"Solidarity Forever...

...because the unions pay me money"

Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Whip, and aspiring Speaker of the House, had this to say about the recent West Coast longshoreman's labor dispute:

...in callous disregard of the effects on the American economy, the shippers chose to close the ports and keep them closed...Today’s decision by the President to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act... reflects the failure of the Administration to encourage the shippers to bargain in good faith with the union

The longshoremen staged a de-facto strike for two reasons: they wanted to maintain their six-figure salaries, and they wanted to ensure that future port jobs, that arise from technological innovations, be classified as union jobs. So this was about nothing more than maintaining the ILWU's institutional power, and the union was essentially committing extortion and threatening billions of dollars of commerce in order to get their way.

Why would Nancy side so brazenly with the union on such a shameless power play that hurts rather than helps average working people? I don't know for sure, but it might have something to do with the $256,000 that labor PACs gave to her campaign for the current election, accounting for 30% of her contributions, twice as large a share as the average Democrat. This page has the complete honor roll of her union donors. Starting with $10,000 from the National Education Association down to $250 from the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen.

If Nancy gets to be Speaker of the House, it's fair to assume that she'll speak for John Sweeney before she speaks for anybody else.

UPDATE (Nov. 8) Pelosi has secured the position of House Minority Leader, making her an even stronger candidate to become Speaker should the Democrats retake the House in 2004. A complete index of my blog entries devoted to Nancy Pelosi is here

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 17, 2002 07:30 AM