The real Slim Shady

Matt Noyes's picture

As the person who runs the website at the Association for Union Democracy, I try to maintain a pretty liberal links policy when it comes to rank-and-file and independent union websites. AUD is non-partisan, so I link to many sites whose views I don't share personally. My criteria are simple: a) is the site a bona fide, independent, union member site, b) does it aim to make unions stronger? No anti-union sites.

"Anti-union" is a slippery concept, because autocrats call critics anti-union all the time, but there are a few sites that help us define the term: the website of the National Legal Rights and Accountability Project (NLPC) is one. Purporting to report on union corruption, the site mixes straight reporting on union corruption (which I don't find anti-union, per se) with attacks on unions for things like striking, collecting agency fees, organizing, etc. Doesn't take much time on that site to see the goal is a weaker union movement.

I recently ran into a slipperier site: http://theunionnews.blogspot.com/

Mixing legit, even very good news items (like the recent New Republic piece on the Stern-Rosselli struggle), with bits from NLPC and Right to Work, the site has the look and feel of a pro-union site (check the icons). But, the stories tend towards the same lodestar as that guiding the NLPC and Right to Work: weaker unions, stronger employers.

Anyone know who's behind it?