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Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage
The New American ^ | 28 February 2011 | Daniel Sayani

Posted on 12/12/2012 5:21:40 PM PST by VitacoreVision



This article analyzes the history of labor union violence, and how Rep. Capuano's comments are a perfect continuation of this historical truth.

Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage


The New American
28 February 2011


The raging union-led protests in Wisconsin have resulted in many Americans taking a closer, more critical look at labor unions and their political clout and influence in shaping policy. With the ubiquitous announcement from AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka that he is granted an audience at the White House “nearly every day,” the American people have become more skeptical of unions and the role that they play in the political process.

Spawning this renewed attention to organized labor are reports that Democratic politicians have been endorsing violence as a legitimate means of protest and political expression. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) has gone as far as telling a crowd of protesters at a union rally that they should be unafraid to “get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary,” and several other protesters took Capuano’s advice to heart, as former Tea Party Republican congressional candidate Marty Lamb, who ran against Democrat Rep. Jim McGovern in the 2010 elections, was reportedly brutally pummeled to the ground by union operatives at the same rally where Capuano issued his charge to violence.

However, the events that are unfolding now across the country must be placed within the context of organized labor’s broader history of violence and its historical embrace of brutal physical force as a means of legitimate political expression (which crosses the line into what is commonly defined as terrorism). The violence surrounding the various labor uprisings across America is part of a broader culture of bloodlust and savage turbulence within organized labor that has marred the movement since its inception in the late 19th century. It has clear roots in violent, anarcho-communist ideology that lacks any regard for natural rights of life, liberty, and private property — and it threatens the very foundations of our constitutional republic.

Under the presidency of Grover Cleveland, organized labor began to gain clout, and also assumed a bloody persona, as evidenced by the willingness of unions to use savage force to get their own way. The first tragedy to put labor unions squarely within the national consciousness was the Haymarket Square Massacre of May 4, 1886, in which striking union workers threw a bomb at Chicago police, killing eight police officers and countless civilians, after being incited to their lethal rampage by socialist Samuel Fielden (not unlike how Marty Lamb was beaten after the crowd of unionists was inflamed to violence by “progressive” Rep. Capuano).

Similarly, whenever labor unions perceive any threat to their hegemony and dominance in the workforce, they have a propensity to react with bloodshed. On July 6, 1892, union workers at Andrew Carnegie’s steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania were enraged when after going on strike, Carnegie hired non-union strikebreakers, resulting in the Amalgamated Association of Steel and Iron Workers union battling private Pinkerton guards and the Pennsylvania militia. Likewise, on May 11, 1894, 4,000 employees of George Pullman’s railroad company erupted into violent riots, sabotaging the delivery of mail (interstate commerce) to innocent Americans, and forcing President Cleveland to send in federal troops, declaring: “If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card will be delivered.”

Historians well know that past events are the best predicters of future behavior and phenomena. The events of the late 19th century are playing themselves out all over again almost 120 years later, with the vast majority of Americans suffering (according to modest estimates, no more than 20 percent of all American workers belonged to unions at any point in history), as best expressed by The New York World, in its report on the Pullman strike:

[T]his strike is...a war against the government and against society...iniquitously directed by leaders more largely concerned to exploit themselves than to do justice or to enforce the right.

Those hard-working, innocent, and loyal Americans who either refuse to join labor unions or who rely on government services provided exclusively by labor unions (due to the political muscle of the AFL-CIO and its allies in both the Democrat and Republican parties) are the ones who suffer. Just as mail delivery was sabotaged in 1894 (in fact, the word "sabotage" derives from the practice of French laborers hurling their clogs, or sabots, into machinery as a protest against management), Americans in recent times have also suffered.

In January 1999, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union toppled two transmission line towers at Thompson Pass, Alaska, depriving 400,000 Alaskans of power in the dead of winter. Also protesting the hiring of nonunion electrical workers, the unionists shot guns and assaulted the strikebreakers. Just two months ago, members of the Sanitation Workers Union in New York City sabotaged snow removal efforts following a blizzard at the end of December, crippling the city and resulting in several deaths, due to the inability of ambulances to reach critical patients in time.

According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, there have been over 9,000 documented cases of union violence since 1975, and of these, only 1,963 arrests and 258 convictions have been made; due to the collective political power of unions, only 3 percent of union thugs have been convicted of their crimes. The institute also reports that local law enforcement authorities are frequently overwhelmed by the number of participants in union violence, who sometimes lash out by blaming the company targeted by union militants for trying to continue its legal operation in the face of illegal violence.

Socialists and their comrades in the unions believe that human life is cheap and that people are merely “matter in motion,” explaining the litany of murders and atrocities committed by union operatives. Without the basis of respect for an individual’s right to life, it logically follows that they also lack respect for property rights:

In 1905, Governor Frank Steunenberg (D-Idaho) was assassinated by members of the militant Western Federation of Miners, due to his refusal to cave to their demands.

In 1990, the Teamsters Union in New York City struck against the New York Daily News, and pelted replacement drivers with bricks, rocks, and baseball bats, and one Teamster was charged with transporting Molotov cocktails.

In 1991, Steelworkers Local 5668 in West Virginia was found responsible for committing over 700 act of violence against strikebreakers, including two house bombings, six house shootings, four arsons, and 43 death threats.

In 1993, 16,000 members of the United Mine Workers went on strike in West Virginia. Non-union subcontractor Eddie York refused to walk out, and was shot in the head by union thugs. Callously endorsing the murder, Richard Trumka (now head of the AFL-CIO, and widely known as Obama’s puppet-master), said "if you strike a match and put your finger in, common sense tells you you're going to burn your finger."

In 1997, Teamsters Local 769 in Miami ordered a strike against UPS, and UPS driver Rod Carter, refusing to strike, was stopped and stabbed with an ice pick while on his route. Another driver testified that union bosses sanctioned the stabbing.

In 2005, Andrew Shomers of Laborers Union Local 91 in Buffalo, N.Y. pleaded guilty to vandalizing local housing authority offices and firebombing workers on an asbestos-removal project.

The above are but a few of the many documented cases of union violence, which currently go unprosecuted under the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision US v. Enmons (1973), in which SCOTUS ruled that union violence, if carried out to further the goals of a union, does not violate the provisions of the Hobbs Act, which prohibits extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

Essentially, SCOTUS gave official sanction to terrorism on American soil when the terrorists are labor unions, necessitating legislation such as the Freedom from Union Violence Act (FUVA), which would amend the Hobbs Act to override Enmons by criminalizing union violence. The legislation was last proposed in 2007 by 17 Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Ron Paul, and has yet to be proposed again in the Republican-controlled 112th Congress.


Related News:

Learning From History (Labor Unions) - The Kohler Strike of 1954

Are Unions Completely Overrun by Radicals?


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1886; 188605; 18860504; 189207; 18920706; 1899; 189901; 1905; 1954; 1973; 1982; 198206; 1990; 1997; 2005; 2007; afl; aflcio; andrewcarnegie; andrewshomers; arson; automobileindustry; battleofneworleans; beatings; biglabor; britain; brutality; bullying; capuano; carter; chin; chrysler; cio; cleveland; conyers; copkillers; deaththreats; democratparty; dicktrumpka; ebens; eddieyork; extortion; fielden; france; franksteunenberg; fuva; georgepullman; grovercleveland; haymarketmassacre; haymarketsquare; hobbsact; interstatecommerce; intiidation; intimidation; jimmcgovern; johnconyers; kohlerstrike; labor; laborunions; mail; martylamb; mcgovern; michaelcapuano; michaelnitz; mobs; molotovcocktails; murder; newyorkdailynews; nitz; organizedlabor; pullman; richardtrumka; righttowork; rodcarter; ronaldebens; ronpaul; sabotage; sabots; samfielden; samuelfielden; shomers; socialism; socialists; spain; steunenberg; stimulus; teamsters; teamstersunion; teaparty; terrorism; thuggery; trumka; unions; unionviolence; ups; usvenmons; usvsenmons; vincentchin; violence
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1 posted on 12/12/2012 5:21:48 PM PST by VitacoreVision
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To: VitacoreVision

Many don’t know.

There are now more unionized government employees in the U.S. than in the private sector.

What is more insidious here, is your paying the government union bosses wages and paying 100 percent of all unionized government employee wages.


2 posted on 12/12/2012 5:24:51 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: VitacoreVision

As long as Trumka keeps signing those checks he will continue to be welcomed.


3 posted on 12/12/2012 5:26:16 PM PST by Venturer
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To: VitacoreVision

Vincent Chin

From Wiki

a Chinese American beaten to death in June 1982, in the enclave of Highland Park, Michigan, United States in Greater Detroit. The perpetrators were Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz. The murder generated public outrage over the lenient sentencing the two men originally received in a plea bargain, as the attack, which included blows to the head from a baseball bat, possessed many attributes consistent with hate crimes. Many of the layoffs in Detroit’s auto industry, including Nitz’s in 1979, had been due to the increasing market share of Japanese automakers, leading to allegations that Chinese American Vincent Chin received racially charged comments before his death.


he attack was considered by many a hate crime, but pre-dated hate crime laws in the United States. Nevertheless, during a 1998 House of Representatives hearing on the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1997, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. suggested that the problem in making people sufficiently aware of the causes for and injustices of the Vincent Chin case was that it was a political “hot potato” that did not get picked up for “political reasons” with respect to the automobile industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Vincent_Chin


4 posted on 12/12/2012 5:27:20 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: VitacoreVision
Victor Riesel
5 posted on 12/12/2012 5:39:52 PM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: VitacoreVision

This won’t be a popular post here, but when you have big corporations you invariably will have large unions. Unions started in United States over wages and working conditions. For anyone interested read about working conditions in the coal mines in Appalachia in the last century and in the the textile mills with child labor. Are some Unions corrupt - you betya, However, the nurses need a good union right now because they are arbitrarily scheduled on shifts, and many of the factories overseas that produce materials for US companies need some good unions.IMHO


6 posted on 12/12/2012 5:42:43 PM PST by Citizen Tom Paine (An old sailor sends)
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To: VitacoreVision

This won’t be a popular post here, but when you have big corporations you invariably will have large unions. Unions started in United States over wages and working conditions. For anyone interested read about working conditions in the coal mines in Appalachia in the last century and in the the textile mills with child labor. Are some Unions corrupt - you betya, However, the nurses need a good union right now because they are arbitrarily scheduled on shifts, and many of the factories overseas that produce materials for US companies need some good unions.IMHO


7 posted on 12/12/2012 5:42:55 PM PST by Citizen Tom Paine (An old sailor sends)
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To: VitacoreVision

I wonder how the union cowards are going to fare when their prey shoots back?


8 posted on 12/12/2012 5:48:24 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state." - Cornelius Tacitus, Roman Senator)
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
However, the nurses need a good union right now because they are arbitrarily scheduled on shifts,

And now they have a choice of making that determination for themselves in Michigan.

and many of the factories overseas that produce materials for US companies need some good unions.IMHO

Not my problem.
9 posted on 12/12/2012 5:49:56 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: dragnet2

The $821 billion stimulus bill gave almost 70% to union workers. Those workers paid dues to their unions who then sent that money to the Democrat Party. In effect, the stimulus bill ended up in the treasury of the Democrat Party and Democrat candidates. This is our tax money and the tax money of future generations at work.


10 posted on 12/12/2012 5:58:30 PM PST by jonrick46 (The opium of Communists: other people's money.)
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To: jonrick46

Right to work in Michigan is a devastating blow to the democrats. Michigan unions send some $250 million to democrat campaigns every year.

I predict that as the unions shrink, they’ll try to squeeze more money out of members causing even more to jump ship.


11 posted on 12/12/2012 6:02:29 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Citizen Tom Paine

That may be true. The unions, if they want to stay relevent, need to start providing a quality product in order to entice people to join and spend money on dues. simple as that.


12 posted on 12/12/2012 6:33:06 PM PST by annelizly
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To: Citizen Tom Paine

“many of the factories overseas that produce materials for US companies need some good unions.”

OK, I’ll bite. Your recommendation would be the kiss of death for said overseas manufacturer. Many overseas suppliers for US companies either replaced domestic suppliers, or had to relocate overseas from the US because our unions had made them uncompetitive.


13 posted on 12/12/2012 6:48:32 PM PST by haroldeveryman
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
Right now the biggest problem is the public sector unions, and they've never worked under those kinds of conditions.

Getting those unions under control is becoming a matter of financial survival, and if the private sector unions are going to be the union muscle in that fight then we either take them down too, or we get bled dry.

14 posted on 12/12/2012 6:51:15 PM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: VitacoreVision

I’ve often wondered if any commercial airliners have been sabotaged by union types.


15 posted on 12/12/2012 8:04:35 PM PST by virgil
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To: virgil

I know union members have sabotaged jet engines that were then sent to be tested at Arnold AFB in TN. Someone had inserted bolts and metal debris and in one case, even a claw hammer, among the vanes inside the engines during their manufacture back in the late 80s or early 90s. Needless to say jet engines don’t injest that kind of thing very well and th results were messy and expensive.


16 posted on 12/12/2012 9:13:53 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: VitacoreVision

The advent of unionism coincided with the recent end of the civil war. Newly freed blacks traveled north to try to seek employment in friendlier surroundings. Bargaining with the only skill they had - a willingness to do hard physical labor at bargain rates, their presence threatened the employment of white laborers. Unions formed to protect the pay of white workers in Philadelphia and New York. The unions, of course, excluded blacks.


17 posted on 12/12/2012 9:39:32 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: cripplecreek
Another reason today's labor unions are corrupt is their association with the Mafia. The Mafia is alive and well in today's unions. Recently, eleven people associated with the Genovese crime family of La Cosa Nostra, infliltrated various unions and began extorting money from contractors in New York. One of those charged under the indictment is Salvester Zarzana, former President of Local 926 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Cases like this are going on all over the country.

The labor movement and its members have long suffered from extortion, thievery, and fraud. The history of the Mafia's association with the unions is given in the following book:

The unions are not our friends. They do not serve their member's best interests. The sooner the union members realize they are tools in a money laundering enterprise, the sooner this dinosaur of corruption will see its demise.

18 posted on 12/13/2012 12:36:05 AM PST by jonrick46 (The opium of Communists: other people's money.)
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To: VitacoreVision

The great thing public sector unions have going, of course, is that they get to elect their bosses, the people who give out their paychecks. Then they get to donate some of that back to re-elect the bosses so they can give them raises.

It’s a never-ending circle of corruption.


19 posted on 12/13/2012 1:52:20 AM PST by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: VitacoreVision

Soooo,
Why haven’t RICO laws been used to put these criminals in jail???


20 posted on 12/13/2012 3:43:45 AM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO))
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