Here’s Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski joining protesters outside the Bay View Piggly Wiggly operated by Paul Butera. Zielinski joined protesters who were showing their their support for the locked out Crystal Sugar Company.
Now here’s Tony Zielinski with Paul Butera, the chairman, CEO, and president of Piggly Wiggly Midwest.
Paul Butera is notable not only because he’s the operator of the Bay View Piggly Wiggly, but also because he’s so anti-union he’s actually been sanctioned by the National Labor Relations Board.
Since my original report about Zielinski’s connection to Paul Butera, Zielinski has scrubbed his reelection website of any mention of Paul Butera, including the above photo of Zielinski and Butera. While supporters of Zielinski have been quick to point to his long record of support for labor unions, I can’t help but wonder which Tony Zielinski is runnging for reelection – the Tony Zielinski that supports workers and labor unions or the Tony Zielinski that welcomes the support of an anti-union business owner like Paul Butera.
Is it your belief that he knew of Butera’s anti-union history before this snapshot was taken? Again, this is flimsy and in keeping with the negative tone of Jan Pierce’s embarrassing campaign. Why does Pierce get a free ride about his clients, where our alderman with a long history of pro-labor advocacy is being called out for a single snapshot?
If Zielinski did know, it is shameful. If he didn’t, it is an unacceptable lack of due diligence for him to promote himself with the name and image of Butera in as many ways as he could, when Butera’s history in the labor community is well-known and takes no more than a simple google search to become familiar with. I mean, look at all of these places Zielinski proudly featured that photo: https://docs.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0&pli=1#folders/0B-fBUsCUgvModFJ2UFZjcDlSQktzVmdVYVRVQ0QzZw
Your unsubstantiated attempt at insinuation against Pierce is also a weak attempt to shift attention away from Zielinski’s poor judgment.
If Tony didn’t know, he’s a complete idiot. If he DID know, he’s now a dishonest flip-flopper. Either way, who’d want him for their alderman??
The full story on Typical Tony’s “action” at the PigglyWiggly:
http://crystalgreed.com/journeyforjustice/?p=128
So he really isn’t championing Worker’s rights at the non-Union PW; he’s staging an event that sorta, kinda, maybe looks like he’s responding to his anti-Worker Butera financial and political alliance, but he’s not.
Myth: Busted.
Hey Graeme, perhaps as one of the leaders of the Dem Party in Wisconsin and as one of Tony’s trusted advisors, YOU should have told your Alderman that he was buddying up the biggest Union Buster in the State outside of Walker.
Or did your crack communication team miss that one? You can’t seem to get enough of Tony, but you sure don’t seem to be paying very close attention to what he’s actually doing and saying.
That photo was taken in 2011. Butera has been a union buster in Wisconsin since at least 2009. “Tony didn’t know” isn’t a good enough answer.
Jan Pierce helps local entrepreneurs getting started right here in the neighborhood (often doing it for free or little charge). Zielinski has a long track record of preferential support, string-pulling, and favors on behalf of millionaire landowners, developers, big box stores, and a nationally-notorious, union-busting businessman. Despite nearby neighborhood residents being almost universally opposed, Zielinski supported the tearing down of an entire block of historic KK to build the Dwell apartment building–for which he accepted a string of thousands of dollars worth of bundled campaign contributions (many of them all on the same date) from the project’s out-of-district and out-of-Milwaukee developers, real estate brokers, and contractors. Who does Zielinski truly represent and serve? The two candidates’ approach to local small business and economic development could not be more different.
All the Dem admin are in the bag for Tony. It’s a shame that the party that claims to be for the workers are playing political games with an aldermanic district.
Hey Democratic Leadership! the line about Pierce going negative is Tony’s claim. Remember, if it’s the TRUTH it’s not negative campaigning.
In this day of bloggers, cameraphones, social networking and instant fact checking, Tony’s days of telling lies and convenient embroideries are over. Good riddance. The 14th doesn’t want him.
so graeme, any relation to Tony?
Seems simple enough. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…