"Union warrior" Chris Liebenthal, AKA "Capper," makes a pathetic attempt to exploit Ryan Braun's successful appeal as a weapon to attack conservatives.
It's my policy not to respond to Liebenthal's Leftist drivel, but I'm making an exception in this case.
I know he wants attention. Ignoring him is the best way to show his irrelevance.
However, his fellow Leftists are no doubt echoing his latest blather, that Braun prevailed because of collective bargaining and the Players Association; and any conservative in support of Act 10 is hypocritical to support Braun.
That, of course, is ridiculous.
Liebenthal, as he so often does, makes illogical leaps.
Collective bargaining didn't overturn Braun's suspension.
The FACTS of the case did.
As has been noted so often in the Braun case, no MLB player has ever won an appeal to overturn the consequences resulting from a positive banned substance test.
Did collective bargaining fail them? Did the Players Association fail them?
Liebenthal argues that collective bargaining and the union saved Braun.
He writes:
Braun was only able to take it to arbitration, and win the reprieve, because of an agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association. In other words, it was because of collective bargaining that Braun even had the opportunity to appeal, much less prevail over, the wrong decision and action taken by MLB.
The truth is the Players Association didn't save Braun. Collective bargaining didn't save him.
Those of us not in unions still are protected under the law. We have channels of legal recourse in cases against employers.
Liebenthal completely dismisses that reality.
In his post, Liebenthal also makes the assertion that I am a "right wing blowhard," and I "loathe collective bargaining and unions in general."
That's an absurd, completely baseless claim.
I don't have a problem with collective bargaining or unions in general. I do have a problem with being taxed to death to support unreasonable demands by government union members. Yes, I do loathe that.
He concludes:
[T]hey really should re-evaluate their positions and either recognize that collective bargaining is not only good, but vital, for all people or they should retract their support for Braun and show themselves for who they really are.
Braun's case does not illustrate that collective bargaining is "vital for all people," as Liebenthal states.
There's no connection.
Liebenthal fails in his argument to expose hypocrisy by conservatives pleased with the outcome of Braun's appeal.
Support for Act 10 and support for Ryan Braun are not mutually exclusive.
2 comments:
You're right to state that the facts of the case matter more than anything else. That Ryan Braun's tests yielded results that were three-times higher testosterone levels than any other player ever, despite him not growing significantly in size or gaining speed, showed more than anything that Braun's tests were likely skewed. But the fact that unions played a role in the arbitration process shouldn't be overlooked. In any other non-union profession, if a drug test shows up positive, that person would be held to account without any arbitration of any kind, unless they want to pay the legal fees to sue their employer out-of-pocket. Unions didn't help vindicate Braun, but they helped allow him to do so.
Yes, the MLBPA and MLB agreed upon the procedure.
Even with the Players Association, it's important to remember that Braun "hired a prominent sports lawyer and assembled a public relations team to argue his appeal."
Braun had to pay out of pocket.
Also important to remember is that Act 10 did NOT do away with a grievance process for employees.
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