Pipe War! Plumbers Union Rips Joe The Plumber For Campaigning Against EFCA
The Plumbers Union is steaming over the news that Joe the Plumber has been enlisted by groups opposed to the Employee Free Choice Act to campaign at a number of Pennsylvania rallies against the measure.
A Plumbers Union official tells me that Joe is “selling out real plumbers.”
I checked in with Rick Terven, the political and legislative director for The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist sharing the full name.) He tore into his high-profile plumber colleague as follows:
Joe the plumber is selling out real plumbers. Right now, labor law is stacked against real plumbers. Real plumbers want and need the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to empower themselves to join a union, without fear of intimidation or losing their jobs. Joe the Plumber doesn’t speak for real plumbers.
Terven claimed that the Plumbers Union, which says it has over 300,000 members, had done a survey of non-union plumbers finding that 70% of them wanted to join a union if they could do so without fear of retribution, though I couldn’t immediately get the details of their survey.
The larger story here is the battle over who really speaks for working people on this issue — the unions, or the groups against EFCA, some of which are bankrolled by business, who claim that they oppose EFCA because it’s bad for workers.
Today the AFL-CIO slammed the Joe the Plumber events as proof that the anti-EFCA groups are whipping up “faux grassroots” opposition to the measure.
On that score, the organizers of the event, the anti-EFCA group Americans for Prosperity, still has yet to tell me whether Joe the Plumber is getting paid for his appearances.
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Excellent! About time some *real* plumbers got involved, and not just tax evaders who pretend to be plumbers for cash and prizes and celebrity on TeeVee. The nudnik masquerading as Joe T. Plumber is symptomatic of everything that is wrong with the GOP, and part of the reason it will never again return to power until it steers itself clear of such banal, LCD approaches to politics.
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada.
Union motto: “We’re horny”
Maybe this is a stupid thought, but I wonder how many of those 300,000 UAJAPPFIUSC members are named “Joe”. Maybe every time Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher shows up somewhere to attack EFCA, the union could have ten Joe the Plumbers to counter him
Since when do plumbers need a union? The rest of us need to start a plumbee union to prevent our exploitation by plumbers.
It is very noble of Joe to enter public life. However much the GOP is paying him, I’m sure he could be making more as a plumber.
Great idea, mcc! And Rachel, I’d for one would be far more impressed with Wurzelbacher’s alleged “nobility” if he didn’t have his hand out all the time.
I am against EFCA and I think this is really stupid. What better way to convince Specter to reverse course (right after he finally said he would oppose the bill) than to remind him that McCain got waxed in PA last year with friends like Joe. I have no idea who “Americans for Prosperity” represents, but they are tone deaf if they think this is going to pressure anybody to oppose EFCA.
“However much the GOP is paying him, I’m sure he could be making more as a plumber.”
err yeah if he was a plumber. I think he was really a clerk in a supply store…
You guys ever discuss actual issues? Or do you just go, yay! our guys, yay our guys!
Specter’s gotta go – but I do not understand this bill.. Someone please explain how it would make my life better. I have been union, and nonunion. I have been in a good unions (teamsters, international iron workers) – and one that was ridiculous (AFL-CIO) – and worse than the company I was working for..
I don’t understand how losing the secret ballot will improve my life.
It probably won’t improve your life directly. (And, yes, I agree it effectively does away with the secret ballot, despite some language making it optional.)
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It appears there are many situations where employers intimidate workers in the current secret-ballot scenario. This bill reduces employers’ ability to coerce workers’ votes and increases union organizers’ ability to do so. It shifts the balance of power. Many people (including me) see this result as a Good Thing. YMMV.
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As you say, not all unions act reliably in the interests of their members. They, too, have institutional inertia and imperatives to differing degrees. But I think that overall EFCA will help in more cases than it hurts. JMO.
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Ha! This is so sweet, if only they would’ve done this during the campaign season perhaps we all could be spared the legacy of Sam the tax evading tradesman.
It is a flat out lie that secret ballots will be abolished! It gives workers a CHOICE between the current ballot system OR a secret “card check” system that will allow employees to state their opinion away from work without fear of firing or reprisals. What WILL be decreased, however, is the blatant intimidation employees must currently face while the current slow process plays out.
Maybe if Joe was a plumber, rather than a tool, he would understand these things.
The GOP better wake up. Trying to prop up some sod like “Joe the Plumber” as their everyday workingman just shows exactly how out of touch they are with real working families. That sentiment is what got them waxed in ‘08.
Marxists have only 1 tactic, change the subject. It doesn’t matter at all if someone is paying taxes, or a child molester or Hilter’s grandchild.
The only thing that matter is that workers have a ‘SECRET’ ballot when voting for a union.
Josef Stalin is proud of your union representatives here.
To greg:thanks for sharing our full name, we just use the name the U.A. everyone in the trade knows who we are talking about..It is a mouthfull to say.
To bernie:our motto is “We do it right the first time “,but,”We`re Horny”will work for me…
To rachel:Yes you do need to start a plumbee union who in there right mind would want to “exploited” by some “horny plumber”
To Peter Moon:What pray tell does joe stalin have to do with any of this???
I have been a union Pipefitter since 3-3-1969 in local#533 K.C.MO. I had to complete a 5year training program to become a journeyman.That means going to class at least three nights a week for 3-4 hours while working an 8hour a day job. That is why we turn out the craftsman that we do.The only reason they don`t want a secret ballot is they know who to intimidate..
Anyone (like Bob at 7:33) who think the AFL-CIO is a union you could join, rahter than a federation of most American unions, is talking through his ***. And has never been a teamster or other union member either. Never mind trying to explain that workers can choose the secret ballot under EFCA, just not have it forced upon them–this is a guy who doesn’t understand what a union is.
Give it up, trolls. Whether Specter knows it yet or not, the American people like this bill…
EFCA removes the secret ballot and allows the Government to negotiate the terms of the union contract. The scattered incidents of employers threatening workers during a union election will be replaced with regular incidents of workplace violence due to over-zealous union organizers attempts to get those cards signed.
“Joe the plumber is selling out real plumbers. Right now, labor law is stacked against real plumbers. Real plumbers want and need the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to empower themselves to join a union, without fear of intimidation or losing their jobs. Joe the Plumber doesn’t speak for real plumbers.” – Steven Perez via Bookmarklet
My name is Joe and I am a REAL Plumber. Real Plumbeers are licensed by the state, county, or municipality they are from. I am all of the above plus I served a 5 year apprenticeship. I have been a union member for over 45 years also.
“Joe the Plumber” as we know of from the John McCain ads is NOT a real Plumber. He has no license. He’s a jack of all trades and master of none.
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union is our future local 55
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