A while back a nice young man came to the door and gave me a pitch about a new grassroots group he was supporting, who were looking out for the folks the Occupiers call the 99%.
I gave him some money, and was interested in offering further support.
However, now that I'm on your email list, I have learned it was nothing but an astroturf front for you, the AFL-CIO, an organization I have tremendous contempt for.
At one point I made a special study of the
AFL-
CIOs role (in coordination with
USAID and the CIA) in suppressing indigenous labor unions in other countries, particularly in Latin America. Just today I read an article that informs me you are still up to your old tricks:
http://www.
counterpunch.org/2013/05/10/big-labors-tool-of-empire/. A journalist friend of mine assured me that it isn't just overseas, she saw the same thing happen in El
Paso.
Some time after that, I personally witnessed the local affiliate of the AFL-CIO conduct a highly deceptive campaign to gain exclusive representation rights in an agency that previously was made up of a work force that contained a mix of non-union employees and employees represented by 3 different unions. The organizers listened sympathetically to tales of corruption, cruelty, and a workplace where all the good employees were on anti-depressants, it was such a hostile environment. Relief was promised from these conditions.
Yet after the successful election, when I attended a shop stewards meeting, where we were told in no uncertain terms that the union would only become involved in cases of individual grievances and negotiations over salary; that the union had been involved in "co-managing" some particularly dysfunctional agencies, and you would never do that again. That was the only reason I had decided to get into bed with the devil, because mafia-like, you offered protection, and clearly you had no intention of actually providing it. In my years of activism, this is one of my actions I'm most ashamed of; that I made this compromise, even though I knew the character of the people that I was dealing with, and that I was so desperate for respite that I trusted such untrustworthy people.
I certainly would not have given you even the $5 - $20 had you not instructed your canvassers to obscure who you are. That kind of deceptive practice is certainly not endearing you to the fading number of people here in Michigan that still believe in you. Of course, it's a very small thing compared to how you take union members money, enthusiasm, and votes, and deliver them to politicians like Obama who give them neglect and union-busting in return for their support. Absolutely shameful. You people have a lot to answer for. I hope that you will collapse so that you can be replaced by something that actually works for the workers, because I have sadly concluded that you are beyond reform.