A Top Clinton Aide Draws Criticism From Unions

[ProSense]

A Top Clinton Aide Draws Criticism From Unions

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: June 5, 2007

The presidents of two large labor unions have written to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to complain that Mark Penn, her pollster and chief strategist, is chief executive of a public relations firm that is helping a company fight a unionization drive.

In the letter sent Friday, which a labor official released yesterday, James P. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, and Bruce Raynor, president of Unite Here, wrote that they did not want to see Mrs. Clinton or the Democratic Party embarrassed by the anti-union activities of Mr. Penn’s firm, Burson-Marsteller, one of the nation’s leading public relations companies.

“If Hillary is pro-worker and pro-union, she will certainly take steps to rein in Mr. Penn,” Mr. Hoffa said in an interview. “He cannot serve two masters, working for a pro-union candidate and working for anti-union companies.”

In the letter, Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor said, “It is with distress that we write you today,” adding that they valued Mrs. Clinton’s positions on many worker-related issues.

They said the public relations firm’s “activities in the effort to undermine workers’ right to organize at Cintas, a campaign our unions are involved in, is particularly disheartening.” Four years ago, the two unions began a major drive to unionize 17,000 workers at the Cintas Corporation, the nation’s largest uniform rental company. Cintas, helped by Burson-Marsteller, has responded with a vigorous — and thus far successful — effort to resist unionization.

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Penn and Carville, ugh!