Union Facts to NY Post Readers: A Questionable Courtship

December 17, 2007

This morning, the New York Post was kind enough to run an article from the Center for Union Facts on the un-coy courtship between Big Labor and Democratic presidential candidates. The whole thing is worth a read, but it’s most important to remember that in this mating dance it will actually be working Americans who get screwed:

IN a recent speech to the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) convention in Chicago, John Edwards modestly exclaimed, “I will be the best union president in the history of this country.” Speaking to the United Auto Workers in Dubuque, Iowa, Barack Obama gushed, “I’m ready to go on offense for organized labor; imagine a president who knows what it’s like to put on a comfortable pair of shoes and walk with you on that picket line.”

Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton donned boxing gloves at a press conference with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and said that she would “go 10 rounds with anybody,” on behalf of labor unions.

There has been nothing coy about the Democratic presidential candidates’ courtship of Big Labor. After all, union endorsements come with armies of door-knocking, phone-calling, sign-waving foot soldiers; union leaders will spend about half a billion dollars on political campaigns this election cycle.

Of course, the union chiefs are making sure their political suitors come bearing gifts, and what they’re after – support for the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) – is a much bigger present than flowers or chocolate.

EFCA would strip employees of the right to a secret ballot vote, and make it much easier for union organizers to push employees into union membership – which in turn means more dollars for labor leaders.

In other words, “going 10 rounds with anybody” involves sucker-punching working Americans.

Union Facts to NY Post Readers: A Questionable Courtship

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