Unions Accuse Gephardt Aide of Threats

[Freddie Stubbs]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Prominent labor leaders on Wednesday accused a St. Louis-based aide to Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt of threatening retaliation against state employees if two prominent unions assist rival Howard Dean in the 2004 Missouri primary.

In a letter to Gephardt, D-Mo., Andrew Stern and Gerald McEntee accused Joyce Aboussie of vowing to seek the reversal of an executive order that granted Missouri state employees collective bargaining rights. The two called on Gephardt to fire Aboussie from the campaign and issue a written retraction of her threats.

Aboussie did not immediately return calls for comment. The Gephardt campaign issued a statement saying he strongly supports collective bargaining for public employees; he had no comment on the accusations.

McEntee, head of the 1.5-million member American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees, and Stern, president of the 1.6-million member Service Employees International Union, accused Aboussie of making her threat Monday at a meeting also attended by Missouri Gov. Bob Holden.

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3459909,00.html

[loyalsister]

1. Wow!

That's pretty hard core. It doesn't surprise me, though. The Gephardt machine is arrogant as hell and is going at at full throttle to stop Dean in Missouri. I'm sure Gep knows Dean meetups have been active across the state. Even if he were to drop out before the Feb. 3 MO primary, I'm sure he could not endure the humiliation of losing his own state primary. The trouble is, he very well could- over guns and the war.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. They were reporting it on

KSMU, the Springfield MO NPR station, but the signal broke up just as they got to the part about the threats. Thanks for posting this-I knew some DUer would have the information!

[mandyky]

3. Gephardt will find some way to blame this

on Howard Dean, no doubt. LOL
Geppy is a pitiful mess.

[w4rma]

4. I really didn't expect something like this from Gephardt.

:(

That is despicable.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. I doubt that Gep was personally involved in this

But one would expect him to take some action on this.

[Fleshdancer]

5. Joyce Aboussie better get fired by tomorrow morning

I don't like to use the word, but in this case, this woman is a royal bitch! The only way Gephardt can save face is if he fires her right away and publicly states how wrong her actions were.