Sarah Palin wasted no time in taking this thug on, with a hard hitting statement. As a strong supporter of hard working men and women everywhere, and a former union member herself, Sarah also called on the rank and file to “take a stand for freedom and independence and dignity.”
Powerful words from a powerful lady:
Union Brothers and Sisters, Join Our Commonsense Cause!
Two years ago almost to the day, I was thrilled to meet with union members at the Alaska AFL-CIO Convention in Anchorage to sign important job-creation legislation related to the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. As a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former IBEW and later USW member, it was a great moment for all of us. Our Alaska union brothers and sisters helped build our state!
Many of them risked their lives to complete our infrastructure, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline that stretches over treacherous mountain ranges from the North Slope oil fields to Valdez. By signing that job-creation bill surrounded by union members, I was paying tribute to them and acknowledging that they would be valued partners in the construction of Alaska’s long awaited natural gas pipeline. I was honored that day to receive a standing ovation from them for signing a bill that provided a Project Labor Agreement to bring good jobs to these good men and women.
Today, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka came to Alaska (on a trip paid for with union dues) to preach the usual Beltway nonsense. There was a bit of the politics of personal destruction thrown around, and he mixed it in with the same old big government agenda that has been rejected in union halls, town halls, and voting booths all over our country.
I’m not sure why he’s attacking my record when I’m not the one responsible for the policies resulting in continued mass unemployment and a weak economy (that would be the man in the large white house on Pennsylvania Avenue). Among my “crimes,” the union boss cited the fact that I sometimes write notes on my hand (guilty as charged!); that I appear on cable television every once in a while to comment on the news (it’s called the First Amendment, Rich); and that my commonsense conservatism makes him laugh. Well, I guess that’s better than the failed leftwing big government policies of “his friend” Barack Obama, which makes the rest of us cry.
Trumka’s even worried I’m going to get violent against him. It’s kind of ironic that a union boss has the gall to accuse anyone of threatening violence. After all, we remember the violent attempts by SEIU to intimidate those who wanted to make their voices heard in last year’s town halls. And unlike Trumka, I never threatened that any effort to break a picket line would lead to violence. Come to think of it, neither did I ever hide behind the Fifth Amendment during a federal investigation about union corruption. Then again, I was just an ordinary, card-carrying union member, not one of the big shots who ended up, unfortunately, giving unions a bad name.
Trumka’s attempts to put himself on the side of the working man and woman would be more convincing if he weren’t a career union boss who’s spent most of his life in DC. No surprise then that his priorities aren’t the priorities of the average working man or woman, but of the Beltway power player. My fellow union brothers and sisters have had their union dues squandered for far too long by a few of the union bosses who work for partisan politics and not the good blue collar Americans who have to fund their cushy salaries.
Trumka purposely misquoted something I said in a speech I gave in Texas a few months ago. Let me clarify things for him: I never called union members “thugs.” You lie. I called some union leaders “thugs.” And I refuse to apologize for that because they have acted like thugs – at least in this day and age.
In the past there were many great union leaders who courageously defended the rights of workers. Unions were founded for all the right reasons! They were to give working men and women the clout to negotiate fairly with their employers and to fight for decent pay and working conditions. The unions of old would often end up fighting big government on behalf of the little guy.
Today’s unions seem to be big government’s most enthusiastic supporters. It’s turned into some nonsense when union bosses back the government takeover of the car industry, and the mortgage industry, and the entire health care sector. And with the help of big government they aim to push through card check legislation that some characterize as being unfair to workers, and even un-American, because of its insistence on stripping workers of their right to privacy with a secret ballot. And that’s not just me voicing concern over card check – ask current union members how comfortable they are with what some of their leaders are saying about the legislation.
To my hardworking, patriotic brothers and sisters in the labor movement: you don’t have to put up with the scare tactics and the big government agenda of the union bosses. There is a different home for you: the commonsense conservative movement. It cares about the same things you and I care about: a government that doesn’t spend beyond its means, an economy focused on creating good jobs with good wages, and a leadership that is proud of America’s achievements and doesn’t go around apologizing to everyone for who we are.
This November, you have a choice. You can go with the flow and merely pull the lever the way they tell you to. Or you can join millions of others, and take a stand for freedom and independence and dignity, while still being part of a greater working community.
Join us. I promise you, you won’t regret it, and Americans who want good jobs for our families will be better off for it!
- Sarah Palin
When are these Marxist-democrats going to learn?
I believe a man would have better luck fighting a buzz-saw than going after Sarah Palin when she’s riled up. This union thug, Richard Trumka has stepped in it big time.
We say this more and more every day, but there is a reason why we strongly support Sarah Palin. She doesn’t take nothin’ from nobody. Other so-called leaders in the Republican are too timid. They allow, no .... they ENABLE the Marxist-progressives as they destroy our nation. When attacked they run. Sarah Palin doesn’t flinch.
Sarah Palin has the heart of a lion, and the fight of a grizzly bear. She is one of our nation’s great leaders.
Organized labor has turned into organized crime, run by violent, corrupt men who shake down employers, and exploit the worker, all for their personal gain.
Public approval of labor unions is near the all time record low. Heavy handed thuggery doesn’t help their cause one bit.
Sarah Palin is a lifelong reformer. I suspect reforming organized labor just got moved up towards the top of her list of things to do when she takes Office as President in 2013.Workers, employers, and the nation will be better for it.
Remember you useless, corrupt, union thug leaders, when your members throw you out on your asses, you have Richard Trumka to thank. He’s the one who pulled Mama Grizzly’s tail.
Union corruption and violence is nothing new. Been with us from the very start. We’ve written about it ourselves, covering such events as Barack Obama’s personal union thugs from the SEIU attacking Kenneth Gladney at a 2009 townhall meeting in St Louis, and the attacks in California.
In St Louis Gladney, a black man, was attacked by a horde of Obama’s purple shirted SEIU storm troopers who beat the man unconscious, stomping him all the while calling him a n*gg*r.
Labor unions are nothing more than organized crime, havens for Marxists-progressives (communists) and anti-American types. Their entire purpose is to shake down employers and members in order to enrich and empower the leadership.
And shill for the Marxist-democrat party, of course.
Anyhow, this thug leader, Richard Trumka, one of Barack Obama’s top labor advisers, decided to take a swing at Sarah Palin. As expected, he did this by spewing hate, lies, and suggesting violence. He’s a thug, it’s what they do.
Part of what this thug had to say:
And down in Tyler, Texas, she’s talking about — and I quote — 'union thugs.' What? Her husband’s a union man. Is she calling him a thug? Sarah Palin ought to know what union men and women are...
That’s poisonous. There’s history behind that rhetoric. That’s how bosses and politicians in decades past justified the terrorizing of workers, the murdering of organizers.....She’s using crosshairs to illustrate targeted legislators.
She’s on the wrong side of the line there. She’s getting close to calling for violence. And some of her fans take that stuff seriously. We’ve got legislators in America who have been living with death threats since the health care votes.
Obviously, this guy is a liar. We all know better than what this idiot is spouting. It’s funny, for all of the supposed "violence" from patriots like Sarah, and the Tea Party, it always turns out to be some left wing freak that is behind it all.
The latest example of this involves the firebombing of Congressman Russ Carnahan’s office. The media was quick to blame the Tea Party and conservatives in general. Turns out the culprit (allegedly) was Chris Powers who worked for Carnahan as a paid staffer. It seems that Carnahan stiffed the guy, owed him money. In typical loving, understanding far left fashion, Powers thought it best to firebomb the Congressman’s office as the best way to get paid his due.
Of course, when you side is led by people like street thug ... er ... "community organizer" Barack Obama, murdering terrorist Bill Ayers, and this major league thug Richard Trumka, what are you gonna do?
Speaking of Trumka, YID with LID has compiled a nice little compilation of his "greatest hits." And by "hits" I mean that in the "Goodfellows" sort of way!
* UMWA President Richard Trumka…urged union members to…‘kick the (expletive) out of every last one of ‘em.’ ("Sabotage Attempt Foiled at Peabody Coal Beltline." Nashville News [Nashville, IL] 8 Sept. 1993)
* "You’d have to be very naVve to believe that if management brought in scabs, there won’t be something somewhere."(Sands, David R. "Striking miners: Big Coal not serious." Washington Times 3 Sept. 1993)
* "I’m saying if you strike a match and you put your finger in it, you’re likely to get burned. That doesn’t mean I’m threatening to burn you. That just means if you strike the match, and you put your finger in it, common sense will tell you it’ll burn your finger."( McClain, John D. "Violence possible UMW chief says." Virginian-Pilot [Hampton Roads, VA] 3 Sept.1993)
Mr. Trumka can't be accused of being "all talk." With the help of his fellow union thugs his words were translated into violent action.
* 1993 UMW strike against Peabody Coal -- Eddie York, a 39 year old nonunion worker, "was shot in the back of the head and killed" leaving a job in Logan County, West Virginia. "Guards told police the truck careened across the road and went into a ditch. When guards rushed over to check on York, they continued to be pelted with rocks, guards told police."(Sanders, Pat. "Trumka calls for peace as probe continues." Charleston Daily Mail 24 July 1993)
* In a detailed account of the York murder and subsequent investigation, Reader’s Digest noted that "UMW President Richard Trumka did not publicly discipline or reprimand a single striker present when York was killed. In fact, all eight were helped out financially by the local." Eventually, the union agreed to let the company "dismiss the eight original defendants if they were convicted," but when the company "issued letters of dismissal to the seven pickets who pleaded guilty," the union filed a grievance on their behalf.(Fitzgerald, Randy. "Murder in Logan County." Reader's Digest Feb. 1995)
You know what other democrat organization used to shelter their violent members if they had trouble with the law?
The Klan.
Take a peak at this short film discussing the York murder:
The Lid continues:
* 1985 UMW strike against A.T. Massey Coal -- "At the Sprouse Creek Processing Co., Buddy McCoy was a union man who crossed the picket line to become a foreman. ‘I had a family to care for,’ says McCoy, who received a three-stitch gash in the head from marauding strikers after his defection." (Trippett, Frank. "Violence in the Coalfields." Time. 21 June 2005)
* 1989 UMW strike against Pittston Coal -- Virginia Circuit Court JudgeDonald McGlothlin Jr. declared that "the evidence shows beyond any shadow of a doubt that violent activities are being organized, orchestrated and encouraged by the leadership of this union." (Feder, Don. "Senate takes a walk on issue of labor unrest." Boston Herald 29 Apr. 1990)
* Unanimous Virginia Supreme Court reinforced Judge McGlothlin’s findings: "Union officials took active roles in these unlawful activities. Notwithstanding the large fines, the Union never represented to the court that it regretted or intended to cease its lawless actions. To the contrary, the utter defiance of the rule of law continued unabated." (Miller, Steven. "Louts and Rat World." Nevada Journal July 1990)
Even after he left the Union to go to the AFL-CIO, Trumka incited violence in the UMWA
* When Trumka and UMWA President Cecil Roberts came to Bentleyville, Pennsylvania in April 1998, fifty rank-and-file union members gathered outside the hall where they spoke to protest their leaders' policies. "Within minutes," wrote leftwing journalist Paul Scherrer, "a group of UMWA officials and their supporters attacked the protesting miners, ripping leaflets and protest signs from their hands. Several miners were punched, knocked to the ground and kicked repeatedly. [Richard] Cicci was hit with a piece of lumber and suffered a large gash on his head." "Richard Trumka," reported Scherrer, "refused to answer questions about the assault." In other words, by his silence he gave tacit assent to such violence.
Before he brands other people as using incendiary language AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka should look at his own house, because he is a union thug of the worst kind. Sarah Palin has never told people to harm others. On the other hand, as UMWA President Richard Trumka, used rhetoric that not only seemed to be calling for violence, but excused it after it happened.
David Horowitz’s Discover The Networks, a website every American should have bookmarked as a ready reference of all left-wingers, has an incredible amount of information on Trumka, including this about a money laundering scheme that involved some of the most prominent Marxist-democrats in America:
One condition of the AFL-CIO merger of 1955 was that outright Communists be purged from CIO unions. The AFL-CIO in 1957 instituted a rule that required any union official invoking his Fifth Amendment right (to avoid incriminating himself before a congressional committee) to be removed from his position. But when Richard Trumka twice invoked his Fifth Amendment right in a case involving a corruption and money-laundering scandal during the late 1990s, the response by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was to purge the rule instead of the rule-breaker Trumka.
This case involved the Teamsters Union, whose President Ron Carey faced likely defeat in his 1996 run for re-election. According to congressional testimony, Carey agreed to raise $1 million for the Democratic National Committee if $100,000 could be provided to him immediately to finance his re-election campaign. In this shell game, as witnesses explained it, the Teamsters Union paid $150,000 to the AFL-CIO, the same amount which its Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka immediately thereafter gave from AFL-CIO accounts to the leftwing political group Citizen Action, which within days provided $100,000 to the Carey campaign.
Among those named by witnesses and investigators as involved in this scheme to illegally fund and influence a union election were Richard Trumka, Ron Carey, Andrew Stern, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, Bill Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes, and Clinton-Gore fundraiser Terry McAuliffe.
We certainly recognize the names above. McAuliffe is the former Chairman of the Democrat National Committee, and headed Bill Clinton’s multimillion-dollar legal defense fund during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Andy Stern, a communist, who just stepped down as the head of the SEIU, is also one of Obama’s BFF’s, and has visited the White House more than any single person since the Obama regime has been in power.
Obama, and really the Marxist-democrat party as a whole, is very comfortable hanging with organized crime.
For more on Trumka and his lengthy career as a union thug leader, visit Discover The Networkshere.
Honestly, Im not sure what gets me going more, the fact this thug had the gall to trash talk Sarah Palin with a bunch of lies, or the fact this loser is one of Barack Obama’s top advisers. I mean this guy has some serious nerve to call someone out, falsely accuse them of instigating violence, when they themselves are nothing more Than violent, murderous criminals themselves.
Violent thugs like AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka are why I support, and encourage all Americans to support, the National Right To Work Law.
Living in Texas, a Right To Work State, I can tell you it is a major reason why our economy is the nation’s strongest, and has been for years. Unions destroy every industry the dominate. That’s just the facts.In Right To Work States, they have little influence, or power.
I have no problem with workers that want to organize for their benefit. That should always be their right. By the same token though, no worker should ever be forced to pay a third party just for the privilege of employment. This is no better than paying the local mafioso "tribute" for the right to exist.
Unions provide absolutely no service to workers. They only exist to enrich their leadership, and gain power, by using union dues to fund Marxist-democrat candidates and far left causes.
Sarah Palin is a big girl, she’ll handle this thug like she handles the others who dare tangle with her, but what does it say about our nation that we allow such a violent man to be a close adviser to the President of the United States?
