 No, really. Anything. Anything at all.
Defending academic plagiarism? Check. Threatening dissenters? Yup. Tricking
its own members to keep them funnelling cash to the bosses? Yup, that too.
Maybe they twerk on Robin Thicke next? It worked wonders for Miley Cyrus’
celebrity.
Take Montana’s most powerful unionista, Eric Feaver, head of the MEA-MFT, a
teachers union with more than 17,000 members. When the New York Times last
month accused the state’s junior U.S. senator, Democrat John Walsh, of
plagiarizing large swaths of his 14-page masters thesis, Feaver defended the
lawmaker, knowing the Republican in the race would be less friendly to
organized labor’s interests.
“I’m going to plagiarize now a comment made to me yesterday, this is a
direct quote, ‘I’d rather be for a part-time plagiarist than a full-time
creationist,’” Feaver told Media Trackers Montana, jabbing at Republican
Senate candidate Steve Daines, the state’s lone congressman. Daines supports
the theory of creationism.
In a lengthy July 25 Facebook post, Feaver took shot after shot at Daines
while maintaining staunch support for Walsh. “When the bullets fly, I want
Senator John Walsh in my fox hole,” Feaver wrote.
Walsh eventually dropped out of the contest.
On a more violent note, union boss Michael Mulgrew threatened anyone who
might take Common Core, a controversial centralized education plan, away
from him and his colleagues.
Speaking at a labor convention in Los Angeles last month, Mulgrew,
apparently known for his raucous addresses, offered this perfectly tolerant
line: “If someone takes something from me, I’m going to grab it right back
out of their cold, twisted, sick hands and say it is mine! You do not take
what is mine!”
Additionally, Mulgrew promised a schoolyard bully approach to education
policy debates. “And I’m going to punch you in the face and push you in the
dirt because this is the teachers’!” he added.
Seems like someone any parent would want teaching their kids.
[to top of second column] |
Unionistas seems desperate for attention, much like
Lindsay Lohan or Miley Cyrus: Anything for the cause and the more
outrageous the better.
It makes sense, though. Americans increasingly want to kick labor
unions to the curb.
Polling data reveal some startling and inconvenient
facts for organized labor. About 28 percent of America’s unionized
workers wish they could leave their unions. That’s 4 million workers
and millions — if not billions — in annual revenue, if anyone’s
keeping score.
Another poll, conducted by National Employee Freedom Week, revealed
83 percent of Americans support worker freedom, or allowing workers
to decide when they leave their labor unions.
In 2010, Wisconsin stripped some state-employee labor unions of some
of their privileges, and two states — Indiana and Michigan —adopted
right-to-work laws in 2012.
Ouch.
Organized labor, though, doesn’t deal well with messy break-ups and
will resort to shenanigans to keep the dollars flowing.
A teachers union in Michigan, reeling from right-to-work’s passage
in a state long thought to be a stronghold for organized labor,
limited when educators could leave the ranks. Only during a narrow
window in August, planted firmly around the start of the school
year, could teachers opt out of union support.
The union threatened to send one teacher, who missed the opt-out
deadline, but still refused to send a dime to the group, to
collections for not paying the $1,000 annual dues bill.
[This
article courtesy of
Watchdog.]
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