Saturday, October 15, 2011

Union Bosses Use Soldiers as Props

The hits keep coming in the dishonest campaign against government union reform. This week Jack Reall, President of International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 67 in Columbus, sent the following in an email:


Is there anyone union bosses won't hide behind to shield the huge salaries they take from government workers? Does IAFF not realize this sort of transparent cynicism will only drive voters away? I'm no expert on the subject, but treating military uniforms as costumes for the purpose of silencing opposition strikes me as a low point among low points.

Also worth noting: members of the armed forces have no collective bargaining privileges. Really, aside from a tasteless attempt to frame Issue 2 supporters as unpatriotic I don't see what message IAFF could be trying to send. Which would be consistent with everything We Are Ohio does, in a way!

When not outright false - refer to the alleged health insurance contributions of a We Are Ohio spokesman - union rhetoric is heavy on drama and light on details. D.C. unions are funneling millions into Ohio to flood the airwaves with pro-union public workers - whose dues fund uninterrupted union propaganda against the voters who pay their salaries. And, while union apologists smear anyone interested in fixing the broken status quo as a villain who is "attacking workers," We Are Ohio is happy to attack public workers who step out of line.

Don't blame government union members who buy We Are Ohio's partisan theatrics; unions are pros at building a front of selflessness and credibility, so many teachers, police, and firefighters don't have a reason to seek alternate news sources. Get the facts, let people know where those dues are being spent, and encourage your neighbors to support commonsense reforms that will save government jobs without raising taxes.

Vote Yes on Issue 2!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart
Cross-posted at that hero and RedState.

8 comments:

  1. I'll remember that you said this when Josh Mandel uses images of him in uniform in his next political ad.

    Firefighters and police officers have a disportionately high population of veterans in their workforce. There's nothing wrong with pointing that out.

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  2. Shameful that you are attacking those who protect us. Very sad.

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  3. Thanks, Anonymous, for again proving my point with the "attacking those who protect us" line. Whether you consider all criticism of union bosses an attack on union members - or simply comment without reading - your comment is, indeed, "very sad."

    Modern, Josh Mandel isn't a union boss recruiting members for a video shoot about how eeeevil union reformers hate soldiers and public servants. And yes, I realize shilling for union bosses is your only concern here.

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  4. Shameful, Jason. I don't know how you sleep at night.

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  5. Firefighters and police officers have a disportionately high population of veterans in their workforce.

    What does this have to do with the provisions of SB5?

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  6. Classless tactics from the anti-Issue 2 folks, per usual.

    When will they ever debate an issue on the facts, instead of emotion?

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  7. Way back in 2006 on a nice autumn Sunday morning I stood next to my little town's chief of police during mass.

    After the service we chatted for a moment. It was well know that my son was serving in Iraq and the COP asked about his wellbeing. Then he said something I've heard often since. The COP told me that he, too, was a marine but he wasn't lucky like my son. For his entire hitch with uncle sam's misbegotten children there was no armed conflict. He never got to fight. He actually envied my son's combat experience.

    So two things:
    (1) How many of the current civil servants who are also veterans served in a time of war? For those time servers, at what point have the citizens of a greateful nation appropriate expressed that gratitude? Does the fact that a given firefighter spent four years in a peacetime military mean that we should overpay teachers? For that matter, why should any service result in higher pay for the entire class of gummint employees? As it is vets get significant help during the gummint hiring process.
    (2) Josh Mandel has experience in a combat setting. I don't know if he was in any firefights but he certainly was in area where full battle rattle was mandatory for survival.

    Mr Mandel isn't touting his military service as a reason why he should be paid lavishly at taxpayer expense. He's using this as a demonstration of his character, something in which voters rightly have a deep abiding interest.

    A contest between Mandel and Brown will be fun to watch. To understand Mr Brown's track record all I need do is look around my current town: Lorain. Ford plant closed. Steel mill stone cold on the hot side and just functioning on the cold side. boat works gone. Small employers gone. Employees, fleeing to other states for a shot at a job, any job. Empty stores, empty houses, empty lives.

    thanks, sherrod. Thanks to liberalism our coffers are empty and our prisons are full. Nice work!

    skip

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  8. Skip, you're hilarious.

    "Mr Mandel isn't touting his military service as a reason why he should be paid lavishly at taxpayer expense."

    Yeah, he only used it to get an elected position that paid more than the one he had... and had better benefits.

    Mandel's a career politician who's never worked in the private sector. For you to pretend he hasn't used his military service for his own personal and political benefit is just laughable.

    Thanks for playing.

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