I didnt realize Mark Penn was ANTI-UNION

Published: June 5, 2007


The presidents of two large labor unions have written to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to complain that Mark Penn, her pollster and chief strategist, is chief executive of a public relations firm that is helping a company fight a unionization drive.

In the letter sent Friday, which a labor official released yesterday, James P. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, and Bruce Raynor, president of Unite Here, wrote that they did not want to see Mrs. Clinton or the Democratic Party embarrassed by the anti-union activities of Mr. Penn’s firm, Burson-Marsteller, one of the nation’s leading public relations companies.

“If Hillary is pro-worker and pro-union, she will certainly take steps to rein in Mr. Penn,” Mr. Hoffa said in an interview. “He cannot serve two masters, working for a pro-union candidate and working for anti-union companies.”

In the letter, Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor said, “It is with distress that we write you today,” adding that they valued Mrs. Clinton’s positions on many worker-related issues.

They said the public relations firm’s “activities in the effort to undermine workers’ right to organize at Cintas, a campaign our unions are involved in, is particularly disheartening.” Four years ago, the two unions began a major drive to unionize 17,000 workers at the Cintas Corporation, the nation’s largest uniform rental company. Cintas, helped by Burson-Marsteller, has responded with a vigorous — and thus far successful — effort to resist unionization.

Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor, whose union represents apparel, hotel and restaurant workers, noted that they had learned of Burson-Marsteller’s anti-union activities in an article last week in The Nation magazine. Their action comes as Mrs. Clinton prepares to speak at an A.F.L.-C.I.O. forum on Saturday in Detroit.

Mr. Penn did polling for Bill Clinton when he was president and has long been a top adviser to Mrs. Clinton. Thirty years ago, Mr. Penn founded a prominent polling firm, now known as Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates. In December 2005, he was named chief executive of Burson-Marsteller.

In interviews, Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor stopped short of calling on Mrs. Clinton to disassociate herself from Mr. Penn.

Mr. Raynor said, “She ought to send a clear message to this guy Penn that she is unhappy about this union-busting stuff and that he shouldn’t be associated with it.”

Mr. Penn, speaking for himself and for the Clinton presidential campaign, said: “Senator Clinton’s well-documented support for pro-union causes would not in any way be affected by some clients in a firm related to the corporate network of one of her advisers. There is no connection whatsoever with her pro-union record.”

Mr. Penn said that he had worked for Democratic candidates for 30 years and that Burson-Marsteller worked for Democrats and Republicans.

As for Cintas, he said, “I personally had zero involvement in any of the work related to Cintas.” He said Burson-Marsteller had begun representing Cintas well before he joined the firm.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/us/politics/05labor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


This is my favorite quote:

“Senator Clinton’s well-documented support for pro-union causes would not in any way be affected by some clients in a firm related to the corporate network of one of her advisers. There is no connection whatsoever with her pro-union record.”


or

Senator Clinton's well documented work on behalf of civil rights totally absolves all rascist comments made by anyone on her campaign staff at all times. Even if such comments continue on a weekley basis.

is that about right?


heres another:

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/06/aflcios_sweeney_joins_criticis.php

Penn Recuses Himself From Firm's Anti-Labor Work

Two days before Hillary Clinton is due to participate in a major union political forum, her chief strategist, Mark Penn, said that while he will not step down as CEO, he will cede all oversight responsibilities for his company's labor relations clients to other managers.

................

<sound of crickets>

answers.

Penn became AN EMPLOYEE-CEO- of the company only 2 years ago - and yes the company has a PR division that specializes in giving the companies point of view in union organizing efforts. But that was there before him - the activity complained about preceded him - and he has been on a leave of absence for last 18 months - so he has not dome much "CEO'ing" for them.

I guess no one has a good answer. :shrug:

:woohoo:

Even though she has a very good labor record.

...Hillary would keep him around.

His day job is undermining democracy in latin america.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=11471


Penn, Schoen & Berland had played an important role; so important that the U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright commended them, saying "This may be one of the first instances where polling has played such an important role in setting and securing foreign policy objectives."(2) They did, indeed, secure their foreign policy objectives. Milosovic was out, and the U.S.-backed opposition took power.

Since 2000, this smooth new strategy to influence elections and topple regimes has been implemented in many other countries. Dubbed as the "post-modern coup" by Jonathan Mowat, the same brilliant techniques were used in Belarus in 2001, in Georgia in 2003, and in the Ukraine in 2004, to name a few. Although it ultimately failed in Belarus, in Georgia the U.S. effort produced the "Rose Revolution" which overthrew President Eduard Shevardnadze. In the Ukraine it was the "Orange Revolution" that installed Victor Yushchenko in 2004.(3) Each time, groups financed by the NED, and USAID worked inside the country to build popular support for the opposition candidate. Each time they constructed an appealing campaign image using the modern marketing tactics that they have perfected along the way. And each time, they used Penn, Schoen & Berland election "polls" to shape the public's perception.

In his article, "Coup D'etat in Disguise," Jonathan Mowat described how these "polls" work: "Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. ""...the deployment of polling agencies' "exit polls" broadcast on international television...give the false impression of massive vote-fraud by the ruling party, to put targeted states on the defensive."(4)

That is, the goal is to either get enough support to sway the election in their favor, or, if that isn't possible, to give the impression that the elections were fraudulent and encourage the population to overturn them. The strategy has been so successful in overthrowing regimes, or installing the regimes that the U.S. prefers, that the operation has evolved into a blueprint to be used in countries around the world. Ian Traynor described it in the Guardian in November 2004 as follows:

"he campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavory regimes...The operation - engineering democracy through the ballot box and civil disobedience - is now so slick that the methods have matured into a template for winning other people's elections"(5)

And he makes his momma cry.

--p!

He is a hired gun and is most likely amoral. Probably doesn't give a damn about unions one way or the other. It is all about "show me the money".
What I do know after seeing him on the TV is that he is an asshole.

As such, he is the perfect compliment to a Clinton campaign.

Hillary is not really AntiLABOR, its just that The Boss has more MONEY!




The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.