California Labor Unions Using Tea Party Approach; Recruiting Republicans & Taking the Lead on Populists Anti-Wall Street Movement:

California Labor Unions Using Tea Party Approach; Recruiting Republicans & Taking the Lead on Populists Anti-Wall Street Movement:

By Marc Chamot & Source: SF Chronicle

California’s 165,000-members nurses union, the National Nurses United, which also includes the California Nurses Association, is taking the populist approach in state politics. It’s getting ready to take on politicians, Democrats or anyone else, who’s siding in Wall Street interests instead of those of working people, says executive director Rose Ann DeMoro.

The union is ready to take a page right out of the ruckus Tea Party movement in politics, with nurses ready to flood key congressional districts in August, members will be exposing politicians for what they really are, if they are Wall Street hacks or are they really for the people.

The anti-Wall Street approach will be a form of populism, where new alliances are being formed and build up more political clout at the same time. The unions plans go beyond traditional Democrats, they want to recruit moderate Republicans and Independents, or anyone who’ll listen to their cause, while building up public support by lashing out at Wall Street.

They want to sway public anger from public employees, and put the blame directly where it belongs, on ‘greedy’ Wall Street corporations, where median CEO pay have risen 27% in 2010, compared to 2% for workers in general according to Bureau of Labor statistics.

Politicians of all stripes are feeling public pressure to increase taxes to top 3 percent of the nation’s wealthiest, especially after big corporations like General Electric, who got away from paying their fair share of taxes, through corruptive corporate tax loopholes.

After the highly publicized General Electric tax scandals, where billions of profits were being made and paid 0% taxes in 2010. “In spite of robust profits of $14.2 billion worldwide, GE has calculated a corporate tax bill for 2010 that adds up to zero, via a creative series of tax referrals and revenue shifts. (This was, indeed, the second year running that the company—which has an enormous, and famously nimble, 975-employee tax division, led by former Treasury official John Samuels—paid nothing in U.S. taxes; indeed by claiming a series of losses and deductions, GE came up with a negative tax of 10.5 percent in the admittedly dismal business year of 2009, and realized a $1.5 billion "tax benefit."

Labor unions have been losing the publicity wars and mostly originating from ‘deep pockets’ Wall Street media propaganda machines. 

With uncertainty of the future, and after voter approved initiatives due to redrawing of congressional and state legislative districts in 2012, and because of the new top-two primary elections systems, where two-top leading finishers and regardless of party affiliations, move on to the general election, it may affect their political futures.

Just recently the California 700,000-member Service Employees International Union, SEIU, the state’s largest union, has formed political action committees to recruit moderate Republicans. They hope to see state GOP move towards center, in regards to labor unions and worker issues.

Good and dandy, I support taxing Wall Street more, however in my opinion, and regardless what public employees unions are doing, we cannot keep feeding their fat pig either, or keep throwing taxpayer moneys on public employees and their unions, especially towards their costly pensions and salaries. 

We need more fiscal control coming from their part and they have to cooperate in helping taxpayers save money too. In other words, putting it bluntly, JUST because the richest may get taxed more, it doesn't MEAN public employees are going to get that money, capiche?