTU, ISO, and many leaders of socialist and communist organizations headquartered in Chicago. While there, I questioned Mr. Sharkey about his participation in the conference and the ISO’s celebration of their coordination with the Chicago Teachers Union during the teachers strike, but Sharkey refused to answer any of my questions.

I noticed that NBC Chicago’s Charlie Wojciechowski was also “covering” the protest. Thinking that he might be able to elicit a response, I briefly informed him as to Sharkey’s recent participation in the Midwest Marxism Conference, asking if he might raise the issue with Sharkey as part of NBC’s coverage.

I was more than taken aback when, besides just refusing, Wojciechowski sneered at my suggestion he cover this news, saying on camera, “Breitbart is full of shit.”

And true to his word, Wojciechowski’s coverage of the protest that day did not contain one mention of information he had been provided by Breitbart reporting about the organizers of the protest he was covering that day. By willfully covering news up from his audience, veteran mainstream news reporters like Charlie Wojciechowski essentially aid and abet their subjects in swindling the public.

The Chicago Teachers Union leadership has much to hide from the public. It was clear when, being recognized as “not in solidarity,” I as a journalist was booted from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where the Midwest Marxism conference was being held. It was even clearer when Sharkey, after being questioned on WLS about his presence at the conference, stammered and obfuscated rather than confirm his speaking at the conference.

But clearest of all is how unfortunate the Chicago public – and that includes the rank-and-file members of the teachers union – are to have a news network that abandons truth-seeking and coverage.

Perhaps the educators of Chicago’s children, after being used successfully as protest props in the recently well executed “strike weapon,” might want to take an honest look at who their leadership really is, who they are really fighting for, and think deeply about whether or not they are in the right fight.

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Vile, Commie Teachers Union Video Features ‘Rich’ Urinating On ‘Poor’

California Teachers Union Video Features ‘Rich’ Urinating On The ‘Poor’ – EagNews

A new video produced by the California Federation of Teachers – which could be playing in your child’s classroom as we speak – drums up the typical class warfare images we’ve come to expect from Big Labor.

“Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale,” written by CFT staffer Fred Glass (2011 compensation: $139,800) and narrated by proud leftist actor (and 1 percenter) Ed Asner, advocates for higher taxes on the “rich” as the cure for government’s insatiable thirst for spending.

The video claims the rich got rich through tax cuts and tax loopholes and even tax evasion.

But when the 99 percent fought back, the “rich” apparently urinated on the “poor,” at least according to the video. What a classy way to frame your argument for children, Big Labor.

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The video also claims that when the housing market crashed, the government printed money for “rich people” but they didn’t give any to “ordinary people whose houses and jobs were broken by the crash.”

That’s a patently false statement, as evidenced by a handy-dandy chart courtesy of the New York Times. Here’s a sampling of what was contained in President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package:

- Help states prevent cuts to essential services like education – $53.6 billion

- Extend and increase unemployment compensation – $35.8 billion

- Health coverage under Cobra – $25.1 billion

- Increase food assistance – $20.9 billion

- Increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500 – $15.6 billion

- Provide cash payment to seniors, disabled veterans and other needy individuals – $14.4 billion

- Provide additional money to schools serving low-income children – $13 billion

- Provide additional money for special education – $12.2 billion

- Create new bonds for improvements in public education – $10.9 billion

And the list goes on and on.

The California Federation of Teachers’ video is little more than unsurprising leftist propaganda, aimed to indoctrinate children with no basis in fact. Do you know if your child is watching it in school?

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Obituary Claims Kansas City Chiefs’ Poor Performance Killed Man

Obituary Claims Kansas City Chiefs’ Poor Performance Killed Man – Daily Caller

Loren G. “Sam” Lickteig, an Air Force vet and longtime football fan, passed away on Wednesday after suffering complications from both multiple sclorosis and his ”heartbreaking disappointment caused by the Kansas City Chiefs,” according to his obituary in The Kansas City Star.

Lickteig’s daughters said that, although their father didn’t write his obit, he had a great sense of humor and would have loved it. He would even change his shirt from red to black if the Chiefs were losing during a game, they said.

The Chiefs are currently 1-9 for the season, and the obituary went to press on the day the Chiefs lost by a 6-28 point margin to the Cincinatti Bengals.

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Judge Puts Hostess Liquidation On Hold, Orders Talks

Judge Puts Hostess Liquidation On Hold, Orders Talks – Fox News

The liquidation of Hostess has been put on hold after a federal judge ordered the company and union officials to come back to the table for more talks, Fox Business Network reported.

Hostess, the company behind treats snacked on for generations, presented to a federal bankruptcy judge a plan to shut down 36 plants and sell off the company’s business. Their liquidation plan was sparked by a nationwide strike orchestrated by the snack maker’s second-largest union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that while Hostess has said the shutdown would result in the loss of more than 18,000 jobs and place the fate of more than 30 American brands in jeopardy, union President Frank Hurt said he believed there was “more than a good chance” that a buyer quickly would swoop in to buy the profitable parts of the company and give his union’s members their jobs back.

“I’m not in a position to promise anybody anything, but I’m in a position to be hopeful,” he said Sunday to the Journal.

Hurt, whose union counts 5,600 Hostess employees as members, said he was comforted by the recent frenzy over Hostess products, as consumers rushed to stock up after Friday’s announcement of the shutdown. “People are going crazy because they think they’re not going to be able to get any Twinkies or Ho Ho’s or Wonder Bread,” he also said in the interview. “They’ll be produced somewhere, some time and by our members.”

Hostess Chief Executive Gregory Rayburn had a different vision of how the bankruptcy auction process would play out.

“Nobody wants to have anything to do with these old plants or these unions or these contracts,” Rayburn said in an interview. The company had hunted for buyers for the last several years as it tried to avoid a second trip into bankruptcy, but no buyer came forward.

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Obama NLRB Sues Nursing Home To Reinstate SEIU Union Workers Who Sabotaged Patients Records Before They Went On Strike

Obama NLRB Sues Nursing Home To Reinstate SEIU Union Workers Who Sabotaged Patients Records Before They Went On Strike – Weasel Zippers

In a sane world these people should have been arrested for putting patients lives in imminent danger, but in Obamaland the government is suing to get their jobs back.

Via Washington Examiner:

President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board asked a judge this week to force a Connecticut nursing home to re-hire employees involved in a labor dispute, including the workers who sabotaged patient homes as they went on strike.

The Service Employees International Union members who worked at HealthBridge went on strike after rejecting the company’s final offer in contract negotiations. HealthBridge cut benefits, pensions, and raises wages 2.2 percent. [...]

That includes the union members who committed acts of sabotage on the way out the door which exploited the weakness of the Alzheimer’s patients in the nursing home in order to make it more difficult for those patients to receive care from the replacement workers. As The Washington Examiner previously noted:

The director of the facility in Newington, Conn., told police that “the name tags on the patients’ doors for the Alzheimer’s ward were mixed up. The photos attached to the medical records for these patients were removed, further complicating, but not making impossible, the identification of the patients. Also, dietary blue stickers affixed to the door name tags were removed.” Some medical equipment also went missing.

Keep reading…

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As Union Bosses Spin Twinkies’ Demise, Bakers’ Union Boss Admits Union Knew Hostess Would Die

As Union Bosses Spin Twinkies’ Demise, Bakers’ Union Boss Admits Union Knew Hostess Would Die – RedState

With the demise of 18,000 jobs weighing on their shoulders (though certainly not their consciousness’) and just in time for the Sunday morning talk shows union bosses are now trying desperately to point fingers at the victim (and Mitt Romney) for the union’s strike that ultimately destroyed Hostess and its 18,000 jobs. This blame game is going on despite the fact that the bakers’ union knew that its strike could, ultimately, lead to the company’s closure.

Ranging from the AFL-CIO’s Big Daddy Rich Trumka to the bakers’ union bosses who pulled the trigger by calling the strike that killed Twinkie the Kid, unions are now in full spin mode to make America believe that it was the company and Wall Street – not the union that called the strike that caused the company to go out of business.

With Hostess brands’ corporate corpse not even cold yet due to the nationwide union strike, the AFL-CIO’s Trumka issued a statement on Friday blaming Wall Street for the company’s crash:

What’s happening with Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor. Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price. These workers, who consistently make great products Americans love and have offered multiple concessions, want their company to succeed. They have bravely taken a stand against the corporate race-to-the-bottom. And now they and their communities are suffering the tragedy of a needless layoff. This is wrong. It has to stop. It’s wrecking America.

The problem with Trumka’s lie-filled logic is that Wall Street didn’t call the strike and Trumka fails to address the fact that without Wall Street investors investing in Hostess, the company, with its shrinking market and overly-burdensome union contracts would have likely died years ago.

In 2004, the makers of Twinkies first filed for bankruptcy, a five-year process that ranks among the longest such proceedings in U.S. history. The company continued to struggle financially, and now risks complete liquidation, as it cannot make payments on its $700 million line of credit, has $2 billion in unfunded pension obligations to retired employees, and owes $860 million in current debt.

Even more important, however, is the fact that, although they didn’t like it, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (with 6700 members’ jobs on the line) approved of the same concessionary contract that Hostess was seeking of the bakers’ union.

Though Teamster bosses are now trying to blame Hostess for its demise as well, late last week, the Teamsters had called on the bakery union to allow its members to vote, even going so far as to chastise the bakery union’s actions:

The BCTGM chose a different path, as is their prerogative, to not substantively look for a solution or engage in the process. BCTGM members were told there were better solutions than the final offer, although Judge Drain stated in his decision in bankruptcy court that no such solutions exist. Without complete information, BCTGM members voted by voice votes in union halls. The BCTGM reported that over 90 percent rejected the final offer and three of its units ratified the final offer.

However, as much as he and his fellow union bosses try to spin and finger point the results of the union’s actions that destroyed the Ding Dongs, in a Friday statement, bakery union boss Frank Hurt admits that his union members knew that their strike could kill Hostess:

Our members decided they were not going to take any more abuse from a company they have given so much to for so many years. They decided that they were not going to agree to another round of outrageous wage and benefit cuts and give up their pension only to see yet another management team fail and Wall Street vulture capitalists and ‘restructuring specialists’ walk away with untold millions of dollars.

Throughout this long and difficult process, BCTGM members showed tremendous courage, solidarity and devotion to principle. They were well aware of the potential consequences of their actions but stood strong for dignity, justice and respect.

And, now, no matter how union bosses try to spin it, 18,000 Hostess workers – with their dignity, justice and respect intact – are now destined to stand with their hands out in the unemployment line.

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