Union members protest outside Milwaukee Springsteen concert

Folk singer Pete Seeger is a Leftist icon and a hero to the labor movement. The 87 year-old is a committed socialist and a former communist.

Earlier this year, Bruce Springsteen released a CD of Seeger covers, and he's on tour in support of the album.

The tour brought him to Milwaukee's Bradley Center, a non-union venue. Uh oh.

That got the attention of local union leaders, who protested last nights concert.

From AP:

Seeger's reputation for singing in support of the working classes made the location of Wednesday's concert "bafflingly ironic and somewhat infuriating," said Paul Friday, who coordinates the Milwaukee chapter of a union of musicians, actors and stage hands.

"We're not really protesting," he said. "We just want people to know Springsteen's taking the music of a very pro-union campaign into a venue like that."

More...

About 15 to 20 local union members held a folk sing-along and distributed leaflets with union messages and the lyrics to "We Shall Overcome" outside the arena before the concert.

"You can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union," they sang as they did a Woody Guthrie song, "The Union Maid," that Seeger often has performed.

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