Mark Penn

In a half hour Hillary Clinton will take to the stage at Soldier Field, as part of the AFL-CIO's presidential forum. Somehow I doubt that her chief strategist, Mark Penn will be in attendance. Penn is the chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, which offers up strategic consulting for companies looking to bust up a union or prevent one from being formed. They used to brag on their website about their prowess in beating back Cintas worker's attempts to unionize. The story has now leapt from the Nation and the blogs to the pages of the Los Angeles Times.

"Companies cannot be caught unprepared by organized labor's coordinated campaigns," the section read, "whether they are in conjunction with organizing or contract negotiating…. That is why we have developed a comprehensive communications approach for clients when they face any type of labor situation."

Penn has said that his own public relations work does not involve anti-union activity, but union leaders said they were troubled that a Democratic candidate who cast herself as a labor ally had chosen him as a campaign partner.

"Learning that Mark Penn was CEO of a company that in fact conducts some of its business busting unions was very, very problematic to the AFL-CIO, as well as to many other unions, and we made that clear" to the Clinton campaign, said Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political director. "This is an issue that continues."

Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa said in a statement: "We have expressed our concerns to Sen. Clinton about Mark Penn and his firm's work for anti-union companies. We value Sen. Clinton's commitment to strengthen America's middle class. But as long as Mark Penn continues to profit from his company's involvement with anti-union companies, this issue will not go away."

This issue has been reverberating for two months now and Mark Penn refuses to disassociate himself from his company. Nor has he taken action to get his company out of the business of union busting. He has simply said he has walled himself away from those business practices. Of course, he is still profiting from those clients. I certainly hope that Clinton gets a question about Mark Penn's business. Thus far union officials have participated in discussions with the Clinton campaign and has released statements, but have declined to really blow this up as a major issue. Perhaps Keith Olberman will be bold enough to push this to the forefront.

For more on the back story see the Mark Penn tag.

Hillary continues to be dogged by her advisor's ties to anti-worker campaigns. Ari Berman has an update to the story I blogged about earlier this week. The heads of the AFL-CIO and SEIU have joined their counterparts from the Teamsters and UNITE-HERE in discussing Mark Penn's PR firm's campaign to blog union organizing drives directly with Hillary's campaign.

In response, Penn told Marc Ambinder that he will "he will cede all oversight responsibilities for his company's labor relations clients to other managers." But...

A few weeks back Penn told The Nation that he had "never personally participated in any antiunion activity." He said today, via email, that he is "sending a clear message that I have no role in this and as a matter of conscience will not."

Penn's statements raise the question: how does one recuse themselves from work they claim not to be doing?

Good question. Even recusing himself does not go far enough.

Yet some labor officials hoped Penn would go much further, taking steps toward terminating B-M's "labor relations" division or at least ending the contract with Cintas. Neither will occur, nor is Penn taking a formal leave of absence from the company. He's also not distancing himself from the money the "labor relations" wing brings in and the other controversial clients B-M represents in the defense, pharmaceutical and energy industries and the Republican lobbyists he oversees.

Penn's "recusal" must thus be seen as a classic case of PR spin; a phony gesture that fails to address the underlying problems or the reasons prominent labor leaders are upset with Clinton's campaign.

Mark Penn continues to benefit directly from union busting campaigns. He is still one of Hillary's closest advisors. Penn has never repudiated the behavior of his firm, nor taken steps to halt their anti-labor activities. This story is not going away any time soon.

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.