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Do yourselves justice, Dems

Posted

To the editor:

Obviously, union leaders need to have the right to criticize the employer of their workers without being sued. The anti-labor judge, Hector LaSalle, Governor Kathy Hochul’s pick for chief judge, decided to be slick when he ruled in 2015 that Cablevision could sue them not as union officials but as individuals. If this ruling had not been overturned, that distinction would not have made a difference. It would have had the same chilling effect making union officials reluctant to criticize their employers, no matter how necessary or justified.

Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt has expressed the possibility that Republicans would support LaSalle. In a Jan. 4th Daily News article, an anonymous Democrat is quoted as saying, "Making a deal with Republicans, having her minions attack progressives and angering the labor movement, Hochul is more and more like Cuomo everyday." 

One hopes that unlike under Governor Andrew Cuomo, this time there won't be enough Democrats who out of timidity or self-interest will placate Hochul even when she is indefensibly wrong. Nowadays, Democrats have a supermajority in the State Senate, which includes many more who identify themselves as progressives. So there's no excuse for not voting LaSalle down. Not only should he not be promoted, but after such an indefensible decision, he should have been removed.

While Democrats claim to be the party of working people, too often they have betrayed them. Labor should target any Democrat, including Hochul if she does not withdraw this nomination, for defeat when they are up for reelection. Any Democrat who is a true friend of workers needs to tell LaSalle's Democratic supporters the words of Bob Marley, "Go down back biter."

Richard Warren

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