Don't Trust Hillary to Represent American Workers! Mark Penn, Clinton's Chief Strategist, Met With Colombian Officials About Trade Deal

Two great articles revealing more unscrupulousness from Hillaryland. One more wake-up call for America.

It's time for change, time for President Obama.

zjm



Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa
WASHINGTON, April 4, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said Friday he is shocked but not surprised that Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, met with Colombian officials about promoting a trade deal with that country.

Clinton said she is against a proposed Colombian Free Trade Agreement. That stance has been severely undermined by the actions of Penn, a highly paid and influential figure in her campaign.

"How can we trust that a President Hillary Clinton would stand strong against this trade deal when her top advisor is being paid by Colombia to promote it?" Hoffa said. "To support this so-called 'free trade agreement' is anathema to the labor movement and to anyone who supports working people, social justice or the environment."

"This has caused us to question Clinton's stated stances on everything from human rights and environmental issues to very basic labor issues," Hoffa said.

Friday's Wall Street Journal reported the story in which two Colombian officials corroborated the meeting with Penn.

"Time and again we've heard candidates claim to be on the side of middle-class Americans, but as soon as they're in office they join forces with the corporate interests who want nothing more than to exploit working people," Hoffa added

This isn't the first time Penn has advocated policies that contradict stances taken by Clinton, arguably his most important client. Penn is the chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, an international communications and lobbying firm with a long history of defending and advocating for union busters.

"It speaks volumes of Sen. Clinton when she retains as chief strategist a man who has collaborated in assaults on workers' rights at companies like Cintas Corp, one of the nation's worst employers," Hoffa said.

"Someone like Mark Penn should not be dictating strategy, and possibly legislation, for a Democratic candidate for president," Hoffa said.

Though all of the trade deals since NAFTA have harmed American workers, the proposed deal with Colombia is especially repugnant to U.S. labor unions. Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for union members. More than 2,500 union members have been murdered by Colombian death squads since the 1980s. There have been more than 400 murders since President Uribe took office five years ago. Yet the Colombian government has done nothing to effectively stop death squads from murdering workers for trying to form unions.

"American workers are outraged by the very idea of an agreement with Colombia," Hoffa said. "Workers need trade policies that create jobs. They don't need more deals that destroy jobs. Voters across the country are making this point increasingly clear every time they go to the polls. America is hemorrhaging jobs because of so-called free trade agreements like the proposed Colombian Free Trade Agreement. They must be stopped."

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

April 4, 2008, 2:05 pm

Penn Apologizes as Labor Groups Call for His Resignation

Susan Davis reports on the presidential race.

Amid resignation calls from labor leaders, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist Mark Penn apologized Friday for meeting with the Colombian ambassador this week to discuss a trade agreement that Clinton opposes.

“The meeting was an error in judgment that will not be repeated and I am sorry for it. The senator’s well known opposition to this trade deal is clear and was not discussed,” he said in a statement released by Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Getty Images

Clinton strategist and public-relations specialist Mark Penn, pictured here after a Democratic debate in New Hampshire in January, met this week with Colombia’s ambassador to discuss a bilateral trade deal.

In a statement first provided to The Wall Street Journal, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa — whose union has endorsed rival Sen. Barack Obama — said the account calls into question Clinton’s own credibility on the trade pact.

“How can we trust that a President Hillary Clinton would stand strong against this trade deal when her top adviser is being paid by Colombia to promote it?” Hoffa said. “To support this so-called ‘free trade agreement’ is anathema to the labor movement and to anyone who supports working people, social justice or the environment.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Penn met in his capacity as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, a public relations and lobbying firm that is contracted to promote passage of the bilateral free-trade agreement that President Bush is expected to send to Capitol Hill next week despite opposition from Democrats and labor unions. Clinton and rival Sen. Barack Obama oppose the deal.

Penn’s apology is unlikely to resonate in the labor movement, leaders in which have previously expressed their distaste for the apparent conflicts in Penn’s personal business interests and Clinton’s politics.

Greg Tarpinian, executive director of Change to Win, which has endorsed Obama and represents a coalition of unions actively working against the trade pact, called on Penn to resign his campaign post.

“It’s time for Senator Hillary Clinton to send her vaunted ‘chief strategist’ Mark Penn packing — back to his job consulting for union busting corporations and anti-labor governments for good,” Tarpinian said in a statement.