Labor & Employment Law

Trumka Takes It to Palin in Her Back Yard

By James Parks

Laborers members rally with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Alaska State AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami at two Anchorage hotels in violation of labor agreements.

Last night, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said what many Americans believe but won?t say: Sarah Palin?s rhetoric is poisonous, dangerous and strikes of McCarthyism.

In a much publicized speech to the Alaska State AFL-CIO, Trumka said: 

In this charged political environment, her kind of talk gets dangerous. ?Don?t retreat?reload? may seem clever, the kind of bull you hear all the time, but put it in context. She?s using crosshairs to illustrate targeted legislators. She?s on the wrong side of the line there. She?s getting close to calling for violence. And some of her fans take that stuff seriously. We?ve got legislators in America who have been living with death threats since the health care votes.

As usual, Palin tried to dodge the issues by writing on Facebook and Twitter?far easier than facing reporters?and calling on her ?union brothers and sisters? to join ?our commonsense movement.?  

Palin left working families in Alaska behind when she trade them for high-profile appearances on FOX News and star appearances at tea party rallies. Her actions, policies and the candidates she supports speak way louder than her tweets and Facebook comments, no matter how much she tries to keep up a faux populist image as caring about working people. Her true colors come through when she supports candidates like Kentucky?s Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul, who told miners across the state that ?accidents happen,? and so the federal government shouldn?t be involved in regulating health and safety on the job. Or, as he said, that helping jobless workers would create drug abuse.

Trumka’s message hit the nail on the head:

Quite frankly, America works because lots of people contribute lots of ideas?that?s good?even when some of them are just plain wrong. But people need to come to the table in good faith. That?s not Sarah Palin. She?ll go down in history like McCarthy. Palinism will become an ugly word. 

 You can read Trumka?s speech here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on August 27, 2010 (boomark / email).