Overstepping Union Attacks US Foreign Policy

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the military there is phrase for something that gets larger than it started; mission creep. This phrase is a really good one to describe how things often get out of hand. It also describes why unions always go awry. In this case, mission creep describes what happens when a union goes from being concerned with the interests of employees and union members to imagining it has the power or even the place to try to guide American foreign policy.

The Atlantic Free Press brings us the ridiculous tale of the arrogance of the ILWU that has decided it has the right to shut down all west cost ports of entry so that the union can announce its disagreement with the war in Iraq — a war that we are winning at last, by the way.

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, “One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.”

If anyone can show me where a union has the place to take such an action… well, I’m all ears.

But here they are with the arrogance of those who imagine that they smarter and better equipped than those whom we actually ELECT to lead this country!


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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston


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