Casino workers stabbed in the back by the Michigan AFL-CIO and their Democratic Party partners

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.