A SNEAK PEEK ON WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE AFL-CIO CONVENTION

In ten days' time, the AFL-CIO's bigwigs (the neo-union bosses of today) will be swarming Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to attend what will be billed as their most important convention in a generation.

As with any union convention there will be the usualy demonization of "corporate greed," "union-busting," and need for "leveling the playing field." There will be much cheers when talking about the working class and more jeers when it comes to anything other than the working class. The rhetoric will be laced with Marxist appeals, without specifically calling it Marxist.

Much fanfare will be heaped on outgoing AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney (and DSA member) and incoming boss Richard Trumka. The neo-union bosses, posing as champions of the underclass, will be crowing about their new-found takeover of the Washington official appartchik.

There will likely be some astro-turfing rally or other event for union leaders to go out and hold a press conference in front of.

There will be much fiery rhetoric from all micro-phonies, but none more so than from Trumka.

So, to give you an advance sneak peek inside the halls and to break it all down for you, here's what you will (and, more importantly, will not) see in the news:

What you WILL hear about the AFL-CIO's new leader:

• Richard Trumka will be confirmed as the new president of the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO's PR hacks will claim he was "elected."

What you will NOT hear:

• Trumka is running unopposed and lobbied hard to garner endorsements from union bosses who were not so enamored with him.

What you WILL hear about outgoing AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney:

• Accolade upon accolade heaped upon outgoing AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney

What you will NOT hear:

• Under John Sweeney's reign, due to infighting, the AFL-CIO lost approximately 40% of its membership due to a nasty break-up in 2005;


• Under John Sweeney's reign, unions have continued an overall decline as a percentage of the workforce due to unionized companies closing and outsourcing unionized jobs;


• Under John Sweeney's reign, the AFL-CIO has moved toward a total embrace of the tenets of socialism.

What you WILL hear from the AFL-CIO's Organizer-in-Chief:

• President Barack Obama (scheduled to speak on September 15th) will be speaking to convention delegates on Sept 15th and will:


• Reconfirm his commitment and devotion to unions


• Reconfirm the "principle" of the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act and will state that he will sign it if it reaches his desk


• Challenge delegates not to give up fighting for Universal Health Coverage (aka socialized medicine)


• Pledge to help advance the cause of "social justice" through immigration reform (amnesty)


• Heap more blame on the Bush Administration, the GOP, and "Wall Street" for all that has befallen America in the last thirty years

What you will NOT hear from the Organizer-in-Chief:

• Unions have spent an estimated $1.4 billion of their members' money in 2006 and 2008 to become the de facto Labor Party in the United States


• Obama's poll numbers are tanking due to Americans getting over the Obama hype and realizing that America is facing a $9 TRILLION debt


• The $787 billion (so-called) "stimulus package" has not saved or created jobs and, in fact, may have made it worse


• That terrorists are now being treated like common criminals


• Amnesty ("immigration reform") will ensure another 11 million + voters for Democrats


• The Employee Free Choice Act is a bad bill that will destroy jobs, BUT it will ensure Democrat majorities for the next 40 years

The above is just a synopsis of what you will hear and not hear coming out of the AFL-CIO's convention, but stay tuned.

We'll be updating you as the convention commences. Be sure to stay tuned to LaborUnionReport.com for the latest.

"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Trumka, the next boss of union bosses, talks...

An interesting interview with the next AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka is appearing in The Nation.

What is particularly interesting about the interview is not the typical pro-union pablum that Trumka puts out (no different than his soon-to-be predecessor John Sweeney), but his outright shot at the Service Employees International Union.

"The raiding stuff is a zero-sum game," he says, singling out the Service Employees actions against UNITE HERE as a "particularly outrageous example."

But raiding is just one manifestation of the perpetually thorny problem of deciding which union has the primary right to organize a particular workplace or industry. Trumka thinks unions will be able to resolve those jurisdictional disputes as the Employee Free Choice Act opens up organizing, especially if rank-and-file workers play a bigger role. "Those [jurisdictional] problems don't bubble up but come from top down," he argues.

This would apear to be an indirect shot at SEIU president Andy Stern who seems to on the top of the union boss' enemy list (after George Bush and Dick Cheney, of course). [View list of Stern's detractors here, and what they say here.]

Trumka is also confident that the delusionally dubbed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will get passed:

"[W]e'll get an act that will give us everything we need. I think it will have dispute resolution in it. It will allow us to have a union without being threatened, intimidated or fired."

And, like the Teamsters putting together an army of 1,000 organizers in expectation of EFCA, Trumka plans on calling on all AFL-CIO unions to have an army of 1,000 organizers as well.

But Trumka has one ambitious new proposal: asking unions to provide a reserve army of 1,000 or more organizers who could be sent to help other unions in strategic campaigns or to fight inter-union raiding.

While Trumka differs little from what other union bosses say, he is a fiery orator, so we shall see if he is truly different from every other union boss today.

The one thing that was not apparently discussed in the interview was his invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination some years ago--something that was against the rules of his own federation.

The AFL-CIO had a policy that said taking the Fifth Amendment was grounds for removal from office. Sweeney said at the time that a 1957 federation resolution said the policy should apply only to those who invoked the right in order to cover up wrongdoing.

To read the entire article in the Nation, go here.