Duke is in the throes of student government election season–a highly entertaining time to be on campus.

Last night the Duke Democrats “anti-endorsed” a candidate for student body president, junior Mike Lefevre Their rationale: his “dangerous anti-worker attitude.” In a long letter (heavy on ranting, light on style and grammar) sent to the Duke Democrats’ email list, the organization’s president, Ben Bergmann, derided Lefevre’s memo on Duke Dining Services and on the union’s part in choking out good, efficient service (my favorite policy: if you’re less than four hours late to work, you’re not late and you get paid for a full day!). To wit:

Lefevre claims that the “infallibility” given to workers by their union contract is the cause of “poor overall service,” seemingly making the case that unorganized workers completely at the mercy of management will suddenly become happier and more efficient. In the terrifying piece of anti-labor propaganda Lefevre places all of the blame for problems on workers and none on Dinning [sic] Services and Jim Wulforst [Dining Services head] (who he is very buddy-buddy with)…In light of the fact Duke tuition approached $50,000, Lefevre’s views are even more appalling and are representative of exactly the elitist and privileged attitude that many Durhamites negatively associate with all Duke students.

Now here’s a sample of the anti-worker propaganda, cited as a source of Duke Democrats’ distress:

To understand the effects of the union lobby on dining operations, step into the kitchen below the Marketplace [freshman dining hall] during breakfast. There is one employee making pancakes, one making bacon, one making eggs, and probably another standing around. Ask the employee making bacon what his job is, and he will tell you that he makes bacon. Except that the bacon comes prearranged on cooking sheets, so all that is really required to do is put the sheets in the oven. The pancakes, as well, come pre-prepared, and yet there is one employee whose only task is to ?make? pancakes.