- Videos (September 2011)
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President, Inc.
Romney for President, Inc.
"Obama Isn't Working: Labor"
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3:24 web video from Sept. 12, 2011.
[Sound] Sen. Obama (SEIU 9/17/07):
“It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word
‘union.’ A president who strengthens our unions by letting them
do what they do best: organize our workers.”
Paul Munsch: “My
name’s Paul Munsch.
[Music] I’ve owned a company called St. Louis
Paving. A man came up to me and handed me a business card that
said “Organizer, Laborers’ International Union of America.’ And
he says: ‘You’ve got ‘til April 27th to talk to us about how we can
improve your business.’ So, I said, no thank you, I’m not
interested. And my men went along with me. They were all
right behind me. So, it was a team effort. So we fast
forward to April 27th. We’re working at a shopping mall.
All of a sudden, six guys jump out. They start videotaping our
equipment, videotaping our men, videotaping their cars and their
license plates. With that, they blew up this 25 foot tall
inflatable rat, with our name plastered on its chest, blood coming out
of its mouth. And they all picked up picket signs and started
picketing in front of the building.”
Sen. Obama: “It’s time
we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word ‘union.’”
Paul Munsch: “We’ve
never been union, and our employees have never expressed an interest in
being union. If we were union, we’d be dealing with three unions,
not one: the Teamsters, the Operating Engineers, and the
Laborers. The guy who’s on the roller couldn’t pick up a
shovel. The guy with a shovel couldn’t get in a truck. The
guy in the, driving the truck couldn’t get out and get on the roller or
pick up a shovel. To me, it was just the inefficiency of that was
just grating. I think it offends the sensibility of any
businessman to think of that. But I think it offends anybody’s
sensibility. That kind of inefficiency doesn’t make any sense to
anybody.”
Sen. Obama: “We’re
ready to play some offense for organized labor.”
Paul Munsch: “And what
they would do is show up at our equipment yard. And they would
follow our trucks to a job. And, they would put up pickets.
They’d try to embarrass us, embarrass us in front of our
customers. And the hope would be that our customers would stop
using us, and we’d feel forced to sign an agreement with the union.
Almost everything they do makes the skin crawl in anybody who hears
this story. And yet, everything they do is legal. And I’ve
tried to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt on a lot of
issues. It’s been one union payoff after another. If
businesses are faced with these possibilities, we’ll do nothing but
eliminate employment. These guys are school yard bullies.
They’re playground bullies. They, you know, they gang up on some
kid and beat on him long enough to get his lunch money. Somebody
had to stand up to them.”
Sen. Obama: “A
president who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do
best: organize our workers.”
Notes: See also "Obama Isn't Working: Right to Work" (Aug. 24, 2011).