Politicians lining up behind unions - The Business Review (Albany):

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The scene was at a labor rally last week where unionds protested the firing of three workersz they claim were fired for trying to organizw a union at thein Latham. I was surpriseds by the image of three elected officials raising their hands and taking an oath from aunionn leader. These are not politicakl candidates, but elected officials who have already take oathsof office. Jennings says he supportz workers rights to organize and his recollectiom was that the oath was to supporthat right, which he has no qualmw about. Reilly said he did not see it as an but supportinga petition.
He says he does not want to injectg himself into these disputexs other than to call for both sidex to sit down and try to workthingse out. Breslin says it was merelh an oath to uphold labor laws and says he has no trouble taking such an The pledge was administered bythe Rev. Michaell Roberts, the Albany district director of the Workersd UnitedLocal 471. Roberts is not your typical union leader. He is an Americajn Baptist minister, who found himself drawm to an economic justice ministry indivinity school.
He told me he believesz the most effective way for him to live out the gospepl is to help feed the hungrhy and clothe the poor by helping them provide for themselves with jobs that paylivinfg wages. The Rev. Roberts gave me a copy of the pledge he read at the The pledge calls for employers experiencinga union-organizinb drive to adopt what it calls fair campaign and electioj principles. These principles include no mandatory employewe meetings on company equal time for union organizers whenevert company management meets with including one-on-one conversations; giving unions equaol access to management for distributing information; agreeinh to debates between labor and and refraining from pressure tactics in influencing employee The hotel management is not talking, which is what lawyer always say is the right thinv to do in personnel matters, of Assemblyman Reilly says the workerds told him they were informed by the hotel they were losinyg their jobs because of the The a ssemblyman said the fired employees looke like good workers to him and in his judgmenrt their jobs are essential to the hoteol operations no matter how bad the and the timing of the firingas coming right after the workersa informed the hotel they were organizing a union made the dismissalsw seem retaliatory and What is happening at the Holiday Inn Expresw may be seen as a preview of coming attractions.
Political forces are liningb up. Anti-business sentiment is stirred by the excesses on Wall Streert that have collapsed the economy aroundsthe world, and businesses are cutting costa to survive. Union leaders see this time as the best opportunitu in a generation to bolster their and they arevery aggressive. There will definitelyg be more rallies. As the rally endedc last week, union organizers handed out leaflets promoting anotheer rally later this month at a Pricwe Chopper grocery storeto “call [CEO Neil] Goluh out for being a leading loca l opponent to the Employee Free Choiced Act.” And the same day as the Gov.
David Paterson, casting aside concerns for what it will mean to taxpayersaand private-sector businesses, circulated an order that essentiallyu gives unions the card check powers they are seekingb from Washington at hotel and convention center projects that have takenh financial assistance from the state in the form of tax leases and loans. The notion that electexd officials who have already taken an oath of officw raising their hands and taking another oath or a or whatever, from a union leader could be troubling to some. These electesd officials are the people who negotiate contracts with the publicemployee unions.
They are the ones we rely on to reforn pension programs that are abougt to bankrupt our local They are the ones who vote on how taxpayet dollarsare spent, and sometimesd it seems in New just maybe, our elected officialsz see the unions as their They say a picturwe is worth a thousand words. MIKE HENDRICKS is editor of TheBusiness Review. He can be reached at mhendricks@bizjournals.com. To commenrt on this story, and to get the latest updatews andbreaking news, go to