Kerry Criticized for Betraying Union Workers

NEWTOWN, Conn., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a letter sent to Sen. John Kerry from National Shooting Sports Foundation President Doug Painter: National Shooting Sports Foundation President Doug Painter today criticized presidential candidate John Kerry for betraying union workers whose pleas for help he ignored earlier this year in a vote that would have protected union jobs. Kerry was also taken to task for accepting as a gift a hunting gun that could be banned under Kerry-sponsored legislation. The strongly worded letter delivered to Capitol Hill today emphasizes the Senator's hypocrisies. On Labor Day, Kerry claimed to be a supporter of hunters in America as he received a semi-automatic shotgun from labor union leaders. The letter from Painter is below. This letter, as well as a request for Kerry's support from United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts, may also be seen at http://www.nssf.org.

On behalf of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the recreational shootings sports industry, and our over 2,300 members including firearm and ammunition manufacturers, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you on the gift of a Remington shotgun you accepted from Cecil Roberts, International President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). I trust the receipt of this gift by you complies with applicable federal law. I hope Mr. Roberts also took time to help you understand how your recent votes against firearm manufacturers threatens to throw hundreds of his union workers onto unemployment lines. Your claim to be a friend of gun owners is hypocritical, at best. You are a co-sponsor and leading supporter of legislation that could ban the very shotgun you so graciously accepted and possibly turns tens of millions of law abiding gun owners into criminals.

In March of this year, you and Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) led the fight to kill The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (S.659) by attaching "poison pill" amendments. This job-saving legislation would have prohibited the reckless lawsuits designed to bankrupt and destroy our industry. You played a leadership role in blocking this legal reform bill that overwhelmingly passed the House, and enjoyed the broad bi-partisan support of a majority of your Senate colleagues. Your actions threaten the existence of the U.S. firearm industry. Mr. Roberts understands the significance of this legislation and on September 23, 2003, sent you and your colleagues the attached letter urging co-sponsorship and passage of this important legislation. In his letter urging the measure's passage to protect union jobs and our industrial base he told you,

An issue that is often overlooked ... is the economic impact the closing of our firearms industry will have on workers and their communities. In most cases these plants are located in rural areas and are the largest employers in the community. Nearly 1000 UMWA members work for Remington Arms in Ilion, one of the largest employers in Herkimer County in upstate New York.

In the state of New York, where our members work for Remington Arms, 179,400 industrial jobs have been lost since January 2001. We need to take steps to protect and encourage growth of our industrial base, including our firearms manufacturers. You can do that by co - sponsoring and supporting S. 659.

As you gleefully shook your new shotgun in the air, you knew your votes to kill S. 659 held the very real potential of condemning tens of thousands of workers -- including union workers-- living in states such as West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and New York to the unemployment line.

The bankruptcy of America's gun industry holds critical national security consequences. If opportunistic trial lawyers colluding with anti-gun politicians like you are successful, our military and law enforcement will be forced to go offshore to purchase the firearms that guarantee our freedoms and protect us from terror. Your legislative attacks against our industry will place our security and hard-fought liberties hostage to the political whims of French, German, or other foreign leaders who could block such a sale.

When you reported for duty in the Senate last year you co-sponsored The Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003 (S.1431). Your legislation would ban the very shotgun you held aloft as well as many other models of semi-automatic shotguns, some built over a century ago. Literally overnight, millions of gun owners who go afield to shoot turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants, small game or trap and skeet could be considered criminals in possession of what you would classify as a "semi-automatic assault weapon."

America's firearm manufacturers urge you to stop using your "photo-op poses" to divert attention from your attempts to destroy our industry and throw thousands of our workers onto the unemployment line. We are proud of the quality firearms we make. As your hometown of Boston acknowledged in court, "members of the firearm industry have a longstanding commitment to reducing firearm accidents and to reducing criminal misuse of firearms."

Having seen pictures of you afield from your staged photo-ops, we urge you to read carefully the manufacturer's safety instructions that accompanied your new shotgun and to take a hunter safety course. Perhaps by actually using your new shotgun -- either hunting or at the range -- instead of as a prop for PR ploys, you will gain a greater appreciation of our sport and decide to renounce your longstanding legislative assault designed to destroy our industry and the Second Amendment you claim to support.

Steelworkers in the Upper Ohio Valley recently complained and alleged that the "Steelworkers for Bush" who stood on the platform when President Bush visited Wheeling, WV recently, really weren't steelworkers. Well, that little hissy fit hasn't worked. In today's Wheeling paper, those Bush-supporting union guys struck back:

WEIRTON - The "Steelworkers for Bush" want it known that they truly are steelworkers and that they are union members who think for themselves and question union leadership. The group that stood behind Republican President George W. Bush when he spoke in Wheeling on Aug. 29 called a news conference Thursday at the Millsop Community Center in Weirton to refute claims that they aren't really steelworkers.

Fourteen of them have signed a letter to Democratic challenger John Kerry asking that he "do the right thing" and not allow steelworkers that support him "to attack their fellow union brothers and sisters."

Eleven members of the group indicate with their signature that they are workers for Weirton Steel. They are Richard Casini, Michael Ingole, Henry DiNofrio, Bob Hoover, Rhonda Jennings, Wesley Robinson, Frank Casini, David Haught, Donald Elder, Donald Ryan and Greg Williams.

Others who signed the letter were Jerry DiBacco, an employee of the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.; Robert Carpenter, a worker at Weircove; and Weirton Steel retiree Robert Haught.

The steelworkers crafted their letter after steel union leadership and members of the Kerry campaign announced earlier this week that they were investigating the tape of Bush's Wheeling speech to determine whether the workers in black T-shirts behind him actually were steelworkers.

Richard Casini, who introduced the president in Wheeling, said the steelworkers support Bush because the steel tariffs he imposed "saved the industry." Casini is also a Democrat and a union steward with the Independent Steelworkers Union. The ISU, the United Steelworkers of America and the United Mine Workers of America all have endorsed Kerry, he added. Casini said he has been questioned by the ISU membership about the union's decision to endorse Kerry.

"They thought I did it," he said. "There was an enormous amount of our people who were not happy. I thought we needed a voice" to show support for Bush, "and the effort just snowballed."

Casini added that since he spoke out for the president, he has not received the best of treatment from some other union members that support Kerry. "I get comments every now and then," he said. "I've found things in my mailbox at the union office that were just childish - the type of things you would find on the Internet. They were put there to challenge my views.

"I took them to our union president (Mark Glyptis), and he has asked them to stop. When they get in the attack mode, it is the most disturbing thing."

At a Kerry rally in Steubenville on Saturday, former United Steel Workers of America local president John Saunders - now co-chair of the Ohio County Democratic Party - said he disagreed that the tariffs and Bush were what had saved the steel industry. Saunders suggested the industry was instead saved by concessions in benefits for retirees agreed to by union membership.

"That is ridiculous nonsense," Casini said Thursday. "The tariffs are what saved it. These people who would tell you otherwise are intellectually dishonest. They think we (union members) are idiots who can't think for themselves.

"There are many steelworkers who would be happy if the union got out of the politics business and got back to the business of representing our concerns about our jobs and pensions."

He added that the Steelworkers for Bush appearance in Wheeling "was public," and union leadership didn't have to secretly investigate tapes to prove the steelworkers' identity. "They just find it difficult to accept it when (union members) just won't follow them," Casini said. "It used to be thought that what was good for the union was good for the worker, and what was good for the union was what was good for Wheeling-Pitt. That is not the case anymore." link

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