June 23, 2006

United States Department of Union Busting…

Filed under: Labor by Leo Casey @ 8:15 pm

That would be the new name of the Bush Department of Labor, if truth in advertising laws applied to government agencies.

A Washington watchgroup named CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] filed a Freedom of Information law suit which forced the Department of Labor to release 108 pages of documents detailing the relationship between the department and Richard Berman, the main figure behind a whole host of anti-union front groups [Center for Union Facts, the Employment Policies Institute Foundation, and the Center for Consumer Freedom].

In February, Berman’s Orwellian named Center for Union Facts began a high profile, expensive corporate campaign against American unions with full page advertisements in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. [Read the New York Times account ($) of the campaign here.] Note that this article reports Berman is attempting to have legislation passed that would prohibit unions from organizing through card check recognition.

Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao is still withholding a series of her e-mails that refer directly to Berman and his organizations, claiming that they are privileged communications. CREW is preparing further litigation disputing Chao’s claim.

But even without the most damaging evidence, it is clear that under Chao, the Department of Labor has established a close, supportive relationship with union-buster Berman. Indeed, reading through the documents leaves the stark impression that the Deparetment of Labor now functions as a clearinghouse and clipping service for anti-union organizations.

Of particular interest is the inordinate attention given to teacher unions. These documents provide considerable supporting evidence for the thesis that the Bush administration and its corporate bank-rollers have targeted teacher unions for political reasons, on the theory that weakened teacher unions would mean a weakened Democratic coalition.

Of special note in these documents is the frequent appearance of anti-teacher union propagandist Michael Antonucci and his blog, Intercepts. [Edwize readers may remember Antonucci for his past, somewhat truculent interventions in the internal politics of the UFT. On the theory that America is the land of perpetual rebirth, Antonucci is now attempting to remake himself as a serious “commentator” on teacher unions — in the same sort of way that Fox News is “fair and balanced.”]

5 Comments

Comments are open for registered users and do not reflect the views of the UFT. Please read our general rules for commenters.

  • Hello, Leo. Feel free to describe me as “truculent.” Call me “an anti-teacher union propagandist.” Go ahead and claim I’m “attempting to remake [myself] as a serious ‘commentator’ on teacher unions.” You’ve provided a link to Intercepts, so your readers can judge for themselves — including whether I’m any more “serious” as a commentator than I was in 1997, or different in any way at all.

    However, singling out my appearances in CREW’s fishing expedition and characterizing them as “frequent” is a disservice to your readers, particularly those who won’t wade through the 108 pages to learn that Intercepts shows up a whopping three times — each time as an appearance in the State Policy Network’s newsletter, State Labor Policy Exchange, which DOL evidently passes around.

    The SPN newsletters list dozens of articles from various sources, including the AFL-CIO, Jonathan Tasini’s Working Life Blog (three mentions), People’s Weekly World, and union press releases.

    So I’m unsure if you want DOL to stop forwarding the SPN newsletter entirely, or if DOL should just avert their eyes if I’m mentioned in one.

    Either way, you’re left without a point, other than the fact that you don’t like me or what I do. I guarantee you there are more NEA and AFT members (and staff) reading and forwarding Intercepts than there are DOL employees who do so.

    Sincerely,

    Mike Antonucci
    Director
    Education Intelligence Agency

    Comment by The Evil One — June 24, 2006 @ 1:09 pm

  • Mike,

    You may be underestimating your role with your soulmates in the DOL. You’re right that you come up only a few times in the documents, but the FOIA Request was actually fairly narrow. What was suprising from the documents, and I could be naive, is just how much the DOL relies on right-wing anti-union front groups for basic cursory information, including clippings. It’s an interesting part of the thrust of the documents. CREW is appearently going to fight for the documents that DOL wouldn’t provide, so I guess there’s more to the story that we’re hopefully going to be reading.

    Comment by Kombiz — June 24, 2006 @ 1:53 pm

  • I’m a big FOIA fan, so knock yourselves out. And I really mean it when I say you guys can characterize me anyway you want to. I have my outlet, so we’re even.

    Edwize and its readers are entitled to think Intercepts is mentioned frequently, too frequently, or shouldn’t be mentioned at all — just as long as they actually know how many times and in what context.

    I think you get that, so we’re cool.

    Regards,

    Mike

    Comment by The Evil One — June 24, 2006 @ 4:57 pm

  • Education Blogs Appear in CREW’s FOIA Documents…

    I guess this is a sign that education blogging has hit the big time. Education blogs, including this one, are cited in documents obtained from the Department of Labor (DOL) by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) through……

    Trackback by NCLB: Let's Get it Right! — June 26, 2006 @ 1:17 pm

  • From American Street » Blog Archive » Wal*Mart Uber Alles:

    “[...]Union membership in the US has been cut from 25% to 7% since the Reagan years, and the legacy of Reaganomics is continuing to devastate this nation as our Department of Labor has been morphed into the Department of Union-Busting. Meanwhile, union friendly China is indisputably moving in the right direction for its economy and the standard of living of its citizens[...]“

    Pingback by American Street » Blog Archive » Wal*Mart Uber Alles — August 1, 2008 @ 2:28 pm

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.