Stop the war on pizza and war against reason. As a University of Wisconsin student, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to outgoing Interim Chancellor David Ward for the embarrassing spectacle that is “The War on Pizza.”
Despite the fact that Palermo’s, a prominent Wisconsin employer, has been exonerated of wrongdoing by the Messiah’s (President Barack Obama’s) appointed National Labor Relations Board, student activists have decided to conflate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions with obstructions to worker’s unionization rights.
Under pressure from ICE, Palermo’s lawfully terminated workers for failing to produce documents confirming their right to work in the United States. Workers who produced legitimate documents were rehired. Moreover, hyperbolic parallels between Palermo’s and Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” are idiotic. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration has not cited Palermo’s for the any of the “near amputations” that disreputable big labor aligned papers have suggested.
As a first-generation college student and son of a blue collar union father, it boggles the mind how out of touch with reality these elitist activists can be. Working at a steel mill and paint factory carries its share of risks – such as third degree burns and broken arms. You have to be incredibly obtuse to think accidents (other than paper cuts from recall Walker petitions) that happen to people working in the manufacturing sector mean we live in a country of Foxconns producing hipster iPhone products and nets to catch workers attempting suicide.
Fundamentally, this is non-issue for UW administration and should be a non-issue for students – who should channel their efforts into more productive endeavors.
The real issue here is that Obama is between a rock and a hard place when he appeals to the immigrant community and pledges to eliminate employer magnets of undocumented workers — alas, the difficulty of appeasing everyone. This is essentially a federal issue, and the more appropriate place for activism would be supporting bipartisan efforts of members of Congress to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform led by self-hating immigrant Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
This is simply an instance of unhinged people protesting for the sake of protesting, organizing for the sake of organizing and sitting in for the sake of a sit-in. These protesters have obviated the underlying realities and attacked a reputable Wisconsin employer and our chancellor without basis. Sensationalism and gross fabrication of this degree coupled with ideological socialist tunnel vision from students at a Tier 1 research institution is quite unbecoming.
I suppose, in their idleness, professional activists who hear “worker” and “injustice” in the same sentence instinctively spring to action, throw troubling things some call “facts” (that the “right-wingers” like myself use) to the wayside and rush to get their picket signs. The only “War on Workers” here is a farcical creation of a cadre of many self-proclaimed socialists.
However, many other ways can satisfy such a desperate need for attention that spares law enforcement and administration the time, energy and resources wasted on this nonsense. My advice – get a real job. But probably not at Palermo’s.
Nicholas Checker ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in history and political science. He is the chief justice of the Associated Students of Madison Student Judiciary.
