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Union axes worker for wearing ‘Bush’ shirt, hat

By: James Richardson (Diary)  |  October 23rd, 2010 at 11:30 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

A California union stagehand was abruptly terminated Friday for wearing a “George H. W. Bush” sweat shirt and hat while constructing a stage to be used for a get out the vote rally featuring President Barack Obama.

Duane Hammond says his clothes were not a political statement, rather a sign of support for his son, who is serving on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. George H. W. Bush.

“I’m just humiliated,” Hammond said. “My son has been in the Navy for three years, he’s serving proudly, and I’m wearing his flag, so to speak.”

That explanation did not sit well with Hammond’s supervisor, who said either the shirt, which bears a large image of the aircraft carrier, went or he would.

“And because it said Bush I was told to go home and either turn my sweatshirt inside out,” the man said. “But first they made me take off my hat.”

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  • fpete13527
    • dambama

      The left is showing everyday that it will not tolerate free speech from it’s own members either.

      We always knew they work overtime to deny Conservatives freedom of speech.

      Now we see them going after their own, like freaking cannibals!

      The leftist progressives are starting to become even more Extreme and Dangerous!

      • dambama

        These union workers are funding this leftist progressive assault on America.

        Union members, if you are NOT a stinking communist big government teat-sucking, America hating loser then you will VOTE OUT YOUR LEADERSHIP!

        Quit electing Communists to lead your unions!

        • kestrel

          are baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and trying to guess what the Teamsters did with Jimmy Hoffa’s body, my impression is that the average union member has little (if any?) influence in choosing the leadership. Better that Michigan become right-to-work.

          from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

          * From 1999 to 2009, right-to-work states have added 1.5 million private sector jobs for a 3.7 percent increase; states which are not right-to-work lost 1.8 million jobs over the same decade, for a decline of 2.3 percent.
          * Some states, like Michigan and Ohio, home of the powerful United Auto Workers Union, have hemorrhaged private sector jobs, declining 17 percent and 10 percent respectively over that time period.
          — from ncpa.org

        • ihateliberals

          that runs the Unions. There is no way for the average member to vote out the leadership. it is so tightly controlled at the top that the elections basically go the way the union wants them to. the only fix for the Unions is a National Right To Work law like the one in Virginia and some other states. No one should be forced to Join a union. Unions are basically wht has destroyed our country. Through thier efforts they are making companies move their manufacturing operations to counties that don’ have unions. one less costly thing to deal with.

      • lightfootletters

        The left is showing everyday that it will not tolerate free speech. The leftist progressives are starting to become even more Extreme and Dangerous!
        Agreed! But, what is usually missed by the Hannity types is being intolerant to the point of censorship, on such a simple but important concept as ‘free speech’ automatically makes you not a liberal. Not any kind of liberal.

    • joe__k

      I heard Mr. Hammond on the radio. He was very clear making his point that his dismissal was not politically motivated by the Obama administration or any political entity.

      But, the fact is, unions are by their very nature political entities and are pretty much exclusively aligned with the democrat party.

      I was in a union myself for a number of years. I have to say that there were good things about that for myself and my family and I always appreciated those things. Also, I stand in agreement with them that the republican party is stating falsehood when they seek “right to work” status in varying states. I think any one with sense knows that union workers are very often vastly overpaid in non-right to work states. However, I have always taken exception to the claim that my dues were ‘forced’. While it is true, I could not be in the union if I did not pay those dues, it is also true that I received medical benefits for myself and my family and that during periods of lay off the union was generally able to find work for me, and that I currently enjoy the benefit of a union pension, albeit not a large one. Those things were and are the results of my paying my dues and remaining in good standing. I never had a single ‘union thug’ show up at my door with a baseball bat or tommy gun demanding payment. I paid those dues voluntarily and given the realities of making a living in America, I would do it again if I were to find myself a younger man tomorrow.

      Having said all that, this is also true about the unions: Individuality is not really encouraged (to say the least). Their attitude has always been pretty much “you are with us or against us”. I remained an individual in my thinking throughout all those years and to be honest, yes, I took a lot of ribbing and some unfair things happened on account of it, but the union I was part of was not really abusive, just somewhat intolerant and they always seemed to think I needed an education.

      The fact is, when it comes down to the bottom line, given the political stance of unions in America, anything they do is politically motivated. Mr Hammond may feel that “it was my own guys who did this to me” but the reality is those guys were just looking out for the interest of, shall we say, their “Big Brother”

      • ihateliberals

        to belong to a Union inorder to work. Getting a job with a comoany should not require you to join. if yo want those benefits then join but if i choose to go another way it should be my right nd ot the unions. you may have some benefit from the unions but i sy that if the union were not strapping the company there might not be the need to have lay-offs. the free market might have a chance to work and proved you with even better befits without the overhead of the union. Professionals get paid very well and have great benefits and there are no Unions to deal with. I ran my own software company for 35 years and employed 30- 45 people. I had to provide great benefits because the competition would have hire my guys away from me without them. The free market at work. When times got tough i did not lay my people off until there was no other way. we had a bench tht a worker could stay on for up to six months. I never had to lay anyone off. I couldn’t take the chance to lose my talent to the competition. A union would hve probably destroyed my business. i would not have had much control over assignments etc. It just would not have worked. Let’s put a NRTW law in place and let the free market decide. Don’t for get people on November 2nd itis take out the trash day. Unions are “Shovel Ready”. Of course Jimmy Hoffa already experienced that!

  • acat

    Seriously – the public-sector union rank and file types (labor, etc.) are generally patriotic and pro-armed-services. (using the GI bill to pay for college and get a mortgage is seen as one viable way to get kids out of a blue-collar life..) and this is why Reagan was able to wedge so many union types to vote for him – and other Conservative Republicans.

    Of course, the country club (ruling class) Repubs like George “no bluejeans” Will can’t make the connection as well as Reagan – this is one spot where Palin clearly has Reagan’s gift.

    Mew

    • texasgalt

      are dead. Hopefully, the crazies will yield a new crop.

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      As texasgalt pointed out, they were voters in an election 30 years ago. A bunch of them are dead.

      A lot more switched parties over the last 30 years.

      There may not be ANY left.

      • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

        They are all now republicans or they have died off.

        The biggest myth of the left is that the old racist Democrats in the south turned into Republicans.

        Not true at all. I grew up in the south and all my old racist uncles and the other old men in my community would have voted for a yellow dog before they voted for a republican. I even had one uncle who HATED LBJ and every democrat running, but still voted for them!?!?!?!!

        It was younger people like me who became Reaganites, we were attracted to the Conservative Opportunity Society.

        Now I have to go, LSU is playing Auburn

        • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
        • acat
      • acat

        The specific demographic “Reagan Democrats” of 30 years ago (time flies!) are no more, but the tendency to patriotism and the lack of knee-jerk hate for the armed forces are still more common among the blue collar workers.

        There’s a potential to bring the .. call ‘em the Children of the Reagan Democrats I suppose… to the same realization that their parents (and, potentially, grandparents) reached back in the day.

        Mew

        • Doc Holliday

          and I know most blue collar workers are patriotic, but I have seen little from organized labor members supportive of American values. People criticize moderate Muslims for not being outspoken in their denial of militants. The same can be said about union members who are not Marxists. If they don’t speak up, how can we know they are for real?

          This is not a one time thing, there have been countless times the unions have offended American Values. Remember the UAW workers who told the Marine Reservists they could not use their parking lot because of a couple Bush stickers on their cars?

          The UAW was slammed and later backed down. When they told the Marines they could park there again, the Marines said drop dead (metaphorically)

          • acat
          • Doc Holliday

            why don’t these mythological conservative union members start their own political action group?

          • acat

            but they weren’t really visible to the “ruling class” Repubs before Reagan came along and actually .. communicated.

            30 years is a long time… a standard “generation” is what, 25 years? So .. yeah, my guess is there’s a group of “Palin Democrats” or “Beck Democrats” out there…

            No way Romney or Thune can reach ‘em. Too “smooth”, too “inisider” .. they won’t get taken seriously. Same for Bush 1.0 and 2.0, for that matter.

            Mew

        • JSobieski

          Don’t underestimate the difference that makes.

          • acat

            Some stayed under control of rational school boards …

            but you’re right – it does make a difference.

            Mew

          • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

            Like the school board I work for, although there is some PC, and some left wing propaganda that leaks through like a toxic ooze.

            At least there is some real learning and accountability.

          • JSobieski

            I went to good public schools in terms of education, but I wouldn’t say that love for America was instilled in those places.

          • blooch

            and we were still taught good citizenship and patriotism back in the ’60′s, too. It was all about the Cold War and keeping up with the Soviets in education back then. Surprisingly, my childrens’ public school is still very good in all of these areas, too. I don’t expect that will last and hope my kids get through before the rot sets in.

            Remember back in the ’80′s when we were all worried about falling behind the rest of the world in education, and the various European countries were held up as exemplars of public education? It appears to be quielty going down the drain over there. My German friends all lament the ignorance of their children, nieces and nephews compared to their own days in German public schools., When I ask how this could possibly be, they point to two basic culprits:

            Number one is that it is almost impossible to fire bad teachers, thanks to unions and the power of the public sector.

            Number two is that the kids have no real incentive to learn, since they have come to expect long periods of being unemployed and on the dole interpersed with short, sporadic periods of underemployment.

            It may be that we will soon surpass the Euro-Socialists in education for awhile, until our leftists downshift our public school expectations to match our downshifted employment expectations. The Left may not be good at much, but it is certainly good at leveling.

          • JSobieski

            For those interested in learning, access to information has never been more comprehensive or easy. The Internet can make up for a lot if a child is interested, and if one or more parents give a solid nudge from time to time.

            I do think that the socialial engineering that occurs in many schools is truly evil.

          • cam1

            completely. If thought is regulated with PC … any PC. Thought is no longer part to the agenda. There’s no such thing as a “little PC”. It’s like being “a little pregnant”.

    • ihateliberals

      with unions. we need everyone one to wake up and recognize the tyranny of the unions. Their control exist because they have hooked their members into thinking the company is the enemy. NRTW law s the only wy to let the free market work.

  • mustango

    When idiots are running things, good people get hurt.

    I’ll bet that supervisor roots against the Oakland Raiders because they have a running back named Michael Bush.

  • http://www.alyssakaeding.com Alyssa Kaeding

    Well we all have learned the lesson that free speech only applies when you are agreeing with the liberals, unfortunately. Juan Williams is a prime example, being stabbed in the back by his own people for a personal opinion/feeling that NPR refused to legitimize.

    • trutexan

      I kept saying, “Welcome to our world Juan.” I seriously cannot believe he is so surprised after living in the business all these years and seeing everything first hand. Was he so naive as to think it only happened to other people or the Right must be just making this stuff up?

      I hope someone else has already given that sailor’s dad a new job. When the face of “evil” (their word not mine) is staring right at them, the Left get very ugly and terminate anyone that scares the crap out of them. Communists.

  • Kudzu

    Christians, Southerners, white people, and the military (and our families)… we can be insulted, prejudiced against and expect to just take it because no one will care.

    I reiterate my statements from after the passage of Stimulus, Obamacare, and the rest of this abomination: I no longer recognize my country.

    • stephaniet

      I hope to again recognize it someday soon, though. The quicker the better. I’d rather have a country where a guy is not fired for wearing an aircraft carrier shirt, but is calmly approached, asked who’s serving, and then is offered some gratitude.

      And I’m tired of “just taking it.” My dad’s even more tired of it, because he’s 38 years older than I am.

  • streiff

    he was wearing a hat and sweatshirt commemorating the USS George H W Bush (CVN-77). If you look in at the image in the post you can see the image of the carrier and the head-on aspect of an F/A-18.

    • http://www.skepticians.com James Richardson

      But the union objected because it had the word “BUSH.”

      • streiff

        or something else that supported GHWB or GWB I wouldn’t have an objection. He was working a dem campaign rally. They didn’t. They objected to his wearing paraphernalia commemorating an aircraft carrier. To me that is the story.

    • Kudzu

      Its sad that someone sees “Bush” and loses their minds.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    That’s the angle here, as streiff pointed out.

    • SteveLA

      Neil

      From KTLA, and update to the story.

      ***UPDATE: Duane Hammond says union officials called him this afternoon to apologize for the incident. He say they are “bending over backwards” to make it up to him.

      More like a Lone Idiot running the job site…and that idiot is probably getting verbally beat on by his Union Brothers and Sisters.

      My exposure to Motion Picture Union folks (mostly trades people) in LA tells me that they are mostly interested in not making waves and getting that next job. Which in Holly Weird is not all that assured with run-away production and incentives being offered by other states and countries to re-location production. Union wages are payed in most of those other outside of CA. production areas.

      • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

        You’re really quick to stick up for them.

        • SteveLA

          If by “them”, you mean the folks that I know who work in the Movie and TV industry as technical support people and belong to this union and others in Hollywood, sure do. They work pretty hard for their pay, some of them don’t work as much as they would like to because their aren’t that many gigs in LA because of run-away production. Yes I do support them because for the most part they are pretty decent hard working folks, lots of them who live in my community by the way.

          If you mean “them” idiots in charge of this job site who kicked this guy off a job site because they were clueless idiots and worse, no.

          • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

            “Run-away production” is union propaganda talk.

          • SteveLA

            Neil,

            Yep, just like arguments about/against H1B visas and other tricks used as part of the race for the lowest bottom line by US corporations is a “Union Trick”. Or complaints about outsourcing of call centers by Government Agencies to Bangalore is a “Union Trick”.

            Variety has lots of coverage on the topic, if you want to read more.

            I don’t work in this industry, or belong to a Union, but LA, at least Hollywood and the Northern part of LA Country is a bit of a company town. This is one of those issues that maybe you want to claim is a “propaganda”, but Movie and TV production is a major employer in California and subsidies from Canada and other places to bring production to their countries is a trade issue.

            I have sort of thread jacked this topic of this thread, so I’ve got nothing more to add.

          • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

            because of the unions.

            Just as the Teamsters chased movies out of Boston (google George Cashman), and have chased film out of Seattle, Hollywood’s over unionization is the root cause of the work leaving…

            Look at the list of unions that are needed to produce anything in Hollywood and then try to give a reason why any producer in their right mind wouldn’t leave LA.

          • izoneguy

            Peter Jackson?s Union Hardball Escalates As He Rages Against ?Pure Gutlessness?

            http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/10/peter_jacksons_union_hardball.html

            The lifting of the blacklist on The Hobbit does nothing to help the films stay in New Zealand. The damage inflicted on our film industry by NZ Equity/MEAA is long since done.

            Next week Warners are coming down to NZ to make arrangements to move the production off-shore. It appears we now cannot make films in our own country – even when substantial financing is available.

            The spectacle of NZ Actors? Equity suddenly cancelling their Wellington meeting, because film workers wanted to express to them their concern at losing The Hobbit, exemplifies the pure gutlessness of this small, self-centred group. They don?t appear to care about the repurcussions of their actions on others, nor are they prepared to take responsibility for decisions made in their name. NZ Equity constantly refer to ?good faith? discussions but they have never acted in good faith towards our film.

            NZ Equity’s unjustified industrial action against The Hobbit has undermined Warner Bro?s confidence in New Zealand as a stable employment environment, and they are now, quite rightly, very concerned about the security of their $500m investment. Unfortunately lifting the blacklist does nothing to help the situation. This will be the start of a domino effect, as word of NZ’s unstable employment environment, registers with film investors and studios, world-wide.

            We will continue the fight to keep the film in NZ, but ultimately this decision belongs to Warner Bro?s. We are however, hugely heartened by the incredible show of support from Wellington actors, technicians and crew. It is a reflection of the terrific pride NZ film workers have in their industry and their very real fear of losing their jobs.

          • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

            :(

          • SteveLA

            LUR

            No argument from me on the case to be made against Unions, you do it well matter of fact. My point is that at least in my patch of the world, lots of “below the line” people that I personally know are struggling with landing jobs. You and others are right that is largely a function of the Unions demands. I do somehow doubt that those folks who are de facto trapped into belonging to IATSI endorsed the actions of this particular idiot.

            By the way, the Republican (Merlin Froyd) running against Howard Berman in CA 28 has “Run-away production” as one of his campaign issues. Guess that shows you how much of a company town LA really is.

          • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

            http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2010/07/02/thugs-from-jimmy-kimmel-show-torture-pro-life-activist-with-hot-spotlight/

  • tngal

    this is like the fourth story that’s cropped up concerning so called political clothing and its getting silly. Here, a worker is denied being able to work due to union stupidity. This week, finally, a woman in AZ is given the legal go ahead to wear her tea party shirt when voting 11/2 and she won’t have to cover it up this time like she was forced to do earlier this year. In Texas a woman isn’t allowed to vote because she’s wearing the Gadsden flag pin and yesterday the Connecticut secretary of state said poll workers could ask people wearing WWE apparel to cover it up because its considered campaigning even though there is no mention of McMahon. Aggghh

    Notice none of these items had a specific party or candidate on them. Suppose I’m wearing a shirt with a big ole marijuana leaf on it and go to vote in California will that work? Suppose I’m wearing a shirt with Ford not Chevy on the front, will that send a message?

    • acat

      Think that’d be a problem?

      Mew

      • tngal

        yeah, that’s gonna be an issue.

  • http://seekingliberty.wordpress.com fmaidment

    …always lookin’ out for the little guy…

  • http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/ reaganiterepublicanresistance

    Could set this guy up in Pacific Pallisades for life… easy case

  • joe__k

    You are right. The average union member really does have very little to do with choosing the leadership. Kind of like the average voter really does seem to have very little to do with choosing a president, in my personal opinion.

    The standard byline of unions to get people their members to vote the way they want them to is “Vote your paycheck”

    I always had trouble with this. You see, I happen to believe that unions are right, the republican party really does want to keep wages as low as possible. I do not believe that is because they hate the proverbial ‘working man’. I believe it is because, like it or not, everything in any economic system exists on a more or less pyramidal system. The base of any pyramid is much larger than anything higher up, and bears most of the weight (or economic burden) This reality does not change in a socialistic or communistic system (or any system) in comparison with capitalism. The only difference is that in the capitalistic system, we know who gets our money and if we have the dream, the drive, the ambition, the wisdom and the guts, we can go get it back. The achilles heal of socialism/comunism is that people have no such options, they are in fact economic slaves to government.

    Yes, the republican do suppress wages. The democrats (or liberal republicans) that the unions invariably endorse do in fact always seek to push wages higher, in order that they may then turn around and tax the hell out of you with the ultimate goal being to grab and or maintain even greater power over all those ‘working men’ that they claim to support.

    Bottom line for me, when I was in the union was this: Unless I find a means to survive in America other than on someones time clock, it makes no difference which party I vote for, I get the same empty bag no matter which party is in power. My personal ‘paycheck’ was never an issue for me during an election. So I vote on the basis of issues that I believe do relate to myself and my family, and I always vote in their favor, which means that although I do agree with the unions on a point or two, over all, I never voted for a single union endorsed candidate in all the years I was in the union. Not out of spite for the union, but out of responsibility for my country. If we do not remain free as a nation, and secure, nothing else is going to matter.

  • eheassler

    Unions and Democrats will both tell you that Conservatives and Republicans don’t care about workers, families, healthcare, children, dogs, cats, etc. Well, Michigan has been controlled by Democrats for nearly and Unions for nearly 30 years. How’s that working out for you Michigan? Detroit?

    NY is controlled by Democrats and unions for government employees and teachers. Consequently my taxes are the highest in the nation. We are on the verge of voting in a legacy candidate for Governor who as director of HUD was in the middle of the governmental meddling in the mortgage industry that resulted in our national financial meltdown. Now he will be our Governor. NY would vote Jack The Ripper for Governor as long as he was a Democrat.

    California is ruled mostly by Democrats and unions. Yeah, yeah, I know what party the Rhino Schartzenneger belongs to. He deferred to the Dems and look what it got him. Hey California, how are the public employee unions and the Democrats working out for you? Bankruptcy, no kidding?!