AFL-CIO wants me to participate in an Occupy Wall Street disturbance

Since I have a previous experience with mandatory union membership, my name is on their email list.  Today's email was disturbing.  The AFL-CIO has no business fanning the flames of class warfare -- that's the President's job.  The union leadership still thinks it's the 1930's.  Their definition of fair is making someone else pay for the spending that they often encouraged.   That's not a huge surprise, given that the average union official has a substantially higher income than the working people who pay their salaries.  So, if someone else pays the union officials above-scale wages, shouldn't someone else pay for the federal deficit?  Sure, why not?

Here's part of the email I received this morning.  Maybe I'm overreacting, but this call to chaos seems way out of line:

Dear Edward,

This week already is shaping up to be huge, with actions everywhere demanding good jobs for working families, paid for with fair taxes for millionaires and Wall Street.

Occupy Wall Street protests, which really took off over the weekend, will continue in cities from coast to coast.

And the AFL-CIO America Wants to Work national week of action starts today. This is a not-to-be-missed moment to get out and attend an event in your community.

We’re sponsoring a wide variety of activities, from vigils to teach-ins on college campuses, demonstrations outside job-outsourcing corporations and press events. In many places, we’ll join the Occupy Wall Street protests that have sprung up and are growing, from Hawaii to Washington, D.C.
 
Working people will come together in hundreds of events through Oct. 16 to demand action from Congress to promote a real jobs creation agenda and real shared sacrifice from Wall Street and the rich. Find an event near you.

This email was sent by Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO.   My favorite part is that they want jobs paid for with taxes.  That's interesting, but they want to be sure that someone else pays the taxes, as they call them, millionaires and Wall Street.  Not an unreasonable agenda when you consider that it came from folks whose inflated salaries are paid exclusively by real, hard-working union members.