At the Big Bad Union rally the President attended Monday he shared the stage with a rotund blowhard with a rat on his head.
Whoa! Who is this fresh new thug on the scene? Well, as it turns out, he's A Real Thug. Read up on him here.
Excerpt:
The mainstream press gave these remarks, along with those of the president, prime coverage. What they downplayed was that Trumka, now 61, during his years as United Mine Workers president and then as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, became a rising star in the organized labor firmament by enabling union violence and corruption. In other words, his tacit and at times open encouragement of intimidation and deception as union empowerment tactics may have helped him win his current job.
Consider a multi-state coal miners strike organized by the UMW back in 1993. As union president, Trumka ordered more than 17,000 workers to walk off their jobs. He was determined, among other things, to ensure that nobody would find work in a mine without paying dues or agency fees to the union. He explicitly told strikers to "kick the shit out of" employees and mine operators resisting union demands. UMW enforcers obliged him. They vandalized homes, fires shots at a mine office, and cut power to another mine, temporarily trapping 93 miners underground. Worse yet, a union goon on July 22, 1993 murdered heavy equipment operator Eddie York, a nonunion contractor, shooting him in the back of the head in his pickup truck as he drove past strikers at a Logan County, West Virginia work site; a bunch of goons then proceeded to pelt York's would-be rescuers with rocks. Rather than apologize, Trumka offered the following rationalization: "I'm saying if you strike a match and put your finger in, common sense tells you you're going to burn your finger." In other words, Eddie York had it coming. His widow, Wanda York, saw things differently. She sued the union for $27 million, naming Trumka and other union officials as co-defendants. After a long battle, UMW lawyers quickly decided to settle out of court in June 1997 once federal prosecutors announced they would release evidence from the trial of Jerry Dale Lowe, convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges related to York's murder by a federal jury three years earlier.
The mainstream press gave these remarks, along with those of the president, prime coverage. What they downplayed was that Trumka, now 61, during his years as United Mine Workers president and then as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, became a rising star in the organized labor firmament by enabling union violence and corruption. In other words, his tacit and at times open encouragement of intimidation and deception as union empowerment tactics may have helped him win his current job.
Consider a multi-state coal miners strike organized by the UMW back in 1993. As union president, Trumka ordered more than 17,000 workers to walk off their jobs. He was determined, among other things, to ensure that nobody would find work in a mine without paying dues or agency fees to the union. He explicitly told strikers to "kick the shit out of" employees and mine operators resisting union demands. UMW enforcers obliged him. They vandalized homes, fires shots at a mine office, and cut power to another mine, temporarily trapping 93 miners underground. Worse yet, a union goon on July 22, 1993 murdered heavy equipment operator Eddie York, a nonunion contractor, shooting him in the back of the head in his pickup truck as he drove past strikers at a Logan County, West Virginia work site; a bunch of goons then proceeded to pelt York's would-be rescuers with rocks. Rather than apologize, Trumka offered the following rationalization: "I'm saying if you strike a match and put your finger in, common sense tells you you're going to burn your finger." In other words, Eddie York had it coming. His widow, Wanda York, saw things differently. She sued the union for $27 million, naming Trumka and other union officials as co-defendants. After a long battle, UMW lawyers quickly decided to settle out of court in June 1997 once federal prosecutors announced they would release evidence from the trial of Jerry Dale Lowe, convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges related to York's murder by a federal jury three years earlier.
President Pee Wee sure can pick 'em.
