Pennsylvania Next in Union Crosshairs

Government union leaders are ramping up their attack messaging machine in Pennsylvania and planning a rally to bully state lawmakers as they did in Wisconsin and Michigan.

But this should come as no suprise, these union leaders announced a long time ago that Pennsylvania would be ground zero for them in 2014, to take out Gov. Corbett and other Republicans with their election-related activity.  They even bragged about their political power to the media.

U.S. News from December 2012:

• The AFL-CIO’s Podhorzer said unions also plan to target Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
• Hungry for a win, unions also are circling Corbett in Pennsylvania and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (emphasis added).

POLITICO from December 2012:

The AFL-CIO has already built up sizable campaign operations in Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada and Wisconsin—the site of a titanic 2012 gubernatorial recall fight—in addition to Ohio and Michigan, union officials said. The labor giant deployed new staff to those states about a year ago as part of what AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka has called the ‘permanent infrastructure’ of national unions.” …‘All across the country, including Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, working families will be making their voices heard in those governor’s races,’ Vale said (emphasis added).

POLITICO again from November 2011:

Last week POLITICO reported the National Education Association, AFSCME and SEIU were buying TV time …’Congress should act quickly to preserve the middle class tax cuts, and that will take leaders willing to put people ahead of partisan politics. Leaders like Congressmen Pat Meehan and Mike Fitzpatrick,’ says the announcer in the ad airing in Philadelphia.

Media Trackers from August 2013:

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s place on a national AFL-CIO political 2014 target list along with five other Republican governors comes as no surprise to observers of the power of public employee unions.

Quoted in a Tuesday story at Politico.com, AFL-CIO political director Michael Podhorzer identified Corbett among the six governors whose defeat AFL-CIO considers “most consequential” for union members (emphasis added).

Labor unions are lining up their targets—and they’re not shy about naming them publicly.

Pennsylvania leaders would do well to note the coming battle, and more importantly that this effort is being funded by forced union dues collected at taxpayer expense.