In the 1930s Mineworkers leader John L. Lewis was chided for his reliance on organizers with ties to the Communist Party. He famously replied: “Who gets the bird, the hunter or the dog?” One might well ask the same question – but in reverse – in reaction to this absurd story in Friday’s Wall Street Journal which suggests that Andy Stern of SEIU thinks he can help American workers by cozying up to the labor arm of the stalinist regime in Beijing. The Chinese regime has been trying for years to legitimize its so-called labor union, the All China Federation of Trade Unions, by sending its representatives to international meetings and by wining and dining naive (is that the right word?) western union leaders in junkets to China. How quickly these western labor leaders forget the murder of real trade unionists during the crackdown on the 1989 democracy movement and the jailing of thousands since then.

U.S. Labor Leader Aided China’s Wal-Mart Coup – WSJ.com