Topic: Newsmax
Lowell Ponte writes in his Dec. 30 Newsmax column as an argument for not allowing Transportation Safety Administration employees to join a union:
Unionization often leads to violence. Ask the black conservative who was severely beaten in St. Louis a few months ago by goons of the Service Employees International Union or the anti-Democrat protesters Teamsters thugs beat in Philadelphia.
Choosing Kenneth Gladney, the "black conservative who was severely beaten," may not have been Ponte's best example, since the evidence Gladney was "severely beaten" is dubious at best.
We're not sure what Ponte is referring to regarding the "anti-Democrat protesters Teamsters thugs beat in Philadelphia," but it appears to be a 1998 incident involving anti-Clinton protesters; years of Judicial Watch-fueled litigation resulted in a settlement in which, apparently, the Teamsters paid an undisclosed sum to the protesters and did not admit any wrongdoing.
Two incidents a decade apart, which did not involve unionization, are evidence that "Unionization often leads to violence"? To Ponte it is. And isn't a significant amount of unionization-related violence instigated by the employer who's fighting unionization and not the union?