Barron Threatens Government Retaliation Against Nonunion T-Mobile

If you're an elected official, the last thing you should do is shake down some local business. And if you're gonna' do it anyway, you should at least be sneaky about it, like Vince Fumo. Northampton County Controller Steve Barron and Allentown City Council Prez Michael D'Amore have been caught on tape, giving T-Mobile the strong arm. They're actually proud of it. You can see the video above.

CWA, a union, is trying to organize at T-Mobile's Allentown Call Center. A few weeks ago, on August 10 (a Tuesday), organizers tried to enter the building and meet with a VP who was conducting a "town hall" with employees. They had no appointment.

Northampton County Controller Steve Barron and Allentown City Council Prez Michael D'Amore decided to inject themselves in this affair. Now D'Amore is only a part-time City Council member. He strongly believes in unions. I have no problem with his pro-union activity, so long as he makes no attempt to play on his official position as President of Allentown City Council.

Barron's another story. He claims to be a full-time Controller. On a Tuesday, instead of traipsing around in Allentown, he could have been auditing some office somewhere. He's also involving himself in policy matters, something he's been warned about in the past. Still, he's entitled to show his pro-union ardor, as long as he makes no attempt to act officially.

I suppose it's a good way to get campaign contributions.

This is where things get weird. Both of them play on their official titles in an attempt to get their foot in the door. D'Amore points to his City ID, and Barron mentions several times that he's the Controller, damn it!

Elected officials or not, T-Mobile's Group VP had no interest in listening to them sing, "Look for the union label." For one thing, he was there to talk to employees, not them. For another, they had no appointment. If I dropped in on D'Amore uninvited, I'm pretty sure I'd get the bum's rush, too.

This is where Barron really blows it. Instead of just walking away after having made his point, Barron actually threatens retaliation. Not by the union. That's normal. No, he claims it will come from the government itself. Here are his exact words.

"Please remind him [T-Mobile VP Brueckman] that if he needs anything from Northampton or Lehigh County, we're going to remember this day and we'll make sure that it will be part of the negotiations."

Can you say Hobbs Act extortion?

Barron threatens government retaliation so he can wrongfully obtain preferential treatment for CWA. It makes no difference whether Barron himself benefits personally. He is clearly attempting to benefit a third party. If T-Mobile submits a bid for cell phone service to either County, Barron is hinting it will be rejected unless it plays ball with CWA.

Barron's ignorant remark has also exposed both Counties to liability. They are both open to a lawsuit claiming retaliation if they ever refuse to do business with T-Mobile, no matter how legitimate the reason.

Thanks, Steve. At the very least, he should resign.

I have no problem with unions, but I do have a problem with elected officials use their office to bully a business into union negotiations.

This story, along with several incriminating videos, first appeared in DailyKos and Lowering the Bar, On these blogs, Barron is actually complimented for his threat of government retaliation. I guess it's OK to rig bids if you do it to penalize businesses that have no unions.

Locally, LVCI and Molovinsky both picked up on this yesterday. They are far less charitable, and I tend to agree with them.

Once their blogs published, and throughout the day, some of these videos began to go "poof." So I downloaded a video myself, made a few annotations of my own so I can claim it is an original, and uploaded it to YouTube myself. If the union has a problem with this, tough. Let 'em sue.

People have a right to know when their public servants abuse their office.

For Barron, this is the second time. A few weeks ago, he was pandering union votes at a County Council meeting concerning Gracedale, using bogus figures. "I'd rather stand with the people behind me than the person in front of me," he told Angle, to thunderous applause from AFSCME. He had previously told me he'd stay out of that controversy because, in his own words, he'd "just be pandering."

I guess the temptation was just too much for him.

Barron may be standing in front of Angle again this Thursday. The Bulldog is considering asking Council to censor him.

Updated 1:00 AM, This Can't Be Good. - The Morning Call's Jarrett Renshaw has picked up on this story.
Updated 10:40 AM: Council Will Be Asked to Censure Barron. - I have emailed Barron to notify him of my intention to request that Northampton County Council censure him. I will also request they adopt a resolution to notify T-Mobile that Controller Steve Barron's had no authority from the County for his August 10 threat.
Updated 1:00 PM: In a second public video (you can see it here), Controller Barron tells T-Mobile VP Brueckner, "I'd also like you to think about why you didn't meet with one of the local elected officials here in the Lehigh Valley, and how that can benefit your company. And when you do that, I'd like you to give me a call - my numer is [redacted] - and discuss it with you."