http://support.tennessean.com/blogs/?p=4537Ads timed to Labor Day attack union leaders
by Todd Pack
Just ahead of Labor Day, the Center for Union Facts, a business-backed group critical of organized labor, is putting out a series of ads attacking union leaders.
The online and print ads, running in USA Today and The New York Times, accuse union leaders in general of putting their own interests ahead of those of workers.
“Labor Day used to celebrate efforts to help working Americans,” the ad says. “But it’s no longer Unions vs. Management. It’s now Unions vs. Employees.”
The ad accuses union leaders of wasting dues money, spending union dollars on their own political agendas and trying to curb union members’ rights to vote on contracts by secret ballot.
So far, the AFL-CIO hasn’t reponded to the group’s ads.
Union membership overall is declining in the United States, falling from 17.7 million workers in 1983 to 15.7 million in 2005, Census Bureau figures show.
Statewide, union membership dropped from 252,400 to 128,100 over the same period, a decline of 49.2 percent.