Last month I told you about the launch of the Shame on Elaine campaign, which aimed to expose Elaine Chao's shameful record of anti-worker efforts during her tenure as George Bush's Secretary of Labor.
Well, since the campaign launched, 25,000 Americans have used their write-to-Elaine tool to write a letter to Secretary Chao putting her on notice. And yesterday, the campaign went to the Labor Department to deliver those letters in person.
As it turns out, though, Elaine doesn't much care what you think:
The letters were being presented to her by the American Federation of Government Employees Local 12, which represents the employees at the United States Department of Labor, and by the American Rights at Work, a public interest group which supports the legal rights of working Americans.
Attorney Alex Bastani, the President of Local 12, tried to bring the petition signed by 25,000 Americans into the Department of Labor main building. Mr. Bastani was about to place the petition through the x-ray machine at the Department entrance when he was stopped by the Head of Department of Labor Security, Mr. J. Thomas Holman II. The petition, a stack of paper, was approximately the size of a phone book. Mr. Holman stated he had been monitoring the Shame on Elaine website, and that he would not allow the letters to be delivered to Secretary Chao.
That's right -- the head of security for the Department of Labor was so worried that those letters would spoil poor Elaine's day that he refused to even let the letters into the building.
Shouldn't he have more important things to be spending his time on than making sure his boss doesn't hear from the people she works for?
If you want to find out, call him and ask! The phone number for building security at the Department of Labor is (202) 693-7200. (That's assuming they let in phone calls from outside the building, of course.)
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I called and was put through to Holman himself. He claimed that a pile of paper certainly was a security issue, but would not elaborate. He suggested that I call the Local 12 union and ask them for more information, as he had given them a detailed rundown of why the petition couldn't be brought into the building.
He did suggest that it could be mailed!
Posted by Phil on March 28, 2008 at 1:22 PM
Posted on March 28, 2008 at 1:22 PM