Democrats again oppose Blakeman but didn't support union protests

                                                                     

Planned Democratic rally against Blakeman militia proposal (Postponed due to rain)

It doesn't seem to matter what Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman supports or proposes, Nassau Democrats are against it.

Legislative Democrats have actively opposed and protested about a half-dozen Blakeman schemes in the last few months.

In contrast, they not only didn't support but essentially ignored a usual bread-and-butter Democratic issue last week --  union workers protesting non-union work on a massive Nassau County-sponsored project.

Picket lines and the inflatable union rat were up in Eisenhower Park as members of the General Building Laborers Local Union 66 protested the use of non-union workers on the construction of a 34,000 seat temporary cricket stadium on 19 acres of county land. 

T20 World Cup USA, a non-profit hosting US. cricket games this summer, is responsible for all stadium construction and maintenance costs, Newsday reported.

“We are furious that we got boxed out of a project in a park we grew up in,” said Vincent Alu, Local 66's business manager said earlier this month, according to Newsday.

Blakeman essentially ended the protests on his own by agreeing to hire some 15 union members for the project; although today's persistent rain also may have dampened the union's turnout --just like tomorrow's predicted rain has postponed the above rally by Democrats against Blakeman's latest controversial proposal to essentially create an informal county militia.

Democrats opposed Blakeman's plan to spend $10 million in federal funds to celebrate the county's 125th anniversary as a "self-promotional bonanza"; they opposed his ban against transgender female athletes, ie biological males, competing against biological female athletes in county sports facilities, contending Blakeman should instead concentrate on county issues; Legis. Arnold Drucker, a Plainview Democrat, opposed Blakeman accepting his automatic, legally-ordered salary increase while Drucker has quietly accepted his own automatic salary bumps every year; they oppose Blakeman spending county money to challenge a state Democratic-approved change in the timing of local elections outside New York City.

But they are particularly riled over his most recent plan to recruit gun-licensed homeowners to serve as provisional deputy sheriffs during emergencies.

“Nassau County isn’t the Wild West. We already have one of the largest and best trained police forces in the nation. So the last thing we want during an emergency is a bunch of untrained residents running around with guns, playing junior detective at the behest of the County Executive," Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton of Glen Cove told Newsday.

Of course, Blakeman's idea is not new, reaching back to Lexington and Concord when a ragtag citizens militia turned back the British at the start of the American revolution. 

Whether such a militia is needed in Nassau County is pretty much a political question.

But none of the Democrats rallied or apparently even tweeted in support of the union protests at Eisenhower Park.

In comparison, Democrats raged about the need to use union workers and pay prevailing wage back when the Republican administration of County Executive Ed Mangano hired Looks Great Inc. to remove debris after Superstorm Sandy.

Sure, county money was being spent back then. But county land is being used now.

 

An example of the inflatable rat used in union protests (from Wikipedia)

 

The inflatable rat, also referred to as a union rat or “Scabby the Rat,” has been a symbol of union protests since the 1980s. If union members disagree or dislike the hiring practices of labor contractors, they will set up this rat until the issue is resolved, according to Villanovan.com.