Unions promise to confront Patriots at Town Hall Meetings

[melensdad]

Looks like the left is organizing against the citizens to support Obama Care. The "patriots" have been accused of 'astroturfing' and busing in people for protests but there is little to no evidence to support that claim. The left has also accused the 'patriots of many other things . . . but it appears that the left is really the organized side and they plan to shut down/shout down any opposition to their socialist President.

I really wonder if the 'rank and file' union members support Obama Care? I was talking to my UPS driver yesterday, he is TOTALLY OPPOSED to it (btw he brought the topic up).

Unions To Take On Conservative Groups Health Care Town Halls


The nation's largest federation of labor organizations has promised to directly engage with boisterous conservative protesters at Democratic town halls during the August recess.

In a memo sent out on Thursday, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney outlined the blueprint for how the union conglomerate would step up recess activities on health care reform and other topics pertinent to the labor community. The document makes clear that Obama allies view the town hall forums as ground zero of the health care debate. It also uses the specter of the infamous 2000 recount "Brooks Brothers" protest to rally its members to the administration's side.

"The principal battleground in the campaign will be town hall meetings and other gatherings with members of Congress in their home districts," reads the memo. "We want your help to organize major union participation to counter the right-wing "Tea-Party Patriots" who will try to disrupt those meetings, as they've been trying to do to meetings for the last month. ...

(Remember the hooligans - many of them Republican Congressional staff - who harassed Florida vote counters in 2000? We can't let that happen again!)."

A showdown between unions and grassroots conservative organizations could make for an August full of fireworks, with even more dysfunctional town hall meetings. The AFL-CIO is planning to target 50 "high priority districts," in addition to organizing telephone town hall gatherings.

But while the union conglomerate seems poised to flex its political muscle on Obama's behalf, it may find some friction on the policy front. Detailed in Sweeney's memo are certain legislative priorities that are clearly at odds with what seems likely to be produced in the Senate Finance Committee's compromise bill.

Sweeney describes it as a "requirement that ALL employers 'pay or play,'" that the final bill have "a robust public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers and drive down health costs," and that the legislation contain "relief for company/union funds providing pre-Medicare retiree coverage, and no taxation of health benefits!"

The AFL-CIO also promises to "Redouble our efforts on Capitol Hill against taxation of benefits OF ANY KIND, for including ALL businesses in the requirement to provide coverage, and for a robust public health insurance plan option."

According to reports on Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee is considering compromise legislation that will contain no public option for insurance and would tax health-care benefits of the most generous plans.

UPDATE: AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka sends out a scathing statement about the town halls, hitting on Sweeney's themes and calling the events corporate funded.

Every American has the inalienable right to participate in our democratic process. Our politics is passionate, heartfelt and often loud -- as was the founding of our nation. But that is not what the corporate-funded mobs are engaging in when they show up to disrupt town halls held by members of Congress.

Major health care reform is closer than ever to passage and it is no secret that special interests want to weaken or block it. These mobs are not there to participate. As their own strategy memo states, they have been sent by their corporate and lobbyist bankrollers to disrupt, heckle and block meaningful debate. This is a desperation move, meant to slow the momentum for change.

Mob rule is not democracy. People have a democratic right to express themselves and our elected leaders have a right to hear from their constituents -- not organized thugs whose sole purpose is to shut down the conversation and attempt to scare our leaders into inaction

We call on the insurance companies, the lobbyists and the Republican leaders who are cheering them on to halt these 'Brooks Brothers Riot' tactics. Health care is a crucial issue and everyone - on all sides of the issue - deserves to be heard.

 

[Phil502]

yea right, the Patriots are the hooligans, fricken unbelievable, they are probably just trying to spook us. Lets see what happens next, I would hate to see riots but...if it's got to be then I guess thats the cost.

 

[CarmelHP]

Obama's brownshirts

 

[cosermann]

These are same folks who will show up to adjust your attitude after the labor laws are changed so that ballots on whether to go union or not are no longer secret.

 

[jtmarine1911]

As a Union worker this totally disgusts me!

 

[No Time to Shoot]

These are same folks who will show up to adjust your attitude after the labor laws are changed so that ballots on whether to go union or not are no longer secret.

Welcome to Chicago politics!

 

[CulpeperMM]

ST. LOUIS TOWN HALL MEETING - PEOPLE BARRED AS UNION MEMBERS ENTER
YouTube - ST. LOUIS TOWN HALL MEETING - PEOPLE BARRED AS UNION MEMBERS ENTER

 

[Scout]

As a Union worker this totally disgusts me!

+1.

 

[melensdad]

Why would union members want to lose their benefits in favor of the Obama Care benefits? I don't see the upside.

But it is clear from the wording in the original story that these are not supposed to be PUBLIC meetings. The original story clearly indicates these are DEMOCRATIC Town Hall meetings. Apparently the Democratic Party feels they are for their own use, not for the use of all the voters. WTF?

 

[No Time to Shoot]

As a Union worker this totally disgusts me!

It should but realize you are not apart of it and it is completely out of your control.

This is why I hate the unions they give good, honest, and hard working Americans a bad name with their corrupt strong arm politics! Then they take their hard earned money and fund this stuff! This is what your Union dues are paying for!

 

[jtmarine1911]

ST. LOUIS TOWN HALL MEETING - PEOPLE BARRED AS UNION MEMBERS ENTER
YouTube - ST. LOUIS TOWN HALL MEETING - PEOPLE BARRED AS UNION MEMBERS ENTER

Thanks for the vid Culpeper!

I am getting so sick of seeing them though, not because everybody is posting them or such, just the fact that this happening and being allowed to happen.

I have mixed feelings about attending one of these though, just because I know how I am. I want to voice my opinion and support my fellow Americans but my temper usually ends up taking control and generally has a negative outcome.

 

[jtmarine1911]

It should but realize you are not apart of it and it is completely out of your control.

This is why I hate the unions they give good, honest, and hard working Americans a bad name with their corrupt strong arm politics! Then they take their hard earned money and fund this stuff! This is what your Union dues are paying for!

I do feel a little better knowing that I am a member of a small union in which it's E-board are still decent common sense people for the most part. I don't believe that most of our small union would knowingly allow our E-board to support such trash either.

 

[paddling_man]

Hmmm... and the Union thread I posted in regarding my experience in St. Louis with IBEW and others: Including that the Union openly mandated whom the membership should vote for (ALWAYS Democrat) or they "weren't a good Union brother."

Seems a bit more real now, eh?

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/break_room/45225-are_you_a_union_member-4.html#post491556

Some good, lots bad. It was interesting watching older Union gentlemen whom I respected - anti-abortion, conservative, devout Catholics - trouble over feeling necessary to vote Democrat to support their Union base when they abhorred the bulk of the tenets of the Democratic party and found it contrary to their religion.

 

[jeremy]

I will state not all Unions are bad...
Most are though...

 

[hornadylnl]

Hmm, where's barber?

 

[KokomoDave]

As a unio member,you are allowed to dictate where your dues will go in terms of supporting whatever political party you want it to go to.They make it a pain in the arse to do but it CAN be done! I halted mine 19 years ago!

 

[BloodEclipse]

I really wonder if the 'rank and file' union members support Obama Care? I was talking to my UPS driver yesterday, he is TOTALLY OPPOSED to it (btw he brought the topic up).

I'm a union employee and I don't hide my conservative views.
I was told by another member yesterday that I shouldn't be working because I don't support the union.
I guess it is too easy for many to blindly follow others. I was not put together that way. I question everything and I support those things I believe in.
The thing is we (UAW rank and file) took many concessions and are in line to take many more. The sheep all claim that Obama saved our jobs. I can guarantee you if this was a Conservative president who presided over this, the sheep would all be complaining about what all we had to give up and it would have been that Presidents fault. They have ingrained in their minds that anything the Dems want is good for us and they don't understand how they are only being herded in the direction that is only best for the Dems.

 

[Uralguy]

I am a UAW employee and I catch a lot of crap from my Commie Brothers. Yes and I gag every time they start the Brother crap.
Being Skilled Trades is still the best job on the planet. Most of the people I work with are aware of the corruption in the Union but, don't see any other way to protect their jobs.
The Corporate raiders also need to be publicly flogged. Without the rampant greed on both sides, there would be very little to argue about. Only thing left would be the hiring of substandard relatives by both sides. There are several cushy jobs in both camps that are staffed by people that could not pour **** out of a boot.

 

[melensdad]

I'm a union employee and I don't hide my conservative views. . .

I am a UAW employee and I catch a lot of crap from my Commie Brothers. Yes and I gag every time they start the Brother crap. . .

My wife is a member of the NEA and the ISTA (teachers unions) and gets crap all the time from her liberal co-workers. She generally won't confront them, but occasionally will get into it. Blah blah blah don't use 'red ink' to grade papers because it will hurt the esteem of the kids who get "F" grades, give everyone a ribbon for participation even if their work is crap, let everyone on the team . . . REAL LIFE IS NOT LIKE THAT.

So now we have the liberal leadership of the unions telling their members to board buses and go to these TOWN HALL meetings to STOP freedom of expression. To ELIMINATE the opposing view point so that the 1st Amendment guaranteeing free speech is thwarted. The unions are telling their members to provide protection for the politicians who they support.

Why do union members want to give up their union health care program in exchange for the government program? The union leaderships want to drop their health plan and put their members on the government program. Why would the members agree to that?

 

[G McBride]

Well said "Uralguy".

I think that I saw a little of the Union viewpoint from a buddy of mine last night when we were discussing some of the things that are being made public about the health care reforms being proposed. Just the difference in how he talked about it led me to believe that he had been coached in a different direction than he took two weeks ago when we were out.

Everyone needs to do the research and form their own good opinions. Don't let the media, your bosses or the unions tell you what you should think. Don't take everything someone tells you to be the truth without questioning the source of the information.

It is truly a time that "We The People" need to sit up and take notice what the leadership is trying to do to our country.