Over the summer, from May until September, members of the RWDSU (an affiliate of the United Food & Commercial Workers) in Williamson, New York were out on strike for 112 days against their employer Mott’s, which is owned by Dr. Pepper Snapple.

Andrew Cuomo* (son of Mario) is running to fill his father’s shoes as governor in New York against Carl Paladino.  In so doing, Cuomo is relying on the union vote in order to win.

When Andrew Cuomo took a campaign contribution from Mott’s during the strike, his campaign said it would go to the union to aide the strikers.  It was a lie.

When Andrew Cuomo was found taking campaign cash from both sides in an upstate labor battle, his aides twice claimed he gave the money from management to the unions strike fund.

Just-released campaign finance records show otherwise – and confronted with this, Team Cuomo on Tuesday backed off a story it had told for two months.

On June 25, the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful fired off a letter to union pals supporting strikers at the Motts apple juice factory in rural Wayne County.Just 13 days later, Cuomo got a $35,000 contribution from Motts, whose employees walked off the job to protest a $1.50-an-hour wage cut and slashed benefits.

When the Daily News asked about the Motts donation Aug. 3, a top Cuomo campaign aide claimed it had been turned over to the union representing 305 striking workers.

In fact, the union never got a dime.

The money that Cuomo’s campaign said was going to aide the union strikers never got to them. Instead it went to the Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund–eight weeks later.

Carl Paladino is running an unconventional campaign against Cuomo.  You can check him out here.

[*Note: The striking resemblance of the worm in the above cartoon to Andrew Cuomo is purely coincidental.]

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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.”  Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted.

For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.