Push Back on Clinton Advisor's Anti-Worker Ties

One of Hillary Clinton's closest strategists is a guy named Mark Penn. Penn is a big pumbah at a huge PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, that offers union busting services. They are part of the large industry of firms who run anti-organizing campaigns. Their current client is Cintas, who has successfully blocked efforts to unionize their nearly 20,00 garment workers and truck drivers. Ari Berman at The Nation disclosed all of this a few weeks ago.

The Teamsters and UNITE-HERE have written a letter to Clinton, noting their "distress" about Penn's ties to "anti-union/anti-worker campaigns". The letter is the subject of a NYT article today.

In interviews, Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor stopped short of calling on Mrs. Clinton to disassociate herself from Mr. Penn.

Mr. Raynor said, “She ought to send a clear message to this guy Penn that she is unhappy about this union-busting stuff and that he shouldn’t be associated with it.”

Mr. Penn, speaking for himself and for the Clinton presidential campaign, said: “Senator Clinton’s well-documented support for pro-union causes would not in any way be affected by some clients in a firm related to the corporate network of one of her advisers. There is no connection whatsoever with her pro-union record.”

It was not exactly the most strongly worded letter to Clinton, but it is having its intended effect. Ari has the full letter up and says today:

A labor official told me that he expects Hillary to sit down with the two union heads and "placate us a little bit. But I don't think she'll cut Penn lose. He's her Rove."

Penn may eventually be forced take a formal leave of absence from Burson-Marsteller, a step he has thus far resisted. That might erase the political liability Penn has become for Hillary's campaign, but it hardly diminishes the underlying implications of his presence as her top strategist, the anti-union work Burson-Marsteller continues to do and the likelihood that if Hillary is elected Penn and his clients will greatly benefit, further blurring the distinction between the corporate and political world.

Perhaps in their private meeting Raynor and Hoffa will ask Senator Clinton why she elevated someone like Penn in the first place and chose to ignore his anti-labor ties.