Will the Democrats Trump Trumka

[Geee]

American Thinker:

Things rarely turn out the way I would have imagined them to, and President Obama and the Democrats might soon find that to be true of AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka. I sure did.

As a young lawyer with a few years experience working for the Appellate division of the NLRB, I was asked to join with Joe Rauh and Joseph A ("Chip") Yablonski in representing Chip's dad, "Jock" Yablonski, who was engaged in a rare and difficult fight for leadership of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), then under the leadership of a corrupt man named Tony Boyle.

After the election which was marked by fraud and cheating, we succeeded in getting the election overturned -- a first in American labor law. Unfortunately, that came too late for Jock, who with his wife and daughter had been murdered one night shortly after the election, an election which showed Boyle had won only with the votes of retired miners who feared loss of their pension and health benefits if they jumped ship.

In time, Tony Boyle was convicted of murder; his regime was destroyed; reform leaders took over the union and there was a more democratic leadership and organization which somewhat improved the miners' situation.

Chip was made General Counsel. I was Associate Counsel and Chip hired Richard Trumka, a recent law graduate, to work on the legal staff. Our paths rarely crossed, and a few years later I left for private practice and Trumka returned to the coal fields with the rather obvious plan to run for the union presidency. (Chip had never worked in the coalfields and, therefore, was ineligible under the union constitution to run for office.)

Chip had hoped that at last the union would in some way acknowledge at last his late father's contribution to the UMWA -- perhaps a bust of his father in the union headquarters -- but Trumka failed even a small gesture of gratitude to a man who had done so much for the miners,
Instead his regime was marked by thuggery and violence. In any event, his role at the UMWA was merely a stepping stone for bigger ambitions -- the Presidency of the AFL-CIO was his target. And he achieved it in a matter of years.