Mark Penn's Anti-labor Activities Draw More Scrutiny

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.