National Black Chamber of Commerce

The thought provoking comments below were received from a regular reader whose identifying information I removed.

It seems that we embrace vague promises without adequate guarantees and that we need to ask more questions.

Tonight I was watching one of my “right wing” talking heads programs – Glen Beck. His guest was Harry C. Alford, President and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC). One of the topics they discussed was jobs creation. It is Alford’s contention based on several examples he gave where a construction project will be advocated and approved for commencement and then “the union carpetbaggers come in from far and wide to fill those construction jobs”. He states that unions have a monopoly on these jobs and only a fool thinks that local non-union tradesmen have a shot at them.

We have already witnessed this in Palmer. The first “public information meeting” that our casino study group put on was totally dominated by the unions. Of the 50 or so union attendees (easy to identify as they were issued Union windbreakers to wear in the meeting, just before they walked into the meeting auditorium), I recognized none of them as being Palmer residents who are hoping to get these construction jobs at the casinos for themselves. Thus another myth: even the construction jobs will be filled by out-of-towners, not the needy unemployed locals.

Same is true with the permanent casino jobs. Do you think that with Norwich, Ct. having almost 30 ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS programs in their public schools to facilitate children of casino workers, that these children were originally from Norwich?

To me, this is not a racial issue nor an anti-union issue. It is about deceiving the public into believing that jobs created will go to the host community and abutting communities’ residents.
I speak with passion about this as like Kathleen (President of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts , my family comes from a strong union background. My dad was a union worker at [XXXXX] for over 30 years. My wife organized [BLANK] in the local [BLANK] and was aided and supported by and was a Teamster until her retirement. My [FAMILY MEMBER], one of my biggest inspirations for truth and justice is a retired [PROFESSIONAL - STRONGLY CONNECTED TO LABOR] who represented the labor movement almost all of his professional career. So, I have no argument with organized labor. I do have an argument when it comes to COST/BENEFIT to our community, the region and the Commonwealth.

Perhaps we should explore the issue of who will really land these jobs?