The Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor organization, has released a strongly-worded statement condemning the tactics of Ray Rogers, Corporate Campaign, Inc., and the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, in their efforts to link Deval Patrick with Coca-Cola’s alleged wrongdoing in Colombia.
President Robert J. Haynes adamantly made it clear today that Ray Rogers, head of the Corporate Campaign Inc. (CCI) for-profit company behind the Killer Coke efforts to disparage one particular Democratic candidate for governor, does not represent the viewpoint and does not speak for any Massachusetts AFL-CIO affiliated union.
Haynes said, As the president of the largest labor organization in Massachusetts, I want to be clear: Ray Rogers and his Killer Coke efforts against a Democratic candidate for governor are not in any way, shape or form speaking for organized labor or working families in this Commonwealth. No one who parachutes in from another state and likely violates OCPF laws is representative of organized labor in Massachusetts. …
“We have nothing to do with Ray Rogers, will have nothing to do with him, and resent the fact that he feels the need to trek here from New York to mislead people into thinking he speaks for organized labor in Massachusetts. He doesnt speak for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.”
The Mass. AFL-CIO decided not to endorse a candidate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. It decided instead to strongly back whoever wins the primary against Kerry Healey. And it made clear that it would have issued a similar denunciation regardless of who was targeted in a campaign like this:
This clarification around the Killer Coke issue has nothing to do with supporting any particular candidate. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO would denounce Ray Rogers or anyone elses similar activities regardless of which of the three Democratic candidates were the target….
“[W]e do not agree with [Rogers’s] message or his tactics and would denounce anyone who sought to emulate him in attacks on any Democratic candidate.”
BMG showed that Killer Coke and Corporate Campaign, Inc. are one and the same, and was the first to establish that CCI’s corporate funds paid for the anti-Patrick fliers distributed by the campaign. BMG also raised questions regarding Rogers/CCI/Killer Coke’s compliance with Mass. campaign finance regulations, particularly in light of the Globe’s revelations of the Reilly campaign’s involvement.
As someone who has worked for 20 years in the Massachusetts Labor Movement, I appauld Bob Haynes for his statement on Ray Rogers and Killer Coke. Ray Rogers is not a “labor leader” as he has been described in news stories. He has never been elected to any office by union members, never handled a grievance or represented workers in any capacity. He is a for hire consultant, who goes with whomever pays him. In the past he has lead attacks against national unions.
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Killer Coke is a disservice to Massachusetts voters. There may be legit questions about Deval Patrick’s role as a for hire attorney for Coke, Texaco and UAL but Rogers managed to direct the voters attention away from any real disclosure.
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Deval Patrick may have a very reasonable explaination for preventing Indians in South America from suing Texaco in US Courts over the environmental damage in their county but Rogers lame campaign and Reilly’s botched handling gives Deval a free pass.
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I am not a Deval supporter but he isn’t a corporate criminal or bad person. He has a corporate record that deserves review, as any candidates record should. Voters deserve better then Killer Coke and the Reilly Choke
Sounds like the AFL’s non-endorsement in the primary is very real. Tough for any candidate to credibly make the argument, “I’m Labor’s guy.” Disadvantage Reilly — he’s the one who needs it.