3 LTTEs to the IBEW Journal

[Mc Mike]

We got a new Int'l Prez, recently. The old one, Ed Hill, was very politically active and outspoken. He's from Local 712, next door to my local, up the Ohio river in Beaver County. The new Prez started out fairly well, politically, but something happened after August. We didn't get a September or October Electrical Worker (our Int'l's monthly paper), and we didn't get a Journal (quarterly mag) for summer or fall, which was quite a departure from past practices.

In previous election years, we usually would get quite a bit of good info, articles, and LTTEs from different locals' officers and rank-and-filers supporting labor and Dems, in our Journal and EW paper. This year, while I was getting repug mailers from the NY state gop, I received nothing from my union. I checked with local officials, and they told me nothing was being sent, that it wasn't just me not getting my mail. My wife's AFT union sent a decent amount of anti-drumpf info, but nothing came from my union. I don't know what to make of it, but I sent those guys 3 letters, hoping they'd publish one. They had published election stuff I wrote in '08 and '12. So I'm 'publishing' it here.

8-10-16

Editors, IBEW Journal / The Electrical Worker
900 Seventh St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001

Trump and Labor

Trump started his high-profile big Manhattan real estate developer career by demolishing the Bonwit Teller building to make room for Trump Tower. He immediately got involved in a scam employing over 150 undocumented ‘illegal alien’ workers, on a site where he hired contractors tied to two organized crime families (Genovese, Gambino). He takes pride in being a notorious micro-manager, he had an office right across the street, he visited that site hundreds of times. But he claims he never saw 150 guys running around demolishing the building without hardhats, guys who lived and slept on the site because they were only getting $5/hr, and who threw frequent work stoppages because they weren’t being paid. (It must have been fun to run temporary power for that site.) Despite his excuses, federal courts found that he ripped off union workers from LIUNA #95 and split the profits on saved labor costs with his crooked business associates.(1)(2)(3) So Trump employed ‘illegals’ and partnered with some of the biggest criminals in the country, but he kicked off his campaign by railing against ‘criminal’ immigrants and ‘illegal’ immigrant labor. And his fans, who don’t know any better, loved it.

Trump has been selling and distributing campaign hats that say ‘Make America Great Again’ on the front, but say ‘Made in China’ on the label inside. No labor from UNITE, GCIU, or UFCW is used for his merchandise. He started out getting hats from a Louisiana company called Ace Specialties which used Chinese merchandise, until this June when reporters found out that Trump was making money by spending millions of dollars in campaign contributions on businesses connected to him and his family, and Ace is owned by someone on Eric Trump’s ‘charitable’ foundation Board of Directors.(4) So he switched over to Cali-Fame in CA to supply the hats. Cali-Fame claims its hats are US made, but it uses that Mexican labor Trump ‘doesn’t like’, uses imported parts like bills and stiffeners, and was caught using foreign fabric, which is against federal law for products labeled ‘Made in US’.(5)

Over the years, all Trump’s merchandise has been shown to be made in Mexico, China, Bangladesh, Honduras, and other countries in Asia and Central & South America. Over 1,200 shipments of Trump-brand goods have been imported from foreign companies since 2011.(6) He’s making money off of NAFTA and GATT, but says he’s ‘against’ them and the TPP. He says he’s going to ‘put Americans back to work’, and his fans go to his rallies and put on ‘Make America Great Again’ hats that weren’t made in America. They don’t see that he’s slapping them right in the face and calling them stupid, just by giving or selling them his campaign hats.

Trump Taj Mahal is now closing and laying off its last 3,200 UNITE-HERE #54 workers in Atlantic City after this Labor Day, another blow to the city’s economy caused by Trump. The Taj is just another one of the many companies he ran that went bankrupt. Post-bankruptcy it still bears the Trump brand name, he still owns 10% of it, it’s going out of business, but Trump’s a ‘business genius’.(7)(8)

He has a team of lawyers on permanent hire and is involved in thousands of business and labor lawsuits, where he sues ex-workers, or where he stiffs workers and contractors after the job is done. He tells them to take pennies on the dollar as pay for legally contracted work they’ve completed or he’ll see them in court, so they have to sue him to get paid. He refused to pay $70 million to 250 construction contractors when the Taj was done and about to open.(9) The biggest nightmare for a contractor is completing the punch list, not getting paid, and then having to spend a ton of money on lawyers in court for years. But Trump’s running as a “jobs president” who cares about American workers and businesses.

Trump’s been attacking workers who are trying for better job conditions at his Vegas hotel. He just had to settle in court for his attacks against employees who wanted to join the U-H Culinary workers #226 and Bartenders #165.(10) But he isn’t having problems with any casino employees in Las Vegas because, as investigative journalist Wayne Barrett pointed out on Democracy Now, he has the only big hotel in the heart of Vegas that doesn’t have a casino. That’s because he’s afraid to face the detailed business and criminal connections scrutiny that the Gaming Commission would require, he can’t go through the licensing procedure, can’t stand the intensive background check needed for him to get the clearance from casino regulators to be an owner or key employee of a Casino. He can’t pass muster for a state Gaming Commission but he’s running for President.(11) He won’t release info to the Nevada G.C. like he won’t release his tax returns to voters. He’s the first-ever candidate not to do so, since Nixon and Agnew’s Watergate tax crime convictions caused all candidates from both parties to have to release their taxes, when they run for Prez or VP. (12) In his investigative reporting series Barrett called him a ‘classic state capitalist’ because candidate Don and his dad Fred got all their money from public subsidies and political favors, like Putin’s oil-billionaire buddies, or Chinese party officials that are tech billionaires.(13) Fred made the money, little Donnie inherited it. They got rich off of our tax dollars. But naturally, Trump can’t prove he pays his taxes.

Candidate Trump says he’s against the minimum wage and favors ‘right to work’, even though you can see from all the above examples that ‘excessive labor costs’ didn’t contribute anything to the business whiz’s many bankrupt companies. Now he’s running on a ‘jobs for American workers’ platform, with no jobs programs or proposals, no paperwork with a jobs plan on it, (the same thing the Repubs did in ’10, ’12, ’14,). He just named his economic adviser dream team, it’s full of bankers, hedge fund people, ex-Goldman Sachs execs, real estate investors, and of course nobody from Labor is at the planning table.(14) Don’t worry, the guy who’s most famous for telling people ‘you’re fired’ on t.v. ‘cares about American workers’, because he says so while campaigning for our vote.

His fans think he’s a great business success without any proof, just because he says so. He’s against criminals and ‘illegals’, because he says, and he ‘wants everything made in America’, because he says. And he ‘cares about American jobs and American small businesses’. Because he says. All his political opponents are ‘crooked, lying, stupid, crazy, lazy, little’, but Donald Trump isn’t, because he said so. None of his voters will ever bother to look up Trump’s track record on business, jobs, and labor; they all just know that Trump’s stated positions are ‘true’, because he said so. But instead of voting for Trump, because he’s going to ‘put America back to work’, his supporters should just apply for work at one of the few remaining, failing Trump businesses. Because that’s the only way they’re ever going to get a job out of little Donnie, though they probably won’t like the wages, hours, and conditions.

Vote Dem up and down the ballot, everywhere, and kick these Trump republicans out from all positions of power in our government.

Mike Mc______
____ _______ St.
Pgh., PA ______
Local 5, Card #_________ .

(1) http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/27/nyregion/judge-says-trump-tower-builders-cheated-union-on-pension-funds.html
(2) http://www.laborers.org/nyd_Local95_3-8-99.html (NY Daily News)
(3) http://www.democracynow.org/2015/8/19/david_cay_johnston_21_questions_for
(4) http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-trumps-campaign-cycles-6-million-into-trump-companies-2016-6
(AP, 6/21/16)
(5) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/are-trumps-made-in-usa-hats-really-made-in-usa/ (AP, 7/8/16)
(6) http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-dozens-of-trump-products-made-overseas/article/2585268 (3/8/16)
(7) http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trumps-taj-mahal-atlantic-city-announces-its-closing (8/3/16)
(8) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/atlantic-city-trump-taj-mahal-union-workers-strike-article-1.2695690 (AP, 7/1/16)
(9) http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-lawsuit-contractors (6/10/16, USA Today, 6/9/16)
(10) http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/donald-trump-s-las-vegas-hotel-union-settle-labor-claims#! (7/21/16)
(11) http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/5/trumps_greatest_mentor_was_red_baiting
(12) http://www.mediamatters.org/video/2016/05/11/rachel-maddow-it-doesnt-matter-if-youre-being-audited-trump-can-still-release-his-taxes/210375 (Maddow, MSNBC, 5/11/16)
(13) http://www.democracynow.org/2016/6/30/a_classic_state_capitalist_how_donald
(14) https://www.yahoo.com/news/factbox-republican-presidential-candidate-trumps-economic-team-162424875--business.html (Reuters, 8/5/16)

[Mc Mike]

1. The first one was long, but I'd gotten a long one like that published mostly intact before.

I waited 2 days, then sent them 2 more, as a chaser. I figured one would get through.

#2

8-15-16

Editors, IBEW Journal / The Electrical Worker
900 Seventh St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001


Trump is bad for labor.

He’s got a ton of ties to nazis, neo-nazis, white separatists, white supremacists, segregationists, etc. The nazis have historically always been very bad for labor.

He’s got a ton of ties to organized crime. His ties to racketeers in NJ, NY, and Philly are extensive and well-documented. Organized crime has always been bad for labor.

He’s got a ton of ties to ex-KGB boss and strongman leader of Communist Russia Vlad Putin. Although it’s billed as a ‘worker’s paradise’, Communist Russia has always been bad for labor.

He’s running with all these ties to white supremacists, organized criminals, and Communist Russian dictator Putin, running with a long track record of statements about how he’s against Hispanics, Moslems, Blacks, Women, Asians, the disabled, the Pope, the Press, the Troops, POWs, Gold Star Families, Free Speech, the U.S. Constitution, and even crying babies. You name it, he’s shot his mouth off about it and attacked people, to get his fans whipped up. He’s not aiming to get Labor votes, he’s just aiming to get the hate and fear vote from some people who have blue collar jobs.

There isn’t enough lipstick in existence on the planet for the GOP to use, to try to make this ‘Trump Loves Labor’ pig look presentable to the American public.

[Mc Mike]

2. #3

Editors, IBEW Journal / The Electrical Worker
900 Seventh St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001


Trump and 9/11

Trump started talking about 9/11 because he wanted to attack all the Americans who are Moslems, so he lied and claimed that he saw thousands of Moslems cheering and dancing in the streets in NJ on 9/11. He says he ‘has the best memory’, but he can’t remember what news source filmed that celebration of the 9/11 attacks while they were occurring. His campaign has never released any footage from any network or source that proved his claim. His backers still believe him, even though he went silent about it once he was questioned by doubtful members of the press. And though he shut up about it, of course he’ll never apologize for lying to the nation.

He was trying to claim that the 9/11 attacks were attacks on him, claim that he owns 9/11. It isn’t surprising, because the gop has been pretending they’re America, they own the Flag, they own 9/11, as a way to get elected ever since the 2002 mid-term elections. But you can see exactly how much he cares about 9/11, just by looking at his reaction to the announcement that Virginia Senator Tim Kaine would be the Dem’s V.P. candidate. Trump said that ‘he was a lousy governor of New Jersey’, because Trump got Sen. Kaine confused with Tom Kean, who was the Repub governor of New Jersey. Kean was also the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, which our government established to investigate the 9/11 attacks. He was governor of the state where Trump did a ton of casino and hotel business for decades, in Atlantic City. He was governor of the state where Trump claimed to see thousands of American Moslems celebrating 9/11. And he was in charge of investigating 9/11. But Trump doesn’t even know who he is.

Trump wants to pull out of NATO, wants to give Putin the green light to attack not just the Ukraine, but Lithuanian, Latvia, Estonia in the Baltics, and anywhere his military can reach in East and Central Europe. Trump says ‘if they don’t pay us, we’re not going to help them’, like they’ve been mooching off of us, like the strategic alliance with all of the countries that are against Russian aggression is ‘worse than useless, it’s hurting the U.S.’. But of course, he doesn’t know that NATO alliance forces have only been mobilized once in the history of NATO. They were mobilized to attack Afghanistan and defend one NATO ally, America, after America was attacked on 9/11. But Putin doesn’t like NATO and Donald does like Putin, so Trump openly says he will abandon our loyal allies to Putin’s attacks, though they helped us after 9/11. So he’s openly running on a foreign policy that hurts America and helps Russia.

He claims to be worth 10 billion dollars, but after 9/11 he scammed $150,000 dollars from a federal program designed to help small businesses near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, to help them recover after they got hammered by the attacks. They saw their lives and livelihoods shattered by 9/11, Trump saw a chance to suck up some more tax dollars. He’s ‘worth 10,000 million bucks’ or 100,000 $100,000 bills, but he wanted to have a 100,000 and 1 ‘hundred thousand dollar bills’, so the victims from the 9/11 attacks could just suck it up and get out of his way while he grabbed that extra money.

So that’s Trump’s track record on 9/11. He’ll lie about 9/11 and use it to push his unconstitutional domestic policy agendas. He’ll lie to call our fellow citizens the enemy, lie to get support for his mentally unstable campaign attacks against US citizens who are a religious minority. Or he’ll show he knows absolutely nothing about 9/11 while he tries to justify his stupid and suicidal foreign policy agendas. He’ll show how bone-headedly ignorant he is about 9/11, make laughably untrue statements trying to score some cheap political points. He’ll show he knows zero about it as he tries to stupidly slur the wrong politician, show he doesn’t even know who investigated it while he’s trying to use it.

Or he’ll use 9/11 to make a quick dirty buck. When the words ‘Trump’ and ‘9/11’ are used together, that should bring a lot of other words to mind. Words like ‘liar’, ‘unconstitutional’, ‘illegal’, ‘stupid’, ‘crazy’, ’ignorant’, ‘clueless’, ‘crooked’, ‘incompetent’, ‘anti-American’, ‘unstable’, ‘dangerous’, ‘sleazy’, and ‘revoltingly greedy’. Those words describe ‘Trump and 9/11’ perfectly, they fit him to a T.

[blue neen]

3. As you proved in your extremely well-researched letters,

everyday is "Opposite Day" in Trumpland.

I'm sorry your union didn't publish such truthful and thought-provoking letters. They did you, and themselves, and all of us, really, a great disservice.

[Mc Mike]

4. Thanks for reading and replying, neen.

My International reps put out some good info until August. Something happened after that.

They went after bush for years, even while he was in power, and was known for settling scores using his executive branch power. They went after McCain and Romney, too.