Frank Snyder – 3/29/13

This page was last updated on March 30, 2013.

Time to wake up; Frank Snyder - Secretary-Treasurer, PA AFL-CIO; Beaver County Times; March 29, 2013.

You can find previous Snyder letters here, here, and here.

Remember, the primary business of today’s labor unions is political advocacy for leftist politicians and lobbying for leftist policies/programs. Representing employees is simply a fund-raising chore labor union management must endure to provide funds for its lobbying and political activities. Heck, AFL-CIO CEO Richard Trumka conceded as much when he said, “I got into the labor movement not because I wanted to negotiate wages. I got into the labor movement because I saw it as a vehicle to do massive social change to improve the lots of people.” You can get more details here.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“What happens in Harrisburg, stays in Harrisburg? Not if I can help it.

“After decades of failed attempts, the state House of Representatives last Thursday, over the objections of nearly every stakeholder, made history by approving legislation eliminating 5,000 jobs, at a time when Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is above the national average and rising.”

[RWC] Though Mr. Snyder never explicitly mentions it, this letter is about getting the Commonwealth out of the liquor- and wine-selling business. I wonder if Mr. Snyder counted customers when he wrote of “the objections of nearly every stakeholder.”

I don’t know about Mr. Snyder personally, but the primary concern of AFL-CIO management is the loss of union dues to fund lobbying and political activities.

As for “Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is above the national average and rising,” how can that be? Wasn’t the summer of 2010 “Recovery Summer?”

“In a final vote, five Republicans stood with all Democrats and workers, in the face of overwhelming pressure and threats from bullies in their own caucus.”

[RWC] You have to love it when labor union management complains about alleged “bullies.”

“Those brave Representatives were not from my beloved Beaver County, however. As Jim Christiana and Jim Marshall chose to side with the governor’s fantastically flawed privatization scheme that not only destroys family-sustaining, living-wage jobs, but adds to the social ills of communities that stand to find increases in underage drinking, alcohol-related crimes, violence and death.”

[RWC] As I’ve noted in previous critiques, I lived in Texas for over 18 years and I can testify the ability to buy liquor and wine in grocery stores, private liquor stores, et cetera and the lack of state stores didn’t bring about the end of the world described by Mr. Snyder.

This comment will get heat from lefties, but Mr. Snyder’s complaints about jobs and their pay are irrelevant. The issue is simply this; the Commonwealth should not be in the business of selling anything the private sector can handle. Otherwise, why stop with selling liquor and wine? Why not get PA into other businesses?

“I write not to debate this important issue in a few hundred words, but to draw attention to a misguided agenda in Harrisburg, that finds it easier to eliminate jobs, rather than to create them.”

[RWC] Of course Mr. Snyder doesn’t want “to debate this important issue;” he knows his position would lose. At no point does Mr. Snyder tell us why the Commonwealth should be in the alcohol-selling business.

“The celebratory mood after the vote was sickening, as Corbett joined dozens of House Republicans and conservative lobbyists to congratulate each other for sending workers to the unemployment line. It’s time we wake up!”

[RWC] The last thing labor-union management wants is for us to “wake up!” Voters not being awake is what got us two terms of President Obama, Obamacare, and so on.