

Have you heard the story about non-union utility crews getting turned away, after Hurricane Sandy?

The story isn’t true – but it’s still being spread.

It started before the election. The story spread so far and so fast that five utility companies issued public statements saying it wasn’t true.

A full week later, the story was still being spread – by an anti-union newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Does this remind you of anything? Maybe Mitt Romney’s infamous allegations about Jeep moving production to China? Again, that story was immediately and thoroughly debunked – by the company – but Romney’s campaign kept spreading it, through television and radio ads.

Truth? Romney’s pollster said it didn’t matter: “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.”

Yes, there’s a connection here. Romney’s campaign was funded by many of the same people and corporations that have invested millions in the “union avoidance” industry. Take a few minutes and read this analysis of the 2010 elections. It’s the very same players, now:

Karl Rove, of election night meltdown fame, toured the country in 2009 opposing the Employee Free Choice Act;

“Americans for Job Security” is a secretive group run out of a mail-drop box in a UPS store, but they spend millions on false advertising attacking candidates who support labor unions;

“Americans for Prosperity” is run by the Koch brothers, spends tens of millions on misleading ads; and in 2009 sponsored a multi-state publicity tour opposing the Employee Free Choice Act;

and the list goes on, and on.

The “union-avoidance” industry doesn’t care about the truth – it just cares about results. Haven’t heard of the industry before? Read more about it here and here.



Looking for the truth about how labor unions responded to Hurricane Sandy? Read more here and here, and updates on the Teamster’s blog here.

[Top image of ConEd workers is by Dan DeLuca via Flickr/Creative Commons]

Liz Iacobucci is the former Public Information Officer for the State Employees’ Association of New Hampshire, SEIU Local 1984. Over the past three decades, she has served in government at the federal, state and municipal levels; and she has worked for both Democratic and Republican politicians.

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