Sundown on the Unions and What's Made In the USA, Chapter XXVII: Even Union Organizers Prefer Non-Union Hardhats as Props

Nick Gillespie | June 24, 2009

The Politico reports that representatives of the AFL-CIO hit Capitol Hill yesterday to push the pro-union Employee Free Choice Act and more generally, a "made in the USA" kind of vibe. To drive home its protectionist message, the AFL-CIO handed out construction-site hard hats, long a symbol of blue-collar chic. The problem? Take a look below at the country of origin of said symbol.

Past chapters in pro-union stunts gone wrong:

"Hired Feet" Protest Low Wages—For Low Wages: Unions hire homeless to walk protest lines; pay $8 an hour, no benefits.

Protesters Paid Less to Picket Wal-Mart Than They Made When They Worked There. In 2005, Las Vegas Weekly reported on a protest in which picketers made less walking in 100+ degree heat outside the superstore than they used to make while working there. 

A quick rundown of pro-union Obama actions so far, courtesy of Investor's Business Daily.

And a bonus link to Bob Dylan's '80s classic "Union Sundown," whose meaning is inscrutable but somehow directly on point as always.

Comments

Kyle Jordan|6.24.09 @ 10:38AM|#

Read this off of Drudge earlier. You know, with all the shit that gets tossed our way, it's little things like this that make me smile. Not in the wholesome good way, but a form of happiness none the less.

|6.24.09 @ 10:40AM|#

So, any pro-union person who purchases an item made in China is a hypocrite? And unions have to pay "strike wages" that completely replace the wages of the workers on-strike, or else that's a "stunt gone wrong"? And unions have to include benefits when they hire people to walk a picket line for a few days?

I'm not pro-union in any manner, but this post is inane.

The Angry Optimist|6.24.09 @ 10:43AM|#

no wonder you're mediocre. you probably cite from the Key System when you read West, don't you?

Go read the articles and get back to us, Mediocre.

|6.24.09 @ 10:44AM|#

But, don't you see? Nobody makes anything in this country anymore, because Ronald Reagan destroyed the middle class!

Kyle Jordan|6.24.09 @ 10:45AM|#

Well, if one says that it's imperative that we all "Buy American" and then proceeds to hand out foreign made goods, that strikes me as a bit hypocritical.

Then again, are there hardhats that are actually USA made?

The Angry Optimist|6.24.09 @ 10:48AM|#

P Brooks - if I didn't already know that my grandfather has never touched a computer in his life, I'd swear you were him.

|6.24.09 @ 10:52AM|#

Then again, are there hardhats that are actually USA made?

I got your American made hard hat right here. :)

And it took me less time to google it than it took me to type this comment.

|6.24.09 @ 10:53AM|#

Our increasing tolerance for open hypocrisy and doublespeak is messing us the hell up.

Nekkid as a Jay Bird|6.24.09 @ 10:59AM|#

"I'm not pro-union in any manner, but this post is inane."

And hiring the homeless to walk a picket line because the union boys with their fat asses are too fucking lazy to walk it themselves screams rationality, right?

Stoop fuck.

|6.24.09 @ 11:00AM|#

But, Isaac-

The AFL-CIO were spending their own money. If they had received a stimulus grant to lobby Congress, they would undoubtedly have opted for American-made hard hats. See how important the stimulus is?

Tricky Prickears|6.24.09 @ 11:03AM|#

A friend of mine is a union iron worker. He told me that everyone stopped wearing Carolina boots because they were no longer made in the USA. Now, they wear Wolverine. They are assembled in the USA, well, certain models. I swear, these unions are their own worst enemy.

|6.24.09 @ 11:05AM|#

Say, what's with the hue and cry over Sanford's vacation? He was apparently in touch with his staff and has taken vacations like this before. Couldn't have anything to do with him being the poster child from defying the spendathon, could it? Got a take down all of the possible candidates in 2012, too, of course.

Kyle Jordan|6.24.09 @ 11:10AM|#

"A friend of mine is a union iron worker. He told me that everyone stopped wearing Carolina boots because they were no longer made in the USA. Now, they wear Wolverine. They are assembled in the USA, well, certain models. I swear, these unions are their own worst enemy."

They're just too fucking cheap to pony up for Danners.

And that's what I was getting at with Sandford. Even the whif of some type of misdoing and he's going to burned at the stake.

Ed Schultz|6.24.09 @ 11:10AM|#

"Got a take down all of the possible candidates in 2012, too, of course."

I'm working as fast as I can!

|6.24.09 @ 11:11AM|#

Nick, maybe lobbying to pass a minimum wage bill doesn't count as a "stunt," but on your list I would have included ACORN suing California to be exempt from the very minimum wage law they helped pass:

"In 1995 Acorn unsuccessfully sued California to be exempt from the minimum wage, claiming that 'the more that Acorn must pay each individual outreach worker . . . the fewer outreach workers it will be able to hire.'"

|6.24.09 @ 11:12AM|#

Greenpeace once protested the environmental facility where my dad works by climbing their smokestack and hanging a sign talking about toxic smoke, etc. The facility confiscated the sign and analyzed it in their lab, only to determine the sign was made using lead-based paint. Local paper, front page above the fold the next day. You can't buy coverage like that.

Kyle Jordan|6.24.09 @ 11:21AM|#

@mike

That's just great!

ed|6.24.09 @ 11:24AM|#

Say, what's with the hue and cry over Sanford's vacation?

The Democrat fluff girls and boys over at MSNBC can barely contain their glee over this bit of oddness. They see a rival and they attack. This utterly transparent political bias makes FOX News look like a den of Boy Scouts.

|6.24.09 @ 11:32AM|#

Of course, the Chinese made hard hats are, when ordered in quantity, about 1/10 the price of the American made hard hats , so it is rational for the unions, when handing out "free" hard hats in quantity, to go with the Chinese made hats -- unless someone actually looks at where they are made and points out the hypocrisy, in which case those cheaper hats get kinda expensive when you take into account the cost of bad PR.

ed|6.24.09 @ 11:35AM|#

I wonder if the wives and husbands of these union members are all American-made?

|6.24.09 @ 11:42AM|#

Our increasing tolerance for open hypocrisy and doublespeak is messing us the hell up.

I used that (with attribution) in a different thread just now.

stuartl|6.24.09 @ 11:48AM|#

...Bob Dylan's '80s classic "Union Sundown," whose meaning is inscrutable but somehow directly on point as always.

Nick, isn't this a typical (starting with "Tangled Up in Blue") example of Dylan painting all the different views on a subject? He tries to show it from the view of the union workers, the impoverished Brazilian woman, all of us owning foreign made goods, the capitalist insisting on making something that sells, etc.

It is only inscrutable if you insist on a single viewpoint.

|6.24.09 @ 11:51AM|#

Just goes to show you that unions care just as much about workers' rights as the government cares about the freedom of its citizens.

|6.24.09 @ 11:53AM|#

Angry Optimist -- If I admit that I didn't read the articles before forming and stating my opinion, are you going to insist that I change my moniker to "Shitty Lawyer"?

|6.24.09 @ 12:03PM|#

J sub D,

So long as I'm cited and paid a massive royalty, I am content ☻

|6.24.09 @ 12:03PM|#

Sargent: This code name Hard-Hat code name Hard-Hat.
Sargent: Do you read me, over?
Chong: Was that lard ass?
Sargent: Hard-Hat code name Hard-Hat.
Sargent: Do you read radio dispatch?
Chong: Hey got something for lard ass.
Sargent: HARD-HAT HARD - HAT do you understand?
Cheech: Lard ass lard ass.
Sargent: HARD-HAT Radio Dispatch do you know who this is?
Cheech: No, who is this is?
Sargent: This is Sargent Stadanco.
Cheech: Oh yeah , you know who this?
Sargent: No.
Cheech: Bye Bye Lard Ass.

|6.24.09 @ 12:16PM|#

The facility confiscated the sign and analyzed it in their lab, only to determine the sign was made using lead-based paint.

But was it union-made lead-based paint? That's what really matters, right?

Of course, the Chinese made hard hats are, when ordered in quantity, about 1/10 the price of the American made hard hats , so it is rational for the unions any employer, when handing out "free" hard hats in quantity to its union employees, to go with the Chinese made hats

Yes?

|6.24.09 @ 12:21PM|#

This isn't merely hypocrisy. If the union purchased the hats for the obvious reason--they're insanely cheaper than a U.S., union-made variety would be--that's pointing out in gigantic blazing letters that the same truth holds for companies, the government, and individual consumers when they make their buying decisions.

|6.24.09 @ 12:22PM|#

The union is just doing a little pre-emptive sucking up to our future owners/overlords.

|6.24.09 @ 12:32PM|#

I'm anxiously awaiting the first contract negotiation between the UAW, in the form of the workers, and the UAW, in the form of GM and Chrysler board members/ shareholders/ trustees of the VEBA. I hope they're televised.

I wouldn't want to be in the room, though; the goo from all the exploding heads would be hard to get off of my silk top hat and kidskin spats.

JB|6.24.09 @ 12:52PM|#

Irony is lost on union members. They usually have very low IQs and bad senses of humor.

Never trust a union product; that includes public school students and GM cars.

Paul|6.24.09 @ 1:20PM|#

So, any pro-union person who purchases an item made in China is a hypocrite?

No, any "buy Amurrican" pro-union person who purchases an item made in China for the explicit purpose of promoting Unionism and "Buy Amurrican-ism" is a hypocrite.

|6.24.09 @ 1:31PM|#

"No, any "buy Amurrican" pro-union person who purchases an item made in China for the explicit purpose of promoting Unionism and "Buy Amurrican-ism" is a hypocrite."

Or maybe just exceptionally stupid.

|11.7.09 @ 11:31AM|#

The problem is that only 5% of our goods are still made in the USA. Still, most Unions do try very hard, even pay higher prices to adhere to buy America, union made t-shirts, caps etc...In the end, it's purely symbolic and very unlikely we can re-build entire industries. Middle class jobs with benefits are also shrinking in favor of part-time low wage service jobs.

hmm|6.24.09 @ 1:40PM|#

I watched/am watching a small (50ish)union shop vote down a pay freeze for one year with the lost pay for the year to be made up at sometime in the future with interest in order to help a company manage its costs during the current economic issues. The company eventually had to eliminate some positions and fill them with part time people paid top scale per the contract, but cost slightly less due to insurance and other benefits. Shortly after that the union filled a complaint that the company was using too many part time/freelance employees and paying many of them the differentials and increased pay for working the off hours(ours a lot of regular employees do not want). So now the station has had to move people who do not want to work off hours into those positions and they are considering contracting out portions of the work part time or freelance people were doing to another company (not union from what I understand) to get around the complaint and possible suit for using freelance help too much.

On top of this the union has kept one member employed through a 2-3 month leave every year. She sues under the union contract and the company has to grant her job back and hold the position. The most recent event saw her off work due to panic attacks for almost 4 months. The attacks came after she was reprimanded for over 5 minutes of dead air without a technical reason, she just wasn't paying attention. Now she has to be given the easiest shifts, but not the over night which are pretty dead in order to avoid triggering her panic attacks. This ensured that every person there had their schedule changed and many people now endure some of the most difficult jobs nonstop throughout their schedule instead of getting the occasional easier/less stressful days here and there.

This whole situation epitomizes the ass backwardness of unions.

It should be noted most of these people are either technically educated or traditionally educated. More than one with graduate degrees in physical sciences and social sciences. No low IQs here, just stupid, self centered, short sighted, retarded, dipshits.

Thank god I don't work there. I couldn't deal with the complaining and crying.

/rantoff

|11.7.09 @ 11:39AM|#

If you want to paint everyone with a the same prejudiced brush, that's your privilege. You can't accurately use one individual to represent an entire group without revealing your own ignorance. It may be convenient to stereotype the ass backwardness of all union workplaces, but it is certainly not accurate. Remember, a contract is binding in both directions. As a practical matter, a union must protect the rights spelled out in the contract. That is due process.

|6.24.09 @ 2:05PM|#

Hey, people. Buy a merkin!

|6.24.09 @ 3:31PM|#

There appears to be a difference in quality and features between the American-made hard hats I linked to and the Chinese-made hard hats at 1/10 the price. If you're gonna actually be trusting your life to the hard hats on a dangerous job site, saving ten to twenty bucks on a cheap hate may seem like an insanely false economy.

But if you're the union handing them out as a PR stunt to people who won't actually go to work wearing them, then it makes sense to cut corners and get them as cheap as possible, rather than make them functional -- except for the costs of the PR stunt backfiring, as it has here.

|6.24.09 @ 3:40PM|#

prolefeed

Since hats intended as cheap handouts for a publicity stunt don't need to meet OSHA standards it's likely that they could have bulk-ordered them from any one of a few dozen custom plastic forming shops in the US.

But, of course, it's also unlikely that any of those shops uses union labor, either. :)

|6.24.09 @ 6:49PM|#

The sad thing is that all they had to do to avoid this coming to light was rip the stickers off the hats.

|6.24.09 @ 7:38PM|#

Sorry, man, that's not in the scope of employment.

matt|6.25.09 @ 12:02PM|#

Hunh? I thought China was a union shop.