Remember how that ass Chris Lehane, working to bust the writer's union, said that his past work was either pro bono or "at cost", so fuck them?
For his part, Lehane - whose firm handled the rollout of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Sicko" - says that he's earned "zero, nada" from the unions and that everything he's done for them (including helping resolve a cafeteria workers' health care fight in Los Angeles) was done either at cost or pro bono.
I have confirmed with SEIU's Andy Stern that Lehane's firm had a $5,000 monthly retainer with SEIU for PR work.
$5,000 is a standard PR retainer, not "at cost" and certainly not "pro bono". It's not $100,000 per month, which is what the studios are paying him to spin his bullshit and lies, so Lehane is certainly within his rights to scowl at the plebes who can't pay him the big bucks. But does he have to lie about it?
That was a rhetorical question, of course. It's precisely those lies and lack of conscience that scored Lehane and his partner Mark Fabiani their choice union-busting contract.
Update: Okay, I got more information. Lehane was paid $5000 for contracted services in August/September 2007 by Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union. There is another invoice for $5000 for October/November. So that's actually $2,500 per month for those four months. But in addition to that, he had a $12,000/month ongoing retainer with Change to Win labor federation. So that's $14,250 per month.
So yeah, he's a liar. Or has really, really, really high expenses.
