By Daniel Denvir

– SugarHouse Casino contracted with the anti-union firm Kulture, beginning in 2010, in an effort to dissuade workers from organizing, according to documents filed by the firm and casino owners with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Kulture has “met with employees to discuss union card-signing activity,” helped run a “new-hire orientation,” and “presented informational meetings to company employees relative to the process of unionization,” the disclosures, relating to work performed through 2013, state.

The casino has employed the firm to fight union-organizing activity by Unite Here Local 54, which represents workers in textiles, hotels, restaurants and casinos.

But unlike other anti-union firms, Kulture is not run by buttoned-down lawyers, but is instead the brainchild of right-wing activist Peter List.

List publishes under the pseudonym Labor Union Report on his own website, and on the popular right-wing blog RedState.com, where he makes arguments that are far to the right of what one normally encounters in Philly politics: List contends that unions are part of a communist-aligned “organized war to destroy America,” that people in the White House seem to be “hoping that … someone somewhere will die” because of the sequestration, and that 47 percent of Americans “believe that they belong to the government.”

List’s avatar has also advised readers to “abandon California” and “let the socialist hordes have the state. To those parasites who believe that entitlements, high taxes, strangling labor laws, environmental regulations, unending illegal immigration and tax-the-rich schemes will somehow lead them into the promised land of prosperity, give them California.”

SugarHouse declined to discuss precisely what it has paid Kulture to do.

“We occasionally use consultants on various matters,” says spokesperson Leigh Whitaker. “We have nothing further to add.”

But High Penn Oversight, a company connected to SugarHouse ownership, has paid Kulture at least $429,964 since 2011.

List likewise did not respond to requests for an interview. But in a 2004 Fortune profile, he warned a reporter against publicly revealing his whereabouts. “Don’t even write what state I’m in,” he said. “I don’t need the Teamsters picketing out front.”

That may be bluster. Three years later, he signed a letter to Bloomberg Businessweek from New Jersey, where public documents show his business is based.

List, in a rare media interview, told Fortune his life story, explaining that he is a disaffected product of the labor movement. He worked at an AT&T factory represented by the Communications Workers of America, becoming chief shop steward. But then, everything changed. His job got outsourced to Mexico, so he went to college. He then became extremely interested in Ayn Rand, the novelist revered as an iconic philosopher on the libertarian right.

List has also been active in a right-wing strategy group called Groundswell that is planning a self-described “30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation” toward conservative ends, according to Mother Jones magazine.

Candace Chewning, 31, who has worked as a server at SugarHouse’s Refinery restaurant for about a year, says she was shown a strongly anti-union video during her new-employee orientation.

The video, entitled “Little Card, Big Trouble,” re-enacts scenes from a fictional organizing drive featuring a scarere-mongering, money-hungry union organizer who manipulates hapless and confused workers.

“Signing a union-authorization card can be like signing a blank check,” says the narrator. “You won’t know what the real cost will be until it’s too late.”

After the screening, management opened the floor for comments, Chewning said.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable in that situation saying, ‘Well I’m for a union, actually.’ I’m sitting in a room with three managers standing there. They just showed me this video that was very biased against unions,” she said.

List told Fortune that he was not a union buster but an “educator” and “communication specialist,” and that his job was to instruct management in how to stop a union without violating federal law. SugarHouse’s majority owner is Chicago billionaire and major Democratic fundraiser Neil Bluhm, who owns casinos in Pittsburgh and Des Plaines, Ill., where Unite Here is also organizing workers.

“We’re dismayed [that] such a prominent Democrat as Neil Bluhm would slap Philadelphia in the face by bringing in an outfit headed by an Obama-basher like this,” says Unite Here spokesperson Jon Scolnik.

Nothing, it seems, unites people like class conflict. SugarHouse Casino promised to create a lot of jobs when it defeated spirited local opposition and opened in 2010. Now, workers, management and a mysterious right-wing blogger are having a fight over what kind of jobs those will be.

Source: http://citypaper.net/article.php?SugarHouse-contracts-radical-anti-union-consultant-19424

From the PA. AFL-CIO

– Among the more interesting developments that occurred at today’s worker press conference on payroll dues deduction came as a result of an unexpectedly organic turnout of workers that far exceeded the organizers’ own estimates. The rotunda overflowed as over 2,000 union members turned out to protest against insidious new paycheck deception bills in the Pennsylvania Legislature. At least two spontaneous rallies broke out to accommodate the overflow crowds that didn’t make it into the Capitol Rotunda.

One of the rallies erupted outside the front doors of the Capitol, where over a thousand workers were literally frozen out of the event in the nearly sub-zero temperatures because Capitol police claimed the crowd had exceeded capacity limitations in the Rotunda. PA AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder was handed a bull horn by Capitol Police and the nearly frost-bitten crowd had their own impromptu rally on the Capitol steps as Snyder explained the implications of the Koch brother’s-inspired anti-labor legislation.

“The supporters of this attack claim this is all about restoring ethics to government,” Snyder told the crowd. “If this were all about restoring ethics then perhaps they would stop trying to prevent the uninsured from gaining access to affordable health care. If this were about ethics they would support raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits to unemployed workers whom are still looking for a job. No this isn’t about ethics this is all about distractions, more smoke and mirrors and playing political games instead of solving our problems: creating jobs, expanding the middle class and putting Pennsylvania back to work. We won’t be fooled,” Snyder added.

Members of faith communities, municipal police officers and firefighters who are exempted from the bill; teachers, school security workers and support staff; bus and truck drivers; and elected leaders filled the Capitol rotunda to support and hear from school, healthcare and public safety workers about how HB 1507 would hurt them.

“I’ve been attacked by inmates. Every day I’m exposed to hepatitis, MRSA and other diseases. I’ve had to break up fights and confiscate homemade weapons. I’m the guy that keeps these violent offenders away from you and your kids. And I’m the guy this legislation is attacking,” said Bill Jones, a Corrections Officer at Lancaster County Prison for 24 years. “This legislation will make my job more dangerous. It makes it harder for workers and employers to work together to find safe and cost-effective solutions. This legislation will take away my rights and my voice.”

To E-Mail Your Legislators And The Governor NOW, Go To – http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7788

“Similar bills – so-called model legislation prepared by the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is being promoted all over the country by a secret network of out-of-state billionaires and corporate special interest groups who want to keep more corporate profits for themselves,” said PA AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale. “These bills have special interests and political paybacks written all over them. We’ve been successful at stopping their unpopular political agenda of privatization of the lottery, the turnpike and our pensions and social security. They failed so now they are trying to silence the voice of workers and the middle class. Pure and simple this political payback for stopping their unpopular agenda of less job security and lower pay for all workers,” Bloomingdale said.

A third rally sprang to life in the East Wing Rotunda of the Capitol where another gathering of about one hundred workers from a wide variety of disciplines were gathered without access to the main event. Operating Engineers Local 66 Business Manager, James Kunz from Pittsburgh, a member of the PA AFL-CIO Executive Board availed himself to a live microphone that earlier had been used for a press conference supporting the legalization of medical marijuana and rallied the workers there to the cause.

All of the energized activity took place peacefully and respectfully, not living up to a press release put our hours before the event by the Commonwealth Foundation headlined “Big Labor Scares Workers, Storms Capitol”. The Commonwealth Foundation, a right-wing front group for wealthy corporate interests calls itself a “free market think tank.” After reading the “think tank”‘s news release from this morning the Commonwealth Foundation should be advised to stick to thinking, because clearly it is not adept at predicting the future.

To E-Mail Your Legislators And The Governor NOW, Go To – http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7788

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=3410

From AFSCME District Council 33

– Republicans in Harrisburg have introduced “Right to Work” legislation that would destroy unions in Pennsylvania. In a massive show of solidarity against this attack on working families and the middle class in PA, unions across PA will unite together to demonstrate in opposition of this statewide attempt at union busting.

Join AFSCME District Council 33 and other unions from across Philadelphia and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, January 28, 2014, at 10AM for a rally at the PA Capitol Building in Harrisburg to tell our legislators to vote “NO” to “Right To Work” legislation in Pennsylvania !

Please attend and participate like your union livelihood depends on it because it does!

By Andrew Staub

– Gov. Tom Corbett didn’t say much about so-called paycheck protection legislation, but what he said this week held plenty of weight.

Pennsylvania’s Republican governor said that should the legislation barring the automatic deduction of union dues from a public employee’s paycheck reach his desk, he would sign it. Beyond that, his brief remarks noted the divisive feelings about the proposal.

“There is a desire on the part of many to do that; there is a desire on the part of many to block that,” he said while answering reporters’ questions Wednesday.

Two bills addressing the issue — one in the state House and one in the state Senate — haven’t come up for a vote yet, but they’ve already set off a wave of debate.

Proponents of the bill say they don’t like the idea of government collecting money for unions, which often find themselves in the middle of political battles.

Union leaders from the public and private sector have joined forces against the proposed legislation, describing it as an attempt to bust organized labor. David Fillman, executive director of the AFSCME Council 13, called it a “vindictive” move.

Corbett said he would talk to parties on both sides of the issue and see whether leaders in the General Assembly have the votes to push through the legislation.

State Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Blair, is the prime sponsor of the bill in the Senate, while state Rep. Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, is leading the push in the House.

The situation will likely only intensify next week, when the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO is scheduled to host a press conference in the state Capitol to address the legislation.

Source: http://paindependent.com/2014/01/corbett-says-hed-sign-bill-ending-deduction-of-union-dues/

– Steamfitters Local #420 Business Manager, Anthony Gallagher will be the featured guest speaker at the upcoming PhillyLabor.com Union Leader Meet and Greet Event hosted by the PhillyLabor.com Business to Labor Network on Wednesday 1/29 from 6-8 at Ironworkers Local #401.

Phillylabor.com Business To Labor Events are a concerted effort between PhillyLabor.com and the Philadelphia area pro-union business and Professional community to both connect and expand relationships between business and labor through a series of exclusive networking events featuring top area labor and pro-union professional/business leaders.

For additional information on PhillyLabor.com Business To Labor Network and upcoming events, contact us at: info@phillylabor.com