Union leaders: We’ll scrimp on #DNC2012 cash – but will still support #Obama2012

Yeah, that’ll show ’em! Via the AP (with bolded emphasis added by me):

RALEIGH, N.C. Upset by the Democratic Party’s decision to stage its presidential convention in a Southern state long viewed as hostile to organized labor, union leaders are holding a rally where they hope to highlight key issues important to middle-class workers.

Prominent labor leaders created the “Workers Stand for America” rally after what they say was their lack of input into planning for the 2012 Democratic Convention in Charlotte, N.C., which is set to begin Sept. 4. They say thousands of union workers will rally to call attention to issues affecting the middle class. The centerpiece of the event is a “Second Bill of Rights” laying out workers’ rights.

Unions have long been a key ally for Democrats, and they gave $8.3 million toward the 2008 convention in Denver that helped President Barack Obama win the White House. Labor officials say that longstanding friendship won’t change – nor will their support for Obama. But many are refusing to contribute money to a convention in a state that bans collective bargaining for teachers and other public workers.

“This year we will not be making major monetary contributions to the convention or the host committee for events or activities around the convention,” AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka wrote in a letter sent to union leaders last month. “We won’t be buying skyboxes, hosting events other than the labor delegates meeting or bringing a big staff contingent to the convention.”

[…]

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which contributed $1 million for the convention four years ago, is also withholding support this time around. The union’s president, Ed Hill, is making a point of not going to Charlotte.

[…]

For his part, Hill is making clear his boycott of the Charlotte convention should in no way be inferred as a lack of support for Obama’s re-election. He does hope the rally will help refocus the national debate away from whether to renew tax breaks for the wealthy.

“You don’t hear anything at all about what’s happening to the middle class in this country,” Hill said. “It’s being decimated. … We just hope the national debate now starts to take into consideration what’s needed for the working people.”

Because nothing says “change or ELSE” to a politician like protesters who march against that elected official’s perceived lack of “doing enough” to “help” whoever the victim group of the day is … and then turning around and voting to keep them back in office anyway.

So.much.fail.