Editorial: Union Thuggery Run Amok

IBD Editorials ^ | March 24, 2011 | Staff

[Kaslin]

Big Labor: Having lost its war on economics, the SEIU has declared war on the economy. Literally. One of its top minds was caught vowing to crash the stock market to redistribute wealth. Is this a union or a subversive group?

Six years ago, after breaking from the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union was hailed as a new kind of organization, whose dynamic leader Andy Stern would make labor strong again. His union vowed to increase its "political muscle to pressure entrenched politicians who didn't vote in the interests of their members," wrote Matt Bai in his 2007 book, "The Argument."

Today, it's all over. One of the leading lights of SEIU-thought, Stephen Lerner, declared last week at Pace University: "Unions are almost dead. We cannot survive doing what we do."

But that didn't mean introspection, or renewed efforts to persuade the public. Union frustration, as Bai wrote, meant it was time to "blow the place up."

Lerner has a "secret plan" scheduled for May to "destabilize" the U.S. economy to redistribute wealth.

"What does the other side fear most?" Lerner asked. "They fear disruption, they fear uncertainty."

It was crazy talk, but with specific aims: a mass mortgage strike and student loan default to crash banks such as JPMorgan, which SEIU has been trying to unionize since at least 2007. Nevermind what a stock market crash to teach Wall Street a lesson would do to workers' pensions.

[Palmetto Patriot]

A week earlier, food company Sodexo USA filed a suit against SEIU, accusing it of extortion and "dirty tricks." Among other things, union thugs are accused of flinging plastic cockroaches over the company's meals and terrorizing patients about rat droppings in their food to muscle Sodexo workers into its union.

At last somebody is fighting back.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Is this a union or a subversive group?

That's a rhetorical question, right?

[FiddlePig]

As observed in Wisconsin and soon in other states... we see the public unions and their corrupt Democrat toady politicians are (and have been for years), running a simple old-style gangster “Chicago Protection Racket”.

The “progressive” BS rhetoric is only for the “useful idiots”... the union bosses have MUCH more in common with John Gotti and Al Capone than Marx or Lenin. Like their gangster ancestry, the current crop has bribed, intimidated and corrupted local, state and federal officials, judges, bureaucrats and many of the public workforce. This explains how a mere county judge can “overturn” the law in Wisconsin. This cancer has sadly metastasized in much of our government. It will be a long bitter struggle to return to Constitutional governance… but it is a fight we MUST win! Like all parasites these union thugs eventually kill their host (and that’s us!).

[Popman]

Unions are targeting american companies that cannot move operations overseas like Sedexo

I work for one and we know it’s coming

We are prepared to stop them in their tracks

[OrioleFan]

Can he and other members of the leadership of the SEIU be prosecuted under the Smith Act. This sounds like sedition.

[Palmetto Patriot]

Can he and other members of the leadership of the SEIU be prosecuted under the Smith Act. This sounds like sedition.

Remember who is the Attorney General.

Civil suits are the only way to go, until the country returns to its senses.

[scorchedearther]

By making these threats, the AFL CIO and the SEIU should be placed on the list of terrorist groups under the aegis of the DHS.

[meadsjn]

With union members being less than 12% of the labor force, and less than half of them being private sector unions, the numbers are not in their favor. American citizens are fed up with these parasites.

Public Union Membership in Numbers

~ By: Larry Walker, Jr. ~

In terms of raw numbers, local government union members stand to be crushed, or perhaps just eaten. There are roughly 14 million unemployed Americans who would love to have local government service jobs, minus collective bargaining. Perhaps the media should poll the unemployed. The bottom line is that it's better to be gainfully employed than unemployed. Advice to local government employed union members: Work with your duly elected government officials, or kiss your jobs goodbye.

Out of 124 million Americans who are still employed (excluding the incorporated self-employed), only 14.7 million (or 11.9%) are members of unions.

Out of the 14.7 million union members, 7.6 million (or a majority of 51.8%) are government employees.

Out of the 7.6 million government employees who are members of unions, 4.7 million (or a majority of 61.3%) are local government employees, while 1.9 million (or 25.8%) are state government employees.

Out of 124 million Americans who are still employed (excluding the incorporated self-employed), only 4.7 million (or just 3.8%) are local government employed union members.

In terms of numbers, local government employed union members, those who are complaining the most, only represent 3.8% of all American workers (excluding the incorporated self-employed), 3.0% of the roughly 151 million American taxpayers, and 1.5% of the total population. We believe there is more empathy among Americans for the 9.0% of the labor force who are unemployed, and the millions more who have dropped out of the workforce , than there is for local government employed union members. In other words, the pink slips are in the mail.

Related: Union Label : Owned by China

Liberty VS Union Power

Reference: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics -

Table 3. Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by occupation and industry (Jan. 21, 2011 Report)

Table 3. Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by occupation and industry (Historical Data)

[varon]

Hitler had his Brownshirts and Obama has his knuckle dragging Union Label thugs!!!

[varon]

Hitler had his Brownshirts and Obama has his knuckle dragging Union Label thugs!!!

[Kaslin]

You know who the head is of DHS, would you trust her?

[Tzimisce]

Labor Unions and their friends are running our country.

Sucks that no one seems to care. :(:(:(

[KansasGirl]

[Can he and other members of the leadership of the SEIU be prosecuted under the Smith Act. This sounds like sedition.]

Not as long as Eric Holder is the U.S. Attorney General.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the info; post.

FU (not you)

[canuck_conservative]

Time to prosecute Eric Holder and his good-time pals at InJustice, and break the logjam!

[OrioleFan]

Remember who is the Attorney General.

Oh yeah. Senior moment.

[boop]

Look, the Triangle Shirt Factory fire 100 years ago is ample evidence that we NEED unions. Especially PUBLIC unions. You know that the union bosses pulling in 600K per year and meeting with Obama daily only have the best of intentions. For the “workin’ man”. Richard Trumpka said so from his yacht.

[Gene Eric]

>> those who are complaining the most, only represent 3.8% of all American workers

Not every public union member is complaining, so the percentage is smaller. I understand the union vote is 50/50 D/R.

[Tzimisce]

Did you know that in his letter to the Capitalists, Paul supports government Labor Unions?

Go look it up - it’s in the Bible right next to the part about Abortion and Gay Marriage being okay.