Unions Support WGA, Fire Labor Busting Spinner Chris Lehane

SEIU Local 99 in Los Angeles -- education workers who include teacher's aids, cafeteria workers and crossing guards -- yesterday fired former Clinton spokesman Chris Lehane from a consulting contract in support of the WGA .

"By the end of the week, I believe Chris Lehane will have no union clients because of his work for the AMPTP," says SEIU President Andy Stern, who confirms that all Change to Win Unions are severing ties with Lehane. "His days are numbered in the labor movement."

The decision came after Lehane began consulting for the AMPTP, who walked away from the negotiating table with the WGA on Friday insisting that they agree to cross the picket lines of other unions before they would return to the talks. It was an overt union-busting move meant to drive a wedge between the WGA and SAG, who have been supportive of the writers and whose contract with the AMPTP is up for renewal in June. Change to Win unions include the Teamsters, Laborers, SEIU, Carpenters & Joiners, United Farm Workers, Food and Commercial Workers, and UNITE HERE.

There is a limit to what you can do and still work for progressive organizations. In contracting out as a strike buster for the AMPTP, Lehane has definitely crossed it.

You can send an email to the network executives in charge of your favorite shows and tell them to return to the negotiating table here.

Read more strike coverage on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.

Comments

[larry278]

Scabbing can be profitable for pr types. Managment pays well till the union is broken.

[CGrace]

He probably still works for the Clintons. He's a little creep. Every time I see him on a program I change the channel. He won't shut up, talks way to fast, and slimes all dems except for the Clintons.

[BudP]

Mark Penn. Chris Lehane.

For Democrats, Hillary and Bill sure do like to hang around a lot of union busters.

[FogBelter]

Solidarity! SAG Members ... if the Writers get screwed you will be the next ones asked to drop your pants.

Count on it.

And who is really surprised that someone associated with the Clintons would be two-faced?

[Ono4Hoopono]

You see this a lot. Consultants and pundits taking time to build their progressive/liberal "street cred" which they can then sell to the highest bidder.

You see them saying all the right things and then suddenly switching sides when it matters most.

Not surprised this guy was involved with Gen. Clark's and Kerry's failed presidential attempts. If they had been elected, Hillary would have had to wait another four years. Sure got them out of circulation. More apparent Clinton-Bush synergism.

Enough with the moles already. When we see this stuff happen, we need to listen to our schoolyard gut and see it as the betrayal that it is, and not numb it down with that tired old opiate, "politics as usual."

We can live without the guru status of these "consultants" and their alleged mysterious voodoo knowledge of the political process. Dump them, and take it as a warning if someone hires them in the future. If another campaign does hire them, it'll be our clue that that candidate is hamstrung by the "conventional wisdom" that been so destructive to our country, and has blocked our growth as a people and a nation.

[abervale]

SAG members are crossing WGA picket lines every day. Plenty of shows and movies stayed in production. What are you talking about? Why does the WGA need to walkout when SAG does? How does that benefit writers?

[NoCalDrummer]

WTF is WGA, AMPTP & SEIU? IANAL, but I'm ROFLMAF!

Get the picture, Jane? PLEASE explain what the acronyms MEAN before you start throwing them around. Not everyone is as embedded in "the industry" as you, so WGA could just as easily mean "Women and Girls Association" to someone who doesn't know it's "Writers Guild of America".

I'm NOT just talking about Jane Hamsher [JH] who wrote the article above. The same goes for other writers as well. Others are guilty of the same trangression. Sorry, JH, you just caught me at a bad time.

[MrMurder]

Lehane was the kiss of death to Clark's campaign.

Probably put there on purpose, Kerry took off when Lehane left his campaign.

[officefan]

Nikki Finke has blogged at length on this betrayal by that firm. They are hired by many democrats and progressive people. I hope that stops now. When they are clearly trying to union bust, they should no longer have any democratic money going into their coffers.

The prior poster is misinformed. Hilary and all the other democratic candidates refused to cross the WGA picket lines to go to CBS for their debate and CBS writers without a contract were thinking of striking, so CBS simply canceled the debate. What a patriot you are Les Moonves. More concerned with keeping money than furthering political discourse on the candidates.

Democrats support unions, the candidates respected that though it cost them an opportunity to get their message out.

Chris Lehane has jumped ship and must now get his jobs from the Republican's. Democrats have to boycott this firm.

[girladvenger]

Give me a break, SAG hired him and by your logic we're Corporatists too?

I don't hate Businesses, I have one to and I hope to grow it and make money but I don't won't to sell my soul and I'm tried of all this infantile crap about the Clintons...and Yes I'm a Hillary Clinton supporter because I think she is the most experience and smart and would take you back from the dark side...faster, then the others.

Also as a person who has worked and produced projects in the Entertainment fields, I support the WGA 100%...The business has changed so much and the lack of respect for artists is amazing in this town...Wall Street doesn't know anything about this biz...it's all a number game to them.

[nikto]

The Clintons, and everyone associated with them, are committed Corporatists.

And fish swim and birds fly.

It's all old, well-established knowledge by now.