I first met Jeffrey Lerner at a Service Employees Union picnic when he was 12 years old , his dad and step-mom then as now two of the brighter bulbs in the labor marquee. I first came across Ron Bloom in the early 80s, when he was a young research assistant at SEIU, hired on by the union’s chief of staff, Bob Welsh, and very much a protégée of the union’s new president, John Sweeney. Jeffrey and Ron met for the first time in 1996 on the muddy infield of the Indianapolis 500. Now they are totally in the White House, and I’m feeling much better about the totality of our country. (More)

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My friends at UNITE HERE (a former client) put out the attached press release today:

For Immediate Release February 10, 2009 Contact Amanda Cooper, UNITE HERE, 917-533-4050, acooper@unitehere.org

Fifteen UNITE HERE Vice Presidents Sue to Dissolve Merger

Federal lawsuit seeks declaratory action to end internal conflict;

 leaders seek return to  focus on representing members

 Washington – Vice Presidents representing more than 150,000 members of the UNITE HERE labor union (more than 40% of the union’s U.S. membership) have sued to dissolve the merger of the union, which came together in 2004 hoping to become an organizing powerhouse. The move comes as the union’s Executive Board meets this week in Washington, DC. (More)

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There’s a terrific labor musical in previews at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway — the stage version of “Billy Elliot.”  It’s set in a coal mining village in England in 1984 and in addition to chronicling the rise of a young male ballet star, it shares the story of the longest coal strike in British history. Conservative Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher refuses to nationalize a failing coal industry, 300,000 miners hit the streets, only to have their strike broken a long, violent year later.  Today, England imports most of its coal and there are only 1,000 working miners left.  Here’s my question: if we refuse to nationalize the U.S. banking industry, can we count on eliminating all but 1,000 of the greedy bank executives who’ve all but bankrupted our country? (More)

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