'OOPS' Citing Obamacare, 40,000 Longshoremen Quit the AFL-CIO

[Wehrwolfen]

by Warner Todd Huston
2 Sep 2013


In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two important causes of their disaffiliation.

In an August 29 letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, ILWU President Robert McEllrath cited quite a list of grievances as reasons for the disillusion of their affiliation, but prominent among them was the AFL-CIO's support of Obamare.

"We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along," McEllrath wrote in the letter to Trumka.

[video]http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=90085&sitesection=breitbart&VID=25108107[/video]​

[Excerpt]

Read more:
Citing Obamacare, 40,000 Longshoremen Quit the AFL-CIO

The price for support Obama and ObamaCare. Just how many more union divisions will break off?

 

[Bob N]

by Warner Todd Huston
2 Sep 2013


In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two important causes of their disaffiliation.

In an August 29 letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, ILWU President Robert McEllrath cited quite a list of grievances as reasons for the disillusion of their affiliation, but prominent among them was the AFL-CIO's support of Obamare.

"We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along," McEllrath wrote in the letter to Trumka.

[video]http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=90085&sitesection=breitbart&VID=25108107[/video]​

[Excerpt]

Read more:
Citing Obamacare, 40,000 Longshoremen Quit the AFL-CIO

The price for support Obama and ObamaCare. Just how many more union divisions will break off?

11.3% of the work force doesn't like seeing me get health care. Wow! I'm shook up. Just one reason unions are failing anymore. :shrug:

 

[Simon W. Moon]

11.3% of the work force doesn't like seeing me get health care. Wow! I'm shook up. Just one reason unions are failing anymore. :shrug:

If you read the letter, it doesn't seem like that at all.
ILWU Disaffiliation 8-29-2013

They say that they're upset that the AFL-CIO was "[too] moderate and overly compromising" on healthcare.
They also mention that they had previously been kicked out of the CIO for being "too red".

I wonder what Wehrwolfen thinks the letter is about.

 

[Wehrwolfen]

If you read the letter, it doesn't seem like that at all.
ILWU Disaffiliation 8-29-2013

They say that they're upset that the AFL-CIO was "[too] moderate and overly compromising" on healthcare.
They also mention that they had previously been kicked out of the CIO for being "too red".

I wonder what Wehrwolfen thinks the letter is about.

"We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along," McEllrath wrote in the letter to Trumka.

The ILWU President made it clear they are for a single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy and are upset with the AFL-CIO for going along with Obama on the confiscatory tax on their "Cadillac" healthcare plan.

The Longshoreman leader said, "President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits." But, regardless of that promise, the President has pushed for just such a tax and Trumka and the AFL-CIO bowed to political pressure lining up behind Obama's tax on those plans.

It's not the first time unions have split off. If I remember correctly there was a schism between the AFL and the CIO for years until they kissed and made up.

 

[CRUE CAB]

11.3% of the work force doesn't like seeing me get health care. Wow! I'm shook up. Just one reason unions are failing anymore. :shrug:

Why do you not have health care already?