National Right to Work president Mark Mix recently wrote in the Washington Examiner about the Obama Administration's refusal to attend the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors in Providence at the behest of militant union bosses. The message to mayors was clear: Hand over your cities and taxpayers' dollars to the union bosses.
Miami mayor Manny Diaz, outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), has accused the White House of "setting a very dangerous precedent" during the organization's 2009 annual meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. Vice President Joe Biden, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Cabinet members Shaun Donavan, Arne Duncan, and Gary Locke had all been slated to attend.
Not one showed up.
Why would Obama and his Cabinet do such a thing to their close political friends? Because International Association of Firefighters (IAFF/AFL-CIO) union President Harold Schaitberger told them to.
As the national recession and exploding government deficits are forcing mayors across the country to make difficult decisions to keep their cities from going bankrupt, Schaitberger is leading a crusade to intimidate local and state elected officials. Specifically, he and his lieutenants are trying to deter local and state politicians from reforming the outrageous public-safety union pension systems that are driving cities like Providence into insolvency. The Obama White House is apparently eager to go along.
Not long before the mayors' meeting, Schaitberger and the bosses of IAFF Local 799 in Providence announced that they would be setting up a picket line outside the conference. The White House then vowed that no one from the Obama administration would defy the union brass by attending. In a June 5 IAFF union press release, Schaitberger was quoted gloating about the Obama administration's "unqualified support" for "organized labor."
Read the rest of the op-ed here.
Click here to watch an urgent video message from Senator Jim DeMint, Steve Forbes, and National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix.
