The People, United, Will Hit That Damn Pinata!
Unions aren't what they used to be
The People, United, Will Hit That Damn Pinata!
I’m sure Jimmy Hoffa is turning over in his grave (whichever stadium it’s under.)
That’s because the clearly-departed but legendary Teamsters leader wouldn’t quite lower himself to the shallow depths Donna DeWitt stooped to this past week.
Donna, or as she is known in adult circles, “De-Twit” decided that taking a whack at a Nikki Haley piñata was exactly the way to show how mature and serious union leaders/members are in this troubled economy. The video of her antics, which took place at an apparent going away party for the outgoing AFL-CIO president in South Carolina, went viral.
Yes, conservatives took full advantage of the moment, not only because they could have, but because they should have. The media has coddled unions for far too long, trying to smooth out the rough edges and make the worst of their members out to be noble representatives of the proletariat. Remember when they stormed the state house in Wisconsin, ready to burn Scott Walker in effigy?
But it’s been getting harder and harder to tolerate the antics when you hear about the increasingly-desperate and often violent acts perpetrated by garden-variety thugs.
We only have to look in our own backyard to see union intimidation at work. The Daily News recently ran a story about how the Pestronk brothers were being thwarted in their attempts to complete construction on a project because some ‘union boys’ didn’t like the fact that they were employing SCAB labor in addition to some union guys. In my book, SCAB stands for Someone (who) Cares About Business, which is quite different from Someone (who) Clamors About Benefits.
But even if you are a hardcore union supporter, like some of my own relatives, you have to agree that the conservative pundits got it right in calling out DeWitt, who showed herself to be classless, inarticulate and the stereotype of a female virago.
At least that’s one thing no one could ever call Hoffa.
@Soph- Name calling crowns your brilliant wit, once again...
If there was tape showing a picture of ANYONE else but a white man or conservative woman being beaten by a stick, every alphabet soup organization and throw in Jesse and Al if the picture warranted it, would be marching somewhere, pitchforks raised....
Can't you just leave politics out of it for a second and realize that classless is classless regardless of party.
PS. Kind of ironic that in your words Haley is a "rethuglican" but we have Ms. DeWitt swinging a stick at a pinata... What does that make her?— Wiseman6- Chris, I am dismayed anytime that union leaders stoop to childish pranks to make a point because they only give ammunition to the anti-union crowd.
You know I am a life-long member of the PFT. I participated in every teachers' strike the city ever had and that was decades ago when we were just beginning to organize.
Before the union, teachers could be fired at will; were paid peanuts; and had to teach overcrowded classrooms. (Compared the the 50 kids I taught in non-union parochial school, the 37 in public school seemed manageable)
But as far as I know, no picket line ever turned violent and it was only the anti-intellectual Rizzo who enjoyed arresting striking teachers and having them strip searched like common thieves.
What I mean is that we tried to conduct ourselves with as much dignity as possible.
— Magistra - Wiseman6 - well said.— Magistra
- The thuggish of those on the left before, during and after the tragedy in Tucson, AZ prove beyond per adventure that Obamaa+'s call for civility was both phony and hypocritical in the extreme.— Thoughtful&concernedvoter
- The "left" had nothing to do with it. Reported for hateful lies. — sophistry
- Meant to post "thuggish antics"— Thoughtful&concernedvoter
- TCV -I must have missed something. What "thuggish antics"?— Magistra
- I agree that hitting the pinata was stupid. But what is worse. Tea Party signs putting a Hitler mustache on the President, calling the President a Nazi, claiming he is not a citizen but one here to destroy the US, carring signs saying "Take Back America", etc. etc. Take back America from whom? African-Americans? Latinos, or anyone who doesn't look like them. Please, hitting a pinata is the least of our worries. I worry about the armed idiots who carried those signs and heaped venom on the office of the Presidency.— lport
Magistra, you paint a picture of yourself, dressed as a nun, marching in a union picket line, keying cars, shouting slurs, and demanding your rights. The piñata is waiting.
lport, didn't I see you in the Michigan union riots destroying public property or was that merely your liberal country men???— PlumberJoe- Hoffa wouldn't have taken a whack at a pinata, true. But he wasn't above using Frank Sheeran to whack people.— sadim
- BTW, even Ed Rendell thinks Obama and Axelrod are fools over their Booker remarks. I wonder what he thinks of De-Twit swinging away like Ryan Howard.— PlumberJoe
- Plumber, LOL, what an imagination you have!! Rod Serling could have used you to do a Twilight Zone script.
— Magistra - Look, the history of labor unions is filled with conflicts and even violence (some of it from the government and law enforcement). But the right of workers to organize to protect themselves from exploitation has been long established.
Chris, you can ask your pro-union relatives to verify everything I am saying.
But in recent history, the labor movement is weakening, as more and more illegal workers enter the workforce and take jobs away from union labor. Yes, it happens a lot on construction sites where safety laws for non-union workers are not always enforced.
I could tell you horror stories all day long about the kind of bus rides my little girl had to take with sub-contracted bus drivers which the school district hired instead of their regular union drivers to save money. They were in at least 2 accidents and one temporary driver got so lost taking her home that she was the last one off the bus at 7:00 PM.
Unions serve a serious purpose. Silly pranks do not help that seriousness.— Magistra - Ah yes, the height of maturity and grace, calling someone else, "De-Twit." O, but you play the game of saying "as she is known in adult circles," thereby absolving yourself of the childish name calling.— Ed G
- @iport- Uh, take back America from those drunken fools in Washington DC that spend money that we can't afford to buy YOUR vote. It had NOTHING to do with people that "didn't look like you" for the vast majority of people. There will be a few idiots in every crowd be it right or left.
Did anyone ever find proof that the n-word was shouted at that member of Congress? There are far more things to be worried about at an OWS sit-in than there ever was at a Tea Party rally. How about those lovely folks at Code Pink?
The right may have its issues, but in any category, the left has it beat when it comes to disobedience and destruction in terms of their protests.— Wiseman6
Email Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com Reach Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com.
