May 4, 2012

AFL-CIO: Don't Fund Partisan Org's w/Taxpayer $'s!

Marc Comtois

As Bob Plain reports:

Writing on behalf of the 80,000 members of the AFL-CIO, union leaders George Nee and Maureen Martin sent a letter to every member of the legislature asking that ALEC memberships not be funded with taxpayer money.

“If the views and priorities of ALEC align with your personal beliefs, then by all means remain a member,” they wrote in the letter. “We only ask that the Rhode Island taxpayer not be responsible for paying your membership dues to a right-wing, business backed lobbying group, just as no one would ask the taxpayer to be responsible for paying any members dues to liberal organizations such as Ocean State Action, Emily’s List, or MoveOn.org.”

No word on how the AFL-CIO feels about compulsory dues being paid to their organization by unionized public employees whose salaries are funded by taxpayer dollars. I guess that one-degree of "separation" is enough. Or something.

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Allowing workers the right to choose whether they are represented by the union might result in workers making the "wrong" choice. The AFL-CIO can't have that - for the good of the workers, of course. $100-300k salaries for all of their leadership - also for the good of the workers, they will tell you. Some are more equal than others...

Posted by: Dan at May 4, 2012 12:23 PM

It's all about money, with the right-wing nuts. ALEX's Corporate sponsors have been drooping like flies.
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, MacDonald's, Kraft Foods and Proctor & Gamble and many. many, more are distancing themselves from the "Stand Your Ground" vigilante gun-nut group. Under presure
ALEC then announces that they are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task forces,

Just as the undisputed leader of the American Conservative movement Limbaugh "apologized" to Sandra Fluke (after 3 days of constant insults and lies about her. Only because he was loosing a boat load of sponsors,

Just to refresh your memories Limbaugh called the young lady a slut and a prostitute, he said she should be forced to video tape her sex and post it on the internet, and Rush lied when he said she wants us to pay for her birth control, (she never said anything like that)

Posted by: Sammy in Arizona at May 4, 2012 5:05 PM

Don't muddy the waters with distractionary remarks. Bottom line, Nee's shamelessness and intellectual dishonesty never fails to stun me.
Their funding base is taxpayer dollars- btw, without the private sector's tax revenue where would they be?
Let's talk about transparency and Ocean State Action.. I'd like a complete breakdown of the salary and source of money for the compensation.
Ah, choice via the teachers' freedom of choice bill, nope, no support there from AFL-CIO's Nee.

Posted by: Lee at May 4, 2012 9:41 PM

Sammy the Democratic Troll - Recycling Limbaugh talking points now? Have you really run through your list of targets already?

Posted by: Dan at May 5, 2012 12:31 AM

Maybe if Sammy and his moonbat friends would stop listening to the quacks Limbaugh and Depetro they could finally put them out of business. Just a thought.

Posted by: Max D at May 5, 2012 8:49 AM

Good reporting by Bob Plain. I found that both my state senator and house rep have taken taxpayer money to belong to this group. Bob writes,

"Memberships to such organizations are approved by the powerful Joint Committee on Legislative Services – made up of House Speaker Gordon Fox, Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, House Majority Leader Nicholas Mattiello, House Minority Leader Brian Newbury and Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere."

Nice company you conservatives keep. Marc knows or at least I hope he knows the difference between workers paying dues to their union for representation and elected lawmakers having the public paying their dues to organizations like the National Conference of State Legislators. The question should be is ALEC like NCSL or more like MoveOn.org. Try to not let your hatred of unions influence your answer.

Posted by: Phil at May 5, 2012 8:51 AM

Public employee unions equals the death of fiscal solvency.

Posted by: Tommy Cranston at May 5, 2012 3:12 PM
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