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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Obama defends public employee unions #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Obama defends public employee unions

Obama defends public employee unions

Responds to pressure from below

It shows what happens when the base starts holding politicians accountable. A half-million union workers and supporters marched around the country last weekend to defend their rights to organize and bargain collectively. Their main targets were Republican and T-Party governors and billionaire backers like the Koch brothers who thought the time was right to pull a Reagan/PATCO-style union-busting move. But the protests, along with polls showing increasing support for the protesters, also pushed an embarrassingly quiet Obama to finally come out strongly in support for union rights yesterday at the National Governors' Assoc. conference.
"I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their