The Ohio conservative known as "Joe the Plumber," who famously challenged then-presidential candidate Barack Obama over taxing the rich, says he's working at a union job with Chrysler — and couldn't be happier.
"Yes, I have a website that puts out conservative news. Yes, I am part-owner of a gun company. Yes, I’m a Republican who was cast into the limelight for having the temerity to confront Barack Obama on the question of redistributing wealth," Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher declared on his Facebook page Tuesday, the
Toledo Blade reports.
"But I’m a working man, and I’m working."
Wurzelbacher, 40, wrote that his new workplace is a union shop and he was required to join the United Auto Workers.
"Private unions, such as the UAW, is a choice between employees and employers," he wrote. "If that is what they want, then who am I to say you can’t have it?"
While Obama was campaigning for president in 2008, Wurzelbacher debated the Democratic candidate about his plans to raise taxes on incomes over $250,000. Wurzelbacher, who had no plumber's license but was legally working for a plumbing contractor, told Obama he was thinking about buying a plumbing business.
Four years later, Wurzelbacher made
an unsuccessful run for Congress against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur.