Daily Kos: Sarah Palin, Proud Union Member

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/2/11247/8364/672/617658

by Bendygirl
Thu Oct 02, 2008 at 08:21:32 AM PDT

So, there’s been a lot in the press lately about Palin. From her poor interviews and inability to answer voter questions to her responses to Troopergate, you know, by avoiding it entirely. Oh, yeah, then there are also her "credentials". As a woman and as a former Teamster and SEIU member and current Freelance Union member, the idea of Sarah Palin being a member of a union, well, it just makes my skin crawl.

I know what it’s like to sign a union card; to attend a meeting ahead of a strike, to feel that twinge of fear and anguish over a strike vote and current negotiations. Governor Palin hasn’t been through any of this, because she is only an "honorary" member.

No, seriously, I shit-you-not!! She’s an HONORARY member!

* Bendygirl's diary :: ::
*

Governor Palin received an "honorary" membership in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Not because she’s paid dues or been represented by the union, but because she pushed for a pipeline that benefitted the union’s membership. So, the IBEW did what it’s done before, it made her an honorary member. And I totally get that. I’d have done the same, and I’d have voted for doing such. But that doesn’t make her a union member.

You see, there’s a difference between people who claim they are good union members and those who actually work for union issues. In terms of Republicans, they are not friends of labor, especially, not John McCain. In fact, they are not friends to the mere concept of solidarity. In researching this story, I ran across a Lineman thread on Cheney’s insistence that he was an IBEW member for 6 years.

Didn’t realize that Vice President Dick(wad) Cheney was a member of IBEW?

Well, let me shed some light on this rather dark figure in American politics.

During the 2004 Vice-Presidential debate, Darth Cheney noted his involvement in the IBEW:

CHENEY: Why I am different from John Edwards. Well, in some respects, I think, probably there are more similarities than there are differences in our personal story.

I don't talk about myself very much, but I've heard Senator Edwards, and as I listen to him, I find some similarities.

I come from relatively modest circumstances. My grandfather never even went to high school. I'm the first in my family to graduate from college.

I carried a ticket in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for six years. I've been laid off, been hospitalized without health insurance. So I have some idea of the problems that people encounter.

So I think the personal stories are, in some respects, surprisingly similar.

Well, his note of "carrying a ticket" for the IBEW and was noted by the many lineman who talked about it over on the powerlineman forum site:

DBrown20
Yeah, I've heard and seen reference to that. I remember one documentary that interviewed some of his friends. One said. "It was grueling work in the hot sun when he was building those power lines in Wyo." Ha!

Another in newsweek said he was a "utility lineman". Why those ya hoos don't check their references a little closer, I don't know. The time frame given when referencing those things make me doubt if he would have even have had time to complete an apprenticeship. I'm sure he was just a grunt. I worked in Wyoming for about 8 years and never heard this mentioned until after he became VP


FULL article at link.