Harold Ford backed anti-union, anti-gay, anti-Jewish congressional candidacy of Nikki Tinker

[THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN AUGUST, 2008. I'M POSTING IT NOW IN LIGHT OF HAROLD FORD'S CANDIDACY FOR THE U.S. SENATE.]


Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis (TN -- 9th CD) has defeated challenger Nikki Tinker to win the Democratic primary and will run for reelection in the November general election. The primary campaign subjected Cohen, a liberal who distinguished himself as extremely able in his first term, to unusually harsh and sometimes overtly anti-Semitic attacks. Tinker's campaign also featured overt homophobia . Final results: Cohen 79% - Tinker 19%.

Tinker's Campaign Included Anti-Semitic Ads

Supporters of Cohen's opponent, Nikki Tinker, started off the campaign with a bang, producing and distributing the below-pictured pamphlet with the headline "Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus".



Rev. George Brooks of Murfreesboro, TN, the author of the leaflet, actually lives outside the 9th CD. According to a local blogger (grain of salt alert), Brooks' relatives within the district disavowed his bigotry and endorsed Cohen (read here). Tinker refused to comment on the leaflet for over 2 days until being cornered by an AP reporter and disavowing it. By that time, news of it was all over Memphis.

Days before the primary, Tinker issued a not very subtle appeal to Christian anti-Semitism with an ad, since deleted from Tinker's website. Here's a description from the politics blog of the Nashville Post (read here):

In the ad, a child’s voice is heard praying while the narrator, clearly meant to be a black woman but not Tinker, wonders who “the real Steve Cohen is anyway” while questioning one of Cohen votes on school prayer while in the state Senate.

While he’s is OUR churches clapping his hands and tapping his feet, he was the only Senator who thought OUR kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school.

TPM Election Central has some great background on the longstanding Jew-baiting strategy of Nikki Tinker (read here). Money quote:

A Washington Dem source told Election Central that the roots of Tinker's strategy were apparent as far back as a 2006 fundraiser. "I was at this event where she said that she didn't think this other guy Steve Cohen was gonna win because the constituents weren't gonna support somebody who doesn't accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior," the source said. "Everyone's jaw kind of dropped, and certainly we didn't write her a check."

(More about the ad is available here. Former Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey, speaking for the Tinker campaign, defended the ad here.)


Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama condemned Tinker, saying

"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It's time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country."

Tinker Was Backed by Harold Ford

Nikki Tinker, is a protege of Democratic Leadership Council chair Harold Ford, Jr., who represented the district from 1996 - 2006, (he took the seat over from his father, who represented the area from 1974 - 1996). In the 2008 Demorcratic primary, Harold Ford, Jr. provided behind-the-scenes logistical support to Nikki Tinker's campaign, and, through his wife Emily Threlkeld Ford, gave Tinker the legally allowed maximum campaign donation (read here and here). Donations by politicians are sometimes funneled through a spouse to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. (For more on the Ford - Tinker connection read here.)

Cohen first ran for Congress against Ford in the 1996 Democratic primary -- a race which Ford won. In the course of that campaign, Cohen accused Ford, then a law student, of being unqualified. When Ford decided to run for Senate in the 2006 election, he relinquished his House seat and Cohen won the Democratic nomination to succeed him. Ford's brother Jake then decided to run for the vacant seat as an independent -- and lost by a wide margin to the Democrat Cohen (read here). In that campaign, Jake Ford explicitly stated that he was running because the district needed to be represented by an African-American. Harold Ford, Jr. disavowed that comment when asked about it on the senatorial campaign trail-- he was trying to appeal to Tennessee's largely conservative white electorate .

Harold Ford Jr. had a relatively conservative, pro-corporate record in his five terms in Congress (read here), in contrast to the liberal, pro-labor record of Rep. Cohen (read here).


Anti-gay and Anti-Union -- and working for Ford

In addition to the anti-Semitic aspects of the Tinker campaign discussed above, her campaign also included an unhealthy dose of homophobia, as detailed by local blogger Thaddeus Matthews here. A Christian group backing Tinker mass-mailed a letter accusing Cohen of attempting to promote homosexuality based on his support of hate crimes legislation.

In addition to her campaign's anti-gay positions, Nikki Tinker's strong anti-unionism made her an odd choice to be backed by a Democratic senatorial candidate. By profession, she's a corporate labor lawyer who literally specializes in union busting. Her former firm, Ford & Harrison (read here), represents only management and describes their labor law practice as follows:

Collective bargaining, union organizing drives and decertification of existing organized bargaining units can be handled successfully if management teams are given the knowledge and insight necessary to deal with these issues. Ford & Harrison labor lawyers represent and advise employers in all phases of labor relations matters as they arise under the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act.

For union-free employers we:

• develop effective, lawful strategies to prevent unions from organizing, including advice on handling pre-petition activities;
• advise on proper handling of concerted activities and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and National Mediation Board (NMB) representation proceedings;
• handle investigations and, if necessary, trials and appeals of unfair labor practice charges; and
• conduct union avoidance training for all levels of management.

For unionized employers we:

• counsel on collective bargaining and contract administration strategies;
• represent clients in negotiations, grievance and arbitration cases, unfair labor practice charges, strikes, injunctions, and other litigation; and
• assist in developing an atmosphere which makes unions unnecessary which may lead to NLRB decertification proceedings.

Tinker currently serves as Vice President for Labor Relations and General Counsel at Pinnacle Airlines. Her bio on the Pinnacle Airlines website still lists her as "Campaign Strategist" for Harold Ford. (Read here.) For several years, Pinnacle refused to negotiate with their pilots to resolve outstanding issues such as the lack of pay raises since 2004. In March of this year, Pinnacle's labor practices with respect to its pilots was ruled to be in violation of federal labor laws (Read here and here.)

[While spending their time fighting their workers, Pinnacle management may have been letting their business go down the tubes. In June, it was revealed that the company lost its contract to fly "feeder routes" for Delta. Delta also announcing its intention to acquire Northwest, Pinnacle's largest contract, and eliminate the outsourcing of Northwest's "feeder routes". (Read here.)]

Tinker's campaign received an unusually high amount of donations from Washington lobbyists, garnering about twice as much money from Washington (in purely geographic terms) as the incumbent. She also got backing from corporate attorneys and, of course, from Pinnacle Airlines. (Read here.) She was also backed by the Emily's List PAC, which provided the Tinker campaign with its largest single donation. Emily's List, which had been criticized for supporting Tinker, has since condemned Tinker and issued a mea culpa. Of course, their money had already been used to produce the offensive ad.

By the way, Cohen's contributions came largely from labor unions. (Read here.)

[NOTE: This article was written after the Democratic primary in 2008, but I decided not to publish it at the time because the issues seemed like yesterday's news after Cohen's victory and Ford's defeat. Now that Ford is running for the Senate from New York, I think he owes New York's voters an explanation. How could he have backed a homophobic, anti-Semitic congressional campaign by a professional union-buster? How could he have employed her as an advisor? Just what was his role in the Tinker campaign? The answers to these questions will say a lot about who Harold Ford, Jr. really is.]

Neo-Nazi conspiracies from Israel boycotters: UK academic edition

Harry’s Place has the story of Sean Wallis, a British research fellow and academic union leader who's promoting neo-Nazi conspiracy theories concerning "Zionists" being responsible for the world financial crisis.  Sean Wallis wielded some pretty wacky far right disinformation as part of a bizarre argument in support of the British academic union boycotting Israel and blacklisting Israeli academics.  His gist, as I understand it, is that the move to blacklist Israelis operates at a disadvantage since, he claims, "Zionists" looted Lehman Brothers of $400 billion dollars.  He thinks that opposition to his bigoted activism is rooted in this vast imaginary pot of gold.  

As an academic, he should adhere to his professional responsibility to cite sources.  He may be embarrased to do so however, since his source appears to be Stormfront.

Read it here: More neo-Nazi conspiracies from Israel boycotters

Sean Wallis, UCL UCU 

Much more from David Hirsch at Engage here.  It turns out that the story may have its origin in Willis Carto's Barnes Review.  Read the JC article on this here.  More on this later.

Obama Moves to Reverse Bush Labor Policies

President Obama: "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

from the New York Times:

The orders he signed, which union officials say will undo Bush administration policies that tilted toward employers, would require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change, and would make it more difficult for federal contractors to discourage union activities.

In addition, Mr. Biden said the first meeting of the previously announced task force “to bring together those Cabinet members who have the greatest impact on the well-being of the middle class” would be Feb. 27 in Philadelphia. The task force will look at issues as diverse as health care and college opportunities, Mr. Biden said, and will focus on “restoring the balance in the workplace.”

The task force will be led by Jared Bernstein, a prominent liberal economist who has been writing a study on the impact of Mr. Obama’s stimulus plan. The focus of the first meeting will be “green jobs, those jobs that pay well, can’t be outsourced and will help us move toward a cleaner, more self-sufficient energy future,” Mr. Biden said.

Future monthly meetings will be held across the country to discuss the mundane but essential concerns of working people like child care, workplace safety and retirement security, the vice president said. The administration has set up a Web site, AStrongMiddleClass.gov, that Mr. Biden said would tell people what their government was doing and invite them to share their thoughts.

read the rest . . .

Your tax dollars at work

That's what the billboards used to say at construction sites for publicly funded projects in my hometown.  Those public projects, which are still in use decades later, were built by union workers.

Now our tax dollars are bailing out corporations which spend that money to keep workers down by keeping unions out.  

from the Huffington Post:  Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority.

Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.

Bernie Marcus, the charismatic co-founder of Home Depot, led the call along with Rick Berman, an aggressive EFCA opponent and founder of the Center for Union Facts. Over the course of an hour, the two framed the legislation as an existential threat to American capitalism, or worse.

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."

read the rest, and listen to the audio of this comment and other gems, here...

SUPPORT EFCA!

Canadian Labor Union's Defense of Israel

from Canada's Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (pdf original here) via Z-word (Canadian Union Rejects Boycott) and Yahoo! Finance (Canada's Carpenters' Union Unanimously Passes a Historical Resolution in Defense of Israel):

Canada’s Carpenters’ Union, meeting at the 7th Biennial Canada Council of Carpenters Convention in Victoria, has voted in favour of a new resolution that will have a profound effect on organized labour around the world.

With a membership of more than 60,000, the Council unanimously adopted a resolution denouncing the characterization by a limited number of other Canadian unions of Israel as an apartheid state. The resolution calls for greater understanding of the plight of Israeli citizens, who face continual waves of attacks and threats from the vast majority of their neighbours.

"Unlike many neighbouring countries, Israel has an active trade union movement that participates freely in Israeli society," explained Ucal Powell, President of the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario. "Supporting a boycott or sanctions against Israel risks reinforcing terrorist groups and does little to encourage the wellbeing of workers in the region."

The resolution, believed to be the first from a union in defence of Israel, was developed in consultation with various groups, including Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a respected Canadian-based NGO that takes its name from the famed Holocaust survivor and international justice pioneer Simon Wiesenthal.

"The road to lasting peace can only be paved on a foundation of tolerance and security, which isimpossible to achieve given the current terrorist activities of Hamas and Hezbollah," said Avi Benlolo, president of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. "Resolutions such as this one are needed to counter the animosity toward Israel which is inherent in recent union activity – a situation which encourages further threats and violence from terrorist groups in the region. Our organization and its more than 25,000 members wholeheartedly support the Carpenters’ resolution and believe it will resonate with Canadians and other labour advocates."

The leadership of the Carpenters’ Union and local community leaders in attendance at the convention are hopeful this new perspective will encourage other unions to issue similar resolutions.

Utah Miner Families speak out on mine owner Bob Murray: ” I can’t stand to listen to the man.”

This story is both heart-breaking and infuriating. Ever wonder what the real definition of "canary in the coal mine" is? You can make a strong case that only a union can fill that role. Both the mine owners and the purported regulators have interests in concealing hazardous practices. The only ones with a real interest in preventing this tragedy from occurring were the miners themselves, but, without a union, they were powerless to act in their own behalf.

The free market ideologues who currently run the agencies in charge of regulating mine safety really don't believe in their jobs. They believe that workers who think the mines are unsafe are free to leave their job and find another. That sort of extremist approach allows preventable disasters like mine collapses (or, for that matter, levee failures) to occur, then blames the victims. Because the victims do not have any collective power to oppose this malfeasance by the regulators, they do not factor into the political equation.

If anyone needs proof why we need to restore the American union movement, take a look at this mine disaster. A strong union would have prevented it from happening.

from Crooks and Liars:

Some families testified yesterday in utter despair over their loss of a son and a husband. I’ve written a lot about the actions of the shady Utah mine owner Bob Murray. This is a heartbreaking look at how these families are dealing with the tragic deaths that happened in part because of the incompetent actions of Bob Murray.

Download (113) | Play (88) Download (92) | Play (36)

Sheila Phillips - Mother of miner Brandon Phillips:

“It’s just hard to have hope, and have your heart broke every day, and have your grandson grow up without a dad…And I’d like to talk a little bit about Mr. Murray — I didn’t go to very many of the meetings because I couldn’t stand to listen to the man. He was talking about one day when they were moving the drill holes, and they had the pad ready for one and then they decided to drill it somewhere else, and I asked him why they didn’t have two going… and he said ‘we could drill you 1,000 holes and it wouldn’t make any difference.’ (transcripts and Digby below the fold)

They would find him, wouldn’t they? If they drilled at least 1,000? I just miss him…I would like to know where my son is in that hole, so I can leave a marker on that mountain.”

Wendy Black - Wife of miner Dale “Bird” Black:

“I want to know, if there are rules and regulations made to protect the miners, then who is to be hold accountable to make sure these are being followed? Please at least have one person with enough backbone to say ‘no more.’ MSHA has one job: mine safety and health administration. It would have taken just one MSHA official or one official from the company doing his job to have saved my husband’s life. Which one of them wasn’t doing his job?”

Digby on Murray:

Tragically, a whole bunch of people have died and others are injured but so far, we’ve heard almost nothing about this “star’s” background in pushing unsafe mining techniques and anti-union policies and neither have we heard anything about the fact that the man Bush named to be the “mine safety czar” was such a bad choice for the job that he had to give him a recess appointment with a Republican congress…read on

U.S. Unions Organize Against British Unions' Israel Boycott

from the venerable Forward (by Rebecca Spence)

Leaders of some of America’s most powerful unions are said to be considering whether to pull support for a top British union official, Keith Sonnet, in his bid to lead a major international service workers union, Public Services International. The American union leaders are responding to last month’s passage of a resolution proposing a sweeping boycott of Israeli goods by Sonnet’s union, Unison, which represents 1.3 million public service workers.

The group that Sonnet is looking to lead, PSI, is a global federation of more than 600 unions from around the world, but the American labor movement has traditionally wielded significant power in its ranks.

As the number of British labor unions passing Israel boycott resolutions has snowballed in recent months, American trade union officials have raised alarms over the growing phenomenon, which encompasses boycotts of Israeli goods and academic institutions. Last week, nearly every top union leader in America signed on to a statement drafted by the Jewish Labor Committee decrying the raft of boycott proposals as non-constructive.

Avram Lyon, executive director of the JLC, said that Sonnet, who is running against Danish candidate Peter Waldorff for the international union post, had given assurances to American labor leaders in advance of his group’s national delegate conference that the Israel boycott measure up for consideration would either be voted down or have its teeth taken out. But the opposite came to pass, causing Sonnet’s American counterparts to feel misled, Lyon said.

“That has raised questions among some American unions as to whether or not they will support Keith Sonnet’s candidacy,” Lyon said. “The concern is based on the fact that Sonnet put forward a resolution which American unions would consider to be divisive.”

***

David Hirsh, who is the editor of Engage’s Web site and a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, said that while he lauded American anti-boycott efforts, the leaders of the boycott movement in Britain are unlikely to be swayed by American complaints.

“It should be a powerful statement that all of these leaders of the American labor movement are making against the boycott campaign, but I’m skeptical as to how effective it will be,” Hirsh said.

The roster of 29 signatories to the JLC’s statement included a broad spectrum of union leaders, who cut across religious and ethnic lines. Among the signatories to the statement were Ron Gettelfinger, president of United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America International Union, which tends to stay out of the geo-political arena; William Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and Larry Cohen, president of Communications Workers of America.

Absent from the list of signatories was Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents some 1.8 million service workers. An SEIU spokesman said Stern lent his support through Change To Win, a coalition of seven American unions, which signed on to the statement.

Whether or not the Americans’ robust condemnation of the British unions’ boycott measures has an effect, labor leaders here say that the concerns over Sonnet’s handling of the issue could have real consequences for his candidacy. A handful of signatories to the JLC’s anti-boycott statement — including the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — are members of PSI, which represents more than 20 million workers from 160 countries. PSI’s election is set to take place during its World Congress, held in Vienna from September 24 to 28.

At least two past PSI presidents — legendary labor leader Victor Gotbaum and AFSCME’s William Lucy — have hailed from American unions.

A source at AFT, who requested anonymity because authorization to speak for the union had not been granted, said that its four delegates to the PSI congress would weigh the Israel boycott issue heavily. “I’m sure there are going to be a lot of people asking questions about Keith Sonnet’s view of the resolution adopted by Unison,” the source said.

According to Lyon, another American effort to stymie the British boycott movement met with success this week, when American unions torpedoed efforts by the UCU to introduce an Israel boycott resolution at the world congress of Education International, a worldwide federation of teachers’ unions, held this past week in Berlin.

It's enough to make me say: "Union, yes!"

READ THE FULL STORY HERE...