"Weingarten ready to launch 1 of the most controversial crusades of her career: gun control"

[HiPointDem]

Weingarten has been a controversial figure, after being cast as the villain in the anti-teachers-union documentary Waiting for Superman. But after seeing six of her union's members gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary, Weingarten is ready to launch one of the most controversial political crusades of her career: gun control.

Weingarten is calling for the reinstatement of the assault weapons bans, limitations on rapid-fire ammunition, improved background checks and "serious consequences if a gun turns up in the hands of someone other than the registered owner.”

In pushing for gun control, Randi Weingarten faces a battle for support not only with the general public, but also within the labor movement. Labor's predominantly white male leadership has been reluctant to take up the issue, despite homicide being the third leading cause of workplace deaths for American workers and the number one cause of workplace deaths for women.

The UE, which represents many of the first responders who arrived at the scene of the Newtown shooting, has no position on gun control. Townsend explains, “When the list of topics that a union might address or confront is laid out, 'guns' would be far down the list, if on it at all. Unions exist in only a small fraction of the workplaces in the U.S., and we exert a limited influence where we do exist. And it's even harder than that, as you know, since the NRA uses the issue against unions in a far more effective way that they should be able to.”

Indeed, during union drives, particularly in the South and Midwest where hunting is popular, bosses often tell workers not to join because unions fund Democrats who want to take their guns away. In response, unions “remind the workers that if they really want to find out who is for gun control, they might try bringing their gun to work the next day,” jokes Townsend. “We advise them to call us from the jailhouse, since they will be arrested--and fired.”

AFT’s Weingarten is hoping to engage labor leaders on gun control, as well as the need for better mental healthcare access...Randi Weingarten says she wants to lead a discussion within the labor movement on the issue.

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/14354/randi_weingarten_calls_for_labor_to_take_up_gun_control


Reactions?

[graham4anything]

1. Go Randi! On this issue, Randi & Mike Bloomberg(the great Equalizer)are on the same side

this is also something that the OWS should get involved with

in numbers there is power.

and as they bring up the labor union, in money there is power to combat the NRA

guns are a dying thing
one day they will be gone
not today, but in many tomorrows, guns and the NRA are gone.

it takes a seed decades to become a majestic redwood.

the NRA should put all its money in Education of poor kids.
Instead of in weapons to kill kids.

[HiPointDem]

2. That you, of all people, suddenly appeared in this forum to comment on this news, only

makes me more confident in my initial assessment of it.

A union leader presiding over (& I would say, colluding in) the bleeding of her membership takes up arms for -- gun control.

Isn't that special.

[graham4anything]

3. Guns stop education. By killing kids.

The NRA blackmails candidates in the red states and the blue states
But with money, the NRA will one day be defeated totally

the NRA backs guns
guns kill kids
every single day 34 people die from guns

politics make strange bedfellows
Randi and private citizen Bloomberg
(a mayor has certain things a mayor has to do and has to keep in $$$ guidelines).
a private citizen is not restricted
so sometimes it may seem like a person is opposite, but that is just the job requirements.
Not following a job requirement leads to not doing that job.
But a private citizen is free to do as one pleases and wants.
therein lies the difference.

Just like on a multiple choice test with
true or false
there is no other answer one can write if it is not a choice

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Good for Randi

There has been an outcry from members asking her to do this. Glad to hear she's responding.

[HiPointDem]

6. maybe she could work on stopping the bleeding in her membership & the take-back of union rights

-- in her spare time, or course.

[duffyduff]

5. Better that I suppose than her idiotic proposal

for "bar exams" for teachers.

While I agree with her here, she is little more than a mole.

[HiPointDem]

7. her work history & her amazing rise to top leadership tells me she's a mole.

[duffyduff]

9. She had connections to the Broad Academy

in its early days.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. I think she'll do anything to change the subject from "Why is the aft....

... doing nothing to halt the systematic dismantling of the teaching profession?" to something that's safe and ... in DC and NY circles, non-controversial.