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SAUNDRA AMRHEINKerry campaign officials deny any connection to the actions of union members rallying at GOP offices.
TAMPA - Members of the Hillsborough County Republican Party on Wednesday denounced a labor union protest that erupted in their Tampa office the day before and labeled protesters' tactics as "brownshirt" and "terrorist."
The group of Republicans - which included County Commissioners Ronda Storms, Ken Hagan and Jim Norman - held a press conference behind the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign office on Platt Street and said the Democratic party and its presidential candidate, John Kerry, were to blame for the protest.
"Kerry supporters intimidated our volunteers," said Hillsborough Republican party chairman Al Higginbotham, who also said protesters used "terrorist tactics."
Higginbotham provided no evidence that the union members acted at the behest of anyone but their own leadership, but said "We know they weren't Bush supporters." A spokesman for the AFL-CIO said neither the Kerry-Edwards campaign nor the Democratic Party had anything to do with the protest. He said the event was a legal and peaceful protest of the Bush administration's new rules, which threaten to cut overtime for millions of American workers.
"They are the ones making this a political issue," Eddie Acosta, an organizer with the AFL-CIO, said of the Republicans.
About a dozen union members entered the Republican office Tuesday afternoon wearing shirts that read "Hands Off Overtime Pay."
They chanted slogans and stomped their feet and left after the police arrived.
Similar protests took place throughout Florida and the United States, Acosta said, as a way to send a message to the Bush administration after lobbying and phone calls didn't work.
The new rules say that an employer can classify a worker as an executive and not pay overtime even if the worker doesn't supervise anyone.
Workers are losing jobs and health care benefits, and their wages aren't improving, Acosta said.
"For him to say that now is the time to take away people's overtime pay is outrageous," he said. "That's what this is about."
The Republicans said they were willing to listen, but that they won't put up with the protesters' brutish methods.
"These are brownshirt tactics," Storms said, alluding to the Nazi militia of Hitler's Germany.
"If you can't win by any other method than intimidating little old ladies making phone calls, that's a sad day in politics."
Stan Fields, 41, a volunteer and Republican campaign coordinator for South Tampa, said the protesters "ran" the two interns, three phone callers and handful of volunteers into a back room by crowding into the front office and marching around.
The volunteers couldn't make phone calls or do any other form of business, he said.
"We were shut down," Fields said.
Acosta said the protesters asked workers to put in a call to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, but the workers didn't know who she was. Then they took off into the other room.
Republicans called on the AFL-CIO, Democratic Party and the Kerry campaign to issue an apology for the protest or to denounce it.
Allie Merzer, communications director for the Florida Democratic Party, said her organization had nothing to do with the event. She said the party condones peaceful protests and does not condone violence, but said she could not speak about the Tuesday protest until she learned more of the facts.
Matt Miller, Florida spokesman for the Kerry campaign, said his office was not involved in the protest and said they support peaceful protests that don't break laws.