Cops, firefighters turn on GOP in labor fight

[babylonsister]

Cops, firefighters turn on GOP in labor fight

By JEANNE CUMMINGS | 4/1/11 4:35 AM EDT Updated: 4/1/11 11:33 AM EDT


Many cops and firefighters have thrown their allegiance to the GOP for years — union members who frequently stray from labor’s longtime support for Democrats.

A host of new Republican governors is changing all that.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and others took aim at the GOP’s most powerful labor antagonists but ended up hitting some of the party’s best friends too — leaving public-safety unions fearful this year’s attack on teachers might easily be next year’s attack on them.

It’s a political shift that could have significant repercussions, and not just because these right-leaning union members vote for Republicans in sizable numbers. Angry cops and firefighters make for bad PR — especially after Republicans under President George W. Bush aligned themselves so successfully with the heroes of Sept. 11 in the years since then.

Chuck Canterbury, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said his members are “shocked” by the turn of events.

“Who are these evil teachers who teach your children, these evil policemen who protect them, these evil firemen who pull them from burning buildings? When did we all become evil?” said Canterbury, whose union endorsed Bush in 2000 and 2004 and John McCain in 2008.

more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52359.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. The cops & firefighters got suckered by Reagan and the Bushes and RepubliCorps

Glad they are finally waking up to what massive suckers they have been.

It's about time.

[Oceansaway]

2. Solidarity Forever !...nt

[immoderate]

3. "Shocked" is he?

He could have put his detectives on it 40 years ago.

That's when you started being a patsy, Chuck. Now you're seeing the result.

--imm

[ingac70]

4. GOPers have talked shit about union members for decades....

and fire fighters and cops thought they were an exception? Are they all really this stupid?

[PearliePoo2]

5. Finally wising up and seeing the light, eh?

I work with Union people just like these guys.
They consistently vote against their own best interests.
Darned if I know how their mind works.:shrug:

[ingac70]

6. They are incapable of empathy....

they don't recognize shit until THEY themselves are standing in it. Now the attack is on them and they whine. Too heartless and self centered to have seen it coming.

[PearliePoo2]

7. Yeah,,,you're right .

One cretin I work with constantly bitches about the Union and the dues he pays in one breath and then whines and cries when the Shop Steward doesn't file a grievance for him FAST ENOUGH!
Go figure....

[Ikonoklast]

9. As steward I wasted more time on the Republican voting members than all others combined.

They were the ones always trying to skirt the work rules everyone else had no problem with, and were always the first to bitch about the union 'not sticking up for them'.

We didn't 'stick up' for employees that tried to dump work on their brothers and sisters, couldn't get to work for theiur scheduled shift on time, and spent a lot of time hiding in the can smoking.

[PearliePoo2]

10. Ha........you know the same guys that I do!

This one particular sleaze I work with is always sneaking around trying to skirt contract rules so as to benefit himself.
He got busted big-time when management tried to impose mandatory OT.
Our union membership said "no" in(almost)solidarity. This weasel secretly called dispatch and begged for the shifts on overtime.
Of course, he denied it, but his pay-order was exposed and so was HE, as the lying piece of management ass-kisser that he is.
No one believes a word he says now.

[Ikonoklast]

11. The same people that bitched about the union local had no problem shafting their fellow employees.

One thing those types all had in common was their selfishness and lack of empathy for anyone else.

Made it real hard to defend them to management when they just wouldn't follow some basic work rules no one else had a problem with.

Most of them ended up fucking up big-time, and getting canned.

[PearliePoo2]

12. Thanks for the HARD (and often thankless) work you do as Steward.

Hats off to you, BROTHER!

:applause:
:patriot:

[Ikonoklast]

13. Oh, those are days gone by.

24 years UFCW, moved on 11 years ago now.

Still a labor man, 'til I die.

[safeinOhio]

8. OH Noes

NRA members revolt on single issue voting.

[Scurrilous]

14. K & R

:thumbsup: