Union Boycotts and the Law (RE: Social Protectionism

Tom Lehman uswa12 at Lorainccc.edu
Fri Mar 17 05:30:13 PST 2000


Ted--It's just a matter of how much more suckin-up the rank and file in the various unions will tolerate.

I helped orchestrate our local endorsement of Al Gore by our county Democrats/ AFL-CIO. We got Gore endorsed by a margin of 86 to 23 organizational representatives voting in the selection process for convention delegates. This was even a more serious engineered victory for Gore because the bigger organizations representatives were all on the Gore side of the room!

Do I feel good about doing this? Only if Gore takes our positions and runs with them!

I got a really cryptic letter from Gore a couple of weeks ago on US/China policy, he actually may have signed it, indicating to me that he is weighing US/China policy.

You can take an alcoholic to an AA meeting, that doesn't mean he's going to stop drinking.

Tom

Dace wrote:


> >I guarantee you, that for every staff person in the whole AFL-CIO and its
> >affiliated unions working on international labor law issues, there are one
> >hundred staff people working at the federal and state levels around
> domestic
> >issues.
> >-- Nathan Newman
> >
> >
> Nevertheless, the AFL-CIO is advocating social protections for the South
> that will not bind employers in the US. Sweeney should insist that any
> regulations that apply abroad should apply equally here at home. But
> Clinton will not tolerate that. Sweeney wants to be a player, a deal-maker,
> even if that means acquiescing to further liberalization. What he's looking
> for is a prestige-enhancing "victory." He wants that photo-op where he's up
> there shaking the president's hand. That's why he endorsed Gore. You've
> got to suck up to the big boys if you expect them to lend you a helping hand
> down the road.
>
> Ted



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