P.M. BRIEFING : Labor Is on the Defensive, Kirkland Admits, Blames Corporate Raiders
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RICHMOND, Va. — AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland conceded today that organized labor is on the defensive but said “it’s the only side to be on” when faced with an offensive from corporate raiders.
Kirkland, joined at a labor rally by a host of labor leaders and hundreds of trade unionists--many of them on strike against Bell Atlantic, Pittston Coal Group and Eastern Airlines--decried the 1980s wave of entrepreneurs trying to “loot, pillage, strip and dismantle” companies.
“Is labor on the defensive?” Kirkland asked. “Realistically, yes . . . because a new type of company is on the attack. They are not just attacking trade unions, they are attacking the basic principles on which the country was founded.”
Union officials estimated the crowd at 1,500, although police put the figure at about half that.
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