Thursday, May 7, 2009

Obama's dilemma

Liberal billionaires don't like unions

Whether it's the Republicrat hedge-fund operators pushing their school privatization schemes or Chicago liberal billionaire campaign contributors who make giant profits from sub-minimum-wage, mainly immigrant workers, there are times when President Obama has to stand up and do the right thing regardless of what wealthy supporters want.

That's the dilemma he currently faces around the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. The latter group, including Penny Pritzker, Obama’s campaign finance chairwoman and a director of Global Hyatt Corp., along with hotel magnates Neil Bluhm and Lester Crown, are leveraging their clout to try and turn Obama against EFCA.

According to Bloomberg.com:

Workers at the Pritzkers’ Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California, initiated an organizing drive last year. Managers called meetings and told employees that joining a union could cost wages and benefits, said Rigoberto Gutierrez, 55, who has worked in room service there for 12 years. “They tried to scare us,” he said. “They told us we could lose everything.”
So far the president is standing firm behind the bill and the workers' right to organize.

1 comment:

  1. Why do people, even people with money, who oppose unions get to call themselves liberals? What could be more anti-liberal than opposing the right of working people to unionize?

    ReplyDelete

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