Victor Samuel Kamber[2] (born May 7, 1943)[3] is an American labor union activist and political consultant in the United States.
The Kamber Group worked for Democratic Party candidates and labor unions for 25 years, becoming one of the most well-known "boutique" P.R.
Kamber is a frequent guest on national and local television and radio programs, newspapers and magazines, and is a published author.
Kamber was acquitted of charges that he did not teach at the community college, but convicted of forgery and sentenced to two years in prison.
Kamber's tenure at BCTD was marked by a significant drop in the political power of the AFL-CIO on Capitol Hill.
In 1977, Kamber and the BCTD persuaded the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives to rush a common situs picketing bill onto the floor in the hopes of stampeding members of Congress to approve the legislation.
[8] After the defeat of the picketing bill, Kamber was tapped by AFL-CIO president George Meany to head a labor law reform task force.
He established a legal defense fund for Rep. Frank Thompson, Jr. (D-New Jersey), who was caught in the federal government's Abscam sting.
[16] He also served as a public relations consultant and spokesman for the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA).
In April 1983, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations heard testimony that reputed Chicago mobster Tony Accardo "hand-picked" Edward T. Hanley of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees and Angelo Fosco of LIUNA to be presidents of their respective unions.
"[18] He also advised Doris Turner in her unsuccessful re-election bid for president of the Drug, Hospital, and Health Care Employees Union (better known as Local 1199) in 1986.
[20] However, Kamber eventually resigned as political and public relations consultant to the campaign after complaining that Cranston's personal staff pushed him to the side.
The outfit was a non-profit company whose goal was to build public opinion against government takeovers of corrupt labor unions.
William Olwell, vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), was the group's treasurer.
Kamber formed the group as UFCW, the Teamsters and other unions were under investigation for labor racketeering and domination by organized crime.
[26] In 1993, Kamber led the battle to end a Republican filibuster of the nomination of William B. Gould IV to be chair of the National Labor Relations Board.
[29] Kamber subsequently was forced to take responsibility for a scandal which involved the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), another AFL-CIO affiliate.
In February 1985, Albert Shanker, then president of the AFT, announced at a news conference his union had convinced the New York State Teachers Retirement System to withdraw $450 million from Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company because the bank had poorly administered workers' pension funds.
AFL-CIO officials said the AFT had convinced the retirement systems to withdraw the funds to protest loans Manufacturers Hanover had made to the Phelps Dodge mining corporation, which was involved in a bitter strike with the steelworkers.
In 1979 Kamber purchased the Politicards name, a company that had put out a set of playing cards featuring the image of political candidates and public officials in 1972.
[6] In 1984, Kamber created "Rappin' Ronnie", a music video which depicted a rapping President Ronald Reagan.
[35] The music video eventually aired on MTV, and was featured in "Homer Loves Flanders", a fifth-season episode of The Simpsons.