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Let Them Eat Cake! DNC Blows Off Unions For Obama’s 50th Birthday Bash!

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  August 3rd, 2011 at 04:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

A day after President Obama held an “urgent” meeting with AFL-CIO bosses in the White House, the Democrat National Committee is hosting a huge birthday bash for Obama’s 50th birthday tonight in Chicago. The only problem is, DNC organizers apparently chose not to use union labor for the event.

While no one was in at Chicago’s IATSE local to confirm or deny whether IATSE members were ignored, an IBEW business representative seemed surprised when contacted over the telephone earlier.

IBEW Business Representative Jim Kelly stated that his IBEW local (which does camera work) was not contacted for the work. He also stated that the venue where the Obama Birthday Bash is taking place is a non union venue. A call into of UNITE-HERE’s Local 1 confirmed that the Aragon Ballroom is, in fact, a non-union location.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, tickets will range from “$50 a person to $35,800 per couple, which includes VIP seating at a “Birthday Concert” where celebs will be performing and a dinner with the president.”

Of course, given that the work is all going to what unions typically would refer to as non-union rats*, perhaps one of the courses will some humble pie.

* It is unknown whether any of the Chicago unions will have their inflatable rats outside greeting the President this evening.

HT: Jim Hoft @ BigGovernment.

________________

“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.

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COMMENTS

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  • izoneguy

    N/T

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    workers and firms appreciate your business. They don’t expect to be entitled to it.

  • snowshooze

    Hmmm. I don’t give him smart strategy points for this one.
    He just keeps pooping where he is eating..
    If this goes on much longer, he will throw himself out of office.

  • vamoose

    The unions weren’t left out altogether. Their funds paid for the cake.

    • standingonthewall

      This is so good, so true and so very funny. Well said.

  • eugenio

    They’ll probably say that it was next to impossible to find union workers since they only now make up 12% of the private work force. It was because of the repressive policies of George Bush, don’t you see? However, I’m sure Richard Trumka will have one of the best seats in the house and he will not lose any sleep over his “brothers” being dissed by Barry.

  • throwback59

    They should not “let them eat cake” until they investigate whether the DNC deliberately chose to leave the unions out of the “mix.’
    They should “batter” Obama the same way they battered Boeing.
    If they let the DNC get away with this it’ll show that you can have your cake and eat it, too.

    • funwithknives

      really “frost” ME. Not very “Tasty”, was it? What flavor was it anywho? I LOVE CHOCOLATE! Don’t we get any?

  • jpalm

    How many “Fat Cats” flew to Obama’s birthday in Private Jets???

    • standingonthewall

      Yeah, but I’m sure they were good citizens and bought the appropriate amounts of carbon offset credits. Hmmm, is that like the old days when you could buy and indulgence?

  • Tbone

    is also non-union. thump, thump.

  • fortcollins

    As Ralph Waldo Emerson penned, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

    We musn’t criticize the Dear Leader for this seeming, but perfectly explicable, event.

    You see, rightly understood, he is not hypocritically fawning over union votes while profiting from the reduced overhead of independent labor. Correctly comprehended, the Dear Leader actually is enticing the poor deluded non-union labor into his presence, where his personality and brilliant rhetoric can convince them of the error of their ways, and cause them to sign union cards on the spot.

    Now, doesn’t that make it all better?

    • fortcollins

      (Just in case anyone missed it, yes I was intending a wee bit of sarcasm in the preceding comment.)

  • carolina

    Check out the Aragon site linked above. This is a nod to the Hispanic community.

  • wbb1950

    gauche, garish cake I have ever seen. I bet it is sickeningly sweet.

  • Adjoran

    to play by the rules they hand down for the hoi polloi.

    You forgot the first principle of democratic centralism: all Party members are equal, but some Party members are more equal than others.

    Well, okay, that’s really the second principle; the first is that once there is a Party position, all party members are expected to follow it with religious fervor, and never question either its wisdom or effectiveness, but it sounded better the other way.

  • ibuyrmp

    That’s where Obama just threw the union workers! Who’s next?? Loyalty to Obama only!
    Prices too High from the union hall?

  • hendrig

    Labor unions helped Mussolini and Hitler gain power. When they didn’t need them anymore they stamped them out and threw them under the bus. The American labor unions also helped Obama get into power. So far, Obama has been following the example set by Hitler. If the unions don’t wise up and read the writing on the wall they will deserve to be thrown under the bus too. All of you Gays and Woman’s rights groups better start coming up with some contingency plans of your own while you still have time. If Obama allows Sharia Law into our justice system, you will soon go under the bus too. Remember. Under Sharia Law gays get beheaded and woman are forced to become servants to men. If they refuse they will loose their heads over it. Don’t think it can’t happen in America. If we keep acting like sheep it will. Edward R. Morrow said, “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” WAKE UP AMERICA!

  • cwfoster

    didn’t the NLRB not file an injuction to keep this from happening, as they did with Boeing?

  • funwithknives

    and if he would have done anything, it would have showed he cared.”I didn’t want to go to Your OL’ PARTY ANYWAY!!!” These are Children we’re talking about here.

  • dantes

    I work in Chicago in the entertainment field, so this issue of yours doesn’t make any sense to me. Are you saying that Obama shouldn’t have chosen the Aragon Ballroom since it is a non-union venue? Or are you saying that he should have brought union workers into a non-union house?

    Unions have contracts with various venues in Chicago, but not all of them. If you speculate that the unions would picket the Aragon Ballroom when Obama is there, then wouldn’t the same speculation require unions to picket the Aragon Ballroom on any other night somebody is performing?

    I think a better indication of when Obama “chooses” to use unions or not is when he actually has a choice, like when events are held in Grant Park. There are non-union labor pools and union labor pools the DNC can pull from, and they go with union labor whenever they have the opportunity. During the 2008 election season, and the transition afterwards, the Obama campaign regularly used union labor (they had my union shop on speed dial) for everything from staging, podiums, American flags, etc.

  • dantes

    I work in Chicago in the entertainment field, so this issue of yours doesn’t make any sense to me. Are you saying that Obama shouldn’t have chosen the Aragon Ballroom since it is a non-union venue? Or are you saying that he should have brought union workers into a non-union house?

    Unions have contracts with various venues in Chicago, but not all of them. If you speculate that the unions would picket the Aragon Ballroom when Obama is there, then wouldn’t the same speculation require unions to picket the Aragon Ballroom on any other night somebody is performing?

    I think a better indication of when Obama “chooses” to use unions or not is when he actually has a choice, like when events are held in Grant Park. There are non-union labor pools and union labor pools the DNC can pull from, and they go with union labor whenever they have the opportunity. During the 2008 election season, and the transition afterwards, the Obama campaign regularly used union labor (they had my union shop on speed dial) for everything from staging, podiums, American flags, etc.