Unions Workers Sound Off On Chambliss: ‘He’d Be #1 On Trying To Bust The Union And Working Families’
Unions Workers Sound Off On Chambliss: ‘He’d Be #1 On Trying To Bust The Union And Working Families’
Today, Georgians headed to the polls to cast their ballots in the critical U.S. Senate run-off race between Democrat Jim Martin and Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss. ThinkProgress stopped by the IBEW union hall in Atlanta, where members were canvassing, calling residents, and doing final get-out-the-vote work. The energy in the venue significantly jumped up when Martin himself stopped by, greeting volunteers and taking pictures.
ThinkProgress spoke to several of these union members about the stakes for Georgia in this election. All cited the economy as the number one issue, noting the state’s skyrocketing unemployment numbers and their firsthand experiences with job losses and declines in business. They were particularly incensed at Chambliss’s promise to demolish unions and his record voting against middle-class priorities such as the minimum wage increase. Some highlights:
George Noel, UAW Local 2378: “Even as I’m canvassing, I’m seeing so many houses vacant. Just boarded up. It’s crazy.”
Fred Martin, AFSCME Local 1644: “He’s [Chambliss] not a union supporter. He feels that Georgia, being a right-to-work state, that the state should not be organized.”
Charles Fleming, President, Atlanta-North GA Labor Council, AFL-CIO: “He’s voted against raising the minimum wage. He’s voted against SCHIP — a children’s health care program. He supports many of these trade deals that have gone on under the Bush administration. Quite frankly, we think he has a terrible voting record for workers and working families.”
Annie McCrimmon, CWA Local 3204: “I think he’d [Saxby] be bad for unions. … Even in his commercial, you see how he says — he has this commercial about union-busting. I believe he’d be #1 on trying to bust the union and the working people.”
Watch the interviews here:
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35 Responses to “Unions Workers Sound Off On Chambliss: ‘He’d Be #1 On Trying To Bust The Union And Working Families’”
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Mr. Martin, please win! Please win! Please! Please! Please!
Sacky Shitniss needs to get the ax!
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:02 pmbut he's anti gay so the religious nuts will vote for him and cut thier own throats.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 pm"[P]romise to demolish unions"? That sounds pretty bad. Let me click the link.
Hmm.
Oh, this references his promise to oppose doing away with the secret ballot system for establishing unions.
That hardly sounds like something that would "demolish unions".
Later,
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pmIt does to me....later
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 pmI have a bad feeling about this one. Without Obama on the ticket drawing people to the polls, I expect low turnout from Dems. I hope I'm wrong. A good number of folks I know got their votes in.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 pmhe has this commercial about union-busting.....you can't re-fry that fish, it stinks
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:12 pmIsn't there another poster that ends everything with later but then never leaves? Who was that again?
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:13 pmBad the people of Georgia please vote out this cowardly draft dodging d-bag. He is a disgrace.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:42 pmdbass,
It looks like Faiz flushed our fave spammer, Able Clusterfcuk a few threads back.
Sometimes even the impossible happens here!
Thanks Faiz!!!!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:47 pmOh no and just when I wanted to spend my hard earned money at the lame ass Privacy Center!!!!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:51 pmWhen are people in the south finally going to realize that they lost the war?
They vote republican because they hate blacks. Well, you know what you slack jawed southern yokels? You people were too damn lazy to do your own work, so you imported slaves. You brought them here, now face the repercussions, BEEEYOTCHES!!
Saxby Chambliss? What the FU(K kind of name is that?!?!
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 pmWhat did you want them to do give him a really idiotic name like Grover Nordquist?
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 pmSorry Grover. I don't know where the d can from. D-bag maybe?
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 pmcan = came. Wow!
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 pmdbadass, my man, put down the 40oz.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm40's are sort of below my pay grade. Still my spelling is sort of messed up. Maybe I need to cut down on the ketamine.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:35 pmright on.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 pmI pity the people of Georgia: they just sent the most reprehensible chickenhawk the United States Senate has ever seen back for another six years.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 pmI guess that'd be me.
Later,
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:11 pmYeah Cicero.
It is you. I apologize. Sometimes a single species elects to multiple common names. I myself don't really understand that whole thing but anyone. My mistake.
Later,
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 pmanyway.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 pmDamn that ketamine!
Later,
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 pmThis is what makes Georgia.....well....Georgia. Stupid, selfish rednecks and backwards hicks. What else did anyone expect from these "people"? A simple read of any newspaper would have convinced them not to vote for Scamliss. Wait...did I say read? Well. There's the problem.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:27 pmI want to roll up a newspaper and smack all of the people of Georgia in the head. What were they thinking that they allowed this misuse of human remnants to be re-elected? Thanksgiving is long over, why do they still want a turkey?
(Course, one time when I visited Atlanta, I saw an ad for illiteracy in a newspaper so I figure they must be somewhat messed in the head down there)
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:04 pmHey he won. If only I was more hillbilly I might have a cheap bottle of Chambliss to unscrew. Chambliss is a corkless Boonesfarm's rip off right?
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 pmCicero Says:
They were particularly incensed at Chambliss’s promise to demolish unions
“[P]romise to demolish unions”? That sounds pretty bad. Let me click the link.
Hmm.
Oh, this references his promise to oppose doing away with the secret ballot system for establishing unions.
That hardly sounds like something that would “demolish unions”.
Later,
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 pmOops, I believe this is Mr. President coming back with all his name changes today. Cicero, marcusmarcus, GOP, all Mr. P.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:07 pmWell. I don't think Cicero is bitbit or Rapture and here's why (other than the fact that he must know at least somewhat who Cicero was)
"Man says God ordered him to ram vehicle at 100 mph"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081202/ap_on_fe_st/odd100_mph_wreck;_ylt=AtmUnIVY6RB104MZud1q8J7tiBIF
Explains why I haven't seen the little fellers on here in a while
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 pmNope, just me.
Later,
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 pmUnions are driving companies out of business. Soon, many state and city workers will face layoffs due to lucrative salaries and pensions that nobody ever did the math on. The country just can't afford to pay the sweet heart pensions.
Rumor is GM will declare bankruptcy before Christmas, thus eliminating their pension obligations and allowing them to restructure and continue to make cars.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 amarco:
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:17 amThe whole MBA shit sort of bores me so I will have to trust your expertise on this one. How is it the the clearly documented growth of CEO and related top management packages has nothing to do with this? Please explain? Thanks...
The CEO is just one person. If s/he makes $10,000,000 and there are 50,000 employees at the company, eliminating the CEO salary yields about $200 per employee per year. And I'm leaving out the thousands of retired employees receiving pensions and benefits.
Not a lot of the company's money going to the CEO that would make a difference.
I believe some of the CEO's of the auto companies are now reducing their salaries to $1 a year. Won't make a difference in their business model, but I guess it's a gesture of some sort.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 amI am from Georgia, and Suxby's win is definitely a crushing blow. To the perceived intelligence of Georgians (if such a thing actually exists), but far worse to the possibility of Congress being able to accomplish anything. I attended UGA and stayed on in Athens for 25 years, enjoying liberal, intellectual, and culturally rich atmosphere where Democratic ideals prevailed locally. But it was never enogh to stave off the votes of the rest of this bass-ackward state that spent far more time, money, and effort debating the State Flag than education, health care, and crime. I've been in culture shock ever since I moved back to the tiny little hillbilly town I grew up in to help care for my aging parents, surrounded almost entirely by ignorant, intolerant, racist meth-heads. Here's an example of dialogue one might expect to hear on any given day around these parts; "Brandy Jeen, me and yore Uncle Daddy has decided it's time fer you and yore half-stepbrother Chrisco to quit skool and get hitched and start birthin' us some grandcousins. That there fancy book lernin' ain't never not done no good for nobody in this family nohow. And we could shore enuff use the extry check to buy that plus-sized commode and flat screen TV for the master half-bath, so's I can watch rasslin' while my ex-lax diet is workin'. Now fetch me that jug of chocklit buttermilk and a handful of oxycontins. My dang diabeetus foot is hurtin' something fierce ever since I stepped on my teeth in the yard."
Okay, maybe that's a little over-the-top, but unfortunately, not by much. I did discover the local Democratic Party headquarters and volunteer, which gave me some sense of normalcy. I also convinced my Baptist, conservative parents to turn off FoxNews and seek the actual truth to base their opinions on. I was utterly shocked (but overjoyed) when I picked my folks up to go vote and they told me they had both decided to vote Democratic for the first time in their lives! It may only be a small victory, but at least it's a step in the right direction, or maybe the left direction. So remember, even in a little podunk town so small that the City Limits sign are on opposite sides of the same post, there's at least a few of us trying to make a change, and hoping for the best, against all odds. Sorry to ramble on so long, but it's nice to finally have found a forum where I don't feel like a stranger in a strange, strange land.
peace and much love, T.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:26 amCicero, what would you do about employers intimidating unions? Have you addressed that side of the issue? Perhaps if they weren't allowed to intimidate workers with impunity and the NLRB actually did its job, perhaps employee-employer relationships would be at a higher level. Yet, it is easy to scapegoat the unions for all of that isn't it?
Cicero, would you support enforcing the law which makes it illegal to fire an employee for union activity? You guys are all about being fair and balanced, right? How come the employer has unlimited access to his or her employees but the unions do not have that same access?
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 amI find it ironic that the union busters are talking about the slippery slope and how union organizers would become thuggish and coercive if the Employee Free Choice Act passes, because they stay silent when it comes to employers and their undue influence on the so-called "election" through intimidation, threats, and firings.
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 am