Hillary Clinton and the Labor Problem

"Labor Unions are Nothing but Blood Sucking Parasites Living off of the Production of Labor of people who Work for a Living." - John Tate, Board Member at Walmart

ABC News reported this morning that while on the Board of Walmart Senator Clinton sat by and said nothing while Walmart sought to crush unions. The tapes are revealing and this has always been my main criticism of the Clintons (outside of political calculation), that they are and have always been stongly against unions. Now, she has the support of many unions. What else you can say, should Mrs. Clinton have resigned her position from Walmart because of anti-unionism? To me, the answer is she never would have because the Clintons have never supported the union movement and proof positive was the Clinton Presidency and of course NAFTA.

ABC News reported:

An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions.

The tapes, broadcast this morning on "Good Morning America," were provided to ABC News from the archives of Flagler Productions, a Lenexa, Kan., company hired by Wal-Mart to record its meetings and events.

A former board member told ABCNews.com that he had no recollection of Clinton defending unions during more than 20 board meetings held in private.

The tapes show Clinton in the role of a loyal company woman. "I'm always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else," she said at a June 1990 stockholders meeting. View the tapes here.

Asked of President Clinton why Mrs. Clinton did not help to support unions or resign because of Walmart's policies Clinton said: "We lived in a state that had a very weak labor movement, where I always had the endorsement of the labor movement because I did what I could do to make it stronger. She knew there was no way she could change that, not with it headquartered in Arkansas, and she agreed to serve,"

The story does point out that she did push for more representation of women in the higher ranks of the company and also for more green policies -- and on both counts had she at least some success. Mrs. Clinton has disavowed her time in Walmart and completely taken it from her resume. There is another story in the Times about President Clinton that could be damaging.

In other news this morning Rasmussen finds Obama gaining in California and only three points behind. The same can be said for Massachusetts.