Team Obama to unions: Bail out our convention, will ya?
By Ed Morrissey
Hot Air
Posted at 11:21 am on April 25, 2012
The ongoing scandal in the North Carolina Democratic Party isn’t the only dark cloud on the horizon for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this year. Even though the lovefest on the Left has been reduced to three days from the traditional four, the Democrats are still coming up millions of dollars short in the funds necessary to pay for the event. Barack Obama’s campaign has had to go hat in hand to the unions for the cash, thanks to his insistence that corporate money is too dirty:
President Barack Obama’s political advisers are pressing labor unions to contribute to the Democratic convention in September to cover a fundraising shortfall resulting from their self-imposed ban on corporate donations, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Democratic officials gave representatives of the major U.S. unions, including the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Auto Workers, a tour of the convention sites in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 23 in advance of a request for donations, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss internal strategy.
The three-day convention will culminate in Obama’s re- nomination in Bank of America Stadium on Sept. 6. So far, the host committee in Charlotte is roughly halfway to its $36.6 million goal.
Four years ago, unions contributed more than $8 million to the Democratic convention in Denver, according to financial disclosure reports.
That may be a tough sale. Obama hasn’t delivered on much for the unions, although Democrats in the Senate did last night. In timing that can only be called curious, Democrats united to keep an NLRB rule in place that allows “ambush elections” to take place:
Let the “ambush elections” begin: The Senate today rejected an attempt to overturn a National Labor Relations Board rule that will speed up union elections.
That rule is scheduled to go into effect Monday. Business groups pleaded with Congress to overturn the rule and will now have to turn to the courts if they want to get their way. They contend employers won’t have enough time to make their case against union representation if elections are held in as little as 10 days after an organizing petition is filed.
Today, however, a resolution overturning the streamlined elections rule got only 45 votes in the Senate, short of the 60 votes needed to clear procedural hurdles. Republicans voted in favor of the resolution; Democrats voted against it.
What a coincidence! Just after Democrats made their sales pitch to the unions to bail out their convention, Democrats in the Senate united to give them a gift rule that will force businesses to hold snap unionization elections, rather than give businesses time to make their case. I’m sure one has nothing to do with the other ... right? ...
Remainder of article @ http://hotair.com/archives/2012/04/25/team-obama-to-unions-bail-out-our-convention-will-ya/
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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