I
can't help but wonder what Mother Jones would have thought about a group
of unions in West Michigan raising funds for "Labor Fest" by organizing
bus tours to the Little River Casino where casino workers are forced to
work in a loud, noisy, smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any
rights under state or federal labor laws and then to see an
advertisement for this fund-raising venture published in a labor newspaper, "Progress," edited by a Democratic Party candidate for public office, Michael Johnston?
I will be going to the meeting of the Labor Fest organizing committee
today at 5:30 pm being held at the Kent-Ionia Labor Council Hall at 918
Benjamin N.E. in Grand Rapids, Michigan seeking an explanation.
So far, the head of this despicable "fund-raising venture" told me that
if we didn't like it we, the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council,
should put up the funding for Labor Fest.
Now, why would we
even consider consider donating a penny to a bunch of trade unionists
whose only goals and objectives are to elect a bunch of worthless
Democrats who placed workers in this mobster infested and controlled
Indian Gaming Industry in this position in the first place?
The Indian Gaming Industry is a perfect example of what workers get from
Wall Street's two-party trap where the Democrats and Republicans
collude and connive to destroy the rights and the livelihoods of working
people from which the employers reap super-profits.
Not once
has the "labor" newspaper--- Progress, formerly the Grand Valley Labor
News--- ever so much as mentioned one single problem workers in the
Indian Gaming Industry are experiencing.
Why do we get no better from a "labor" newspaper than what we get from the corporate dominated mainstream media?
And why do we find a huge advertisement for this sickening
"fund-raising" venture in this "labor" newspaper which hides its
reactionary agenda behind articles supporting Mother Jones?
It
is just this kind of hypocritical duplicity which has given labor unions
a black eye making organizing in this period so difficult... no
understanding of solidarity or an injury to one is an injury to all.
I invite Patty Kramer, a UAW member and one of the leads in promoting
this hideous fund-raising event along with the Editor of "Progress,"
Michael Johnston a retired member of the Michigan Education Association,
to respond and explain.
"West Michigan Labor Fest" is typically nothing more than a cheer-leading even for the Democrats.
The AFL-CIO, Democrats and the Indian Gaming Industry enjoy a partnership--- a partnership from which workers get nothing but a kick-in-the-ass as Democrats reap huge campaign contributions from the Indian Gaming Industry and the Indian Gaming Industry reaps huge super-profits from exploiting the workers employed in this hideous industry.