Union official takes the helm at New York Federal Reserve

[Hannah Bell]

This week’s naming of New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York speaks volumes about the evolution of the union bureaucracy in America.

Hughes is taking a post that was until recently occupied by Stephen Friedman, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, who was compelled to resign in May over a conflict of interests scandal...
Hughes will continue to hold the top post in the state AFL-CIO, where he was recently elected to a third four-year term...

On a more fundamental level, however, it is symbolic of the transformation of the AFL-CIO, the UAW, the Teamsters and similar organizations into what are unions in name only, dedicated not to defending the working class, but to preserving the posts and privileges of a layer of right-wing functionaries, who in turn work to suppress working class struggles and uphold the interests of the banks, corporations and government.

Hughes is typical of this layer. He came out of New York City’s International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, which was long headed by Harry Van Arsdale, a right-wing craft union bureaucrat who played a key role in quelling working class struggles in the city, where he headed the Central Labor Council for nearly three decades. He gained national notoriety for working with investment bankers like Felix Rohytan to subordinate the labor movement to the bailout of New York City and Wall Street during the fiscal crisis of 1975.

Hughes, along with his close friend and protégé Brian McLaughlin, was trained by Van Arsdale in the methods of business unionism in an organization that made scant distinction between the interests of electrical contractors and the rank-and-file workers they employ...

For his part, McLaughlin recently began serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted of over $3 million worth of kickbacks from electrical contractors, misappropriation of state funds and embezzlement from the New York City Central Labor Council, where he succeeded Van Arsdale’s son Thomas as president. Hughes chaired the CLC board during McClaughlin’s graft spree...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/hugh-a28.shtml

[Jim Sagle]

1. Now THIS is a change I can celebrate!

:beer:

[Hannah Bell]

2. how's that?

[Jim Sagle]

4. Sorry, Hannah, but I guzzle good ol' American made in the US of A union beer,

not that stale wsws anti-union Kool-Aid.

;)

More seriously, haven't you ever SERIOUSLY wondered why an allegedly progressive movement like the Trotskyists is so RABIDLY anti-union? I know it makes me suspicious.

[SidneyCarton]

6. Trotskyites have no problem with dictatorship.

They just want to be the dictators.

[Hannah Bell]

7. i'm not a trot. i post their articles as palliative to the lib koolaid, & for the benefit of

a poster near & dear.

but my question is serious. why would you cheer without question afl-cio's seat on the fed of ny?

there are various interpretations of the significance of that seating. i'm asking what yours is, & it's a serious question.

[Jim Sagle]

11. It's a serious sign of respect for unionism - one of the few such signs I can

remember being delivered by any American president in the last four decades.

[Hannah Bell]

12. he's been on the ny fed since 2004. which would mean the bush admin was first to "respect" the

unions in such manner.

it's funny how such "respect" is now given to unions in the face of declining membership & the clawback of wages & bennies in both industrial & service unions, i think.

yours is but one interpretation of what the seating of afl-cio on the ny fed means.

personally, i disagree with you.

but thank you for the serious answer. i think many would read it as you do. i don't.

[Jim Sagle]

13. And. goaded by your skepticism, I can see another interpretation as well.

Namely, a sign that the labor moviement, or at least some of its leadership, has been co-opted. I hope that's a wrong assessment.

We seem to be powerless to do much BUT hope these days.

[The Magistrate]

10. It Does Have A Refreshing Ring, Mr. Sagle....

[slackmaster]

3. I don't see any indication that Hughes has any banking experience at all

:wtf:

[Hannah Bell]

8. since 2004, at the fed of ny.

[HamdenRice]

5. And Obama's "car czar" is a Steelworkers Union guy. Yet union hating Trotskyites complain

go fiture.

[Hannah Bell]

9. my honey.