‘People Have a Right to Make Their Own Choice’
Avelo employee Kim Howard believes all the firm’s flight attendants should get to vote on continued AFA rule. Credit: WTNH-TV (ABC,…
Sacrificing Hotel Workers on a Political Altar
As Members Lost Jobs, UNITE HERE Kingpins Targeted Donald Trump
For forced-dues-paying, rank-and-file members of the UNITE HERE union, which in 2019 wielded monopoly-bargaining power over roughly 308,000 hotel, casino, and other hospitality employees, 2020 was a horrific year.
After state politicians across the country imposed unprecedented lockdowns because of the COVID-19 virus early last year, 98% of UNITE HERE members were standing in unemployment lines, according to the union hierarchy’s own admission.
Before the end of last year, many hospitality-industry jobs had returned, as elected officials in a number of states like Right to Work Florida lifted COVID-19 restrictions once they realized they could safely do so.
Meanwhile, unfortunately, virtually all members of large UNITE HERE subsidiaries like Los Angeles-based Local 11 were never able to return to their normal jobs in 2020.
And UNITE HERE union bosses did little to help unionized hotel and casino employees get back to work.
Instead, they jumped upon mass unemployment among their rank-and-file as an opportunity to acquire hundreds and hundreds of additional low-cost foot soldiers for an electioneering campaign geared at helping pro-forced-unionism politician Joe Biden win key swing states and the White House in 2020!
Big Labor’s $2 Billion Canceled Out Worker Votes
National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matthew Leen commented:
“The political exploitation of out-of-work hospitality employees by UNITE HERE union bigwigs was just part of a $2 billion Big Labor campaign, fueled largely by dues unionized workers are forced to fork over as a job condition, to take over Washington, D.C., and as many state capitals as possible.
“Top union bosses from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on down boast that, were it not for the forced-dues-funded union political machine, Joe Biden would not be in the White House right now. They never tire of talking about their role in making Mr. Biden America’s 46th President.
“What Mr. Trumka et al. don’t like to acknowledge is that millions of unionized workers personally supported pro-Right to Work President Donald Trump, and many of them are extremely unhappy about the fact that their money was used to swing the election to Joe Biden rather than benefit them in any way.
“Indeed, exit polls showed that majorities of union household members in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio who cast ballots in the 2020 presidential race voted to reelect Mr. Trump!”
‘More Than 300’ of UNITE HERE’s Arizona Canvassers ‘Came in From the LA Area’
By the summer of 2020, ample scientific evidence was already available showing that the business lockdowns were not necessary or warranted to protect the health of employees or customers.
Had UNITE HERE union bosses cared much about the economic well-being of their employees, they would have focused like a laser beam on getting their members safely back on the job.
Instead, they deployed, in the words of UNITE HERE International President D. Taylor, “1,700 out-of-work housekeepers, cooks, servers, and other hospitality and food service workers” as low-paid political door knockers in four presidential battleground states.
“Undoubtedly, many if not most of these ‘canvassers’ would have preferred to be doing their regular jobs in air-conditioned hotels and casinos, earning tips as well as their regular wages, instead of going door-to-door to cajole ‘low-propensity’ voters in places like Phoenix last summer,” observed Mr. Leen.
“But that would have done nothing to burnish D. Taylor’s status as a political kingmaker!
“And Big Labor bosses’ extensive monopoly privileges make it possible for them to do things no other special-interest group could afford to do on behalf of their favored politicians.
“A glowing profile of UNITE HERE’s 2020 presidential politicking just published in the Nation points out, for example, that ‘more than 300’ of the union’s Arizona canvassers ‘came in from LA’ in the summer of 2020, while hundreds more were already on the ground, ‘willing to knock on doors’ from morning to night.
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