OK, it’s funny… but with a message! I love it.
Unions
A Reminder About What Teacher’s Unions Do in California
-By Warner Todd Huston
Larry Sand gave a little talk at a local tea party in Antelope Valley, California event wherein he reminded us all of the political use of state teachers union dues and how that money supports an agenda that is essentially so anti-American.
The California Teachers Union, for instance, supported with its member’s dues money SB 1322 which was a bill that would put communists in the classroom! Arnold sensibly vetoed that bill, but the Teachers union (CTA) donated money to float this proposition.
Sand lays out a whole series of things that the CTA supports with member’s union dues all of which should set your blood to boil.
This isn’t just a California problem, though. This sort of abuse of union dues goes on in the teachers unions of every state.
Chgo. Police Union Members Throw Fund Raiser for Officer Involved in Fatal DUI
-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicago Police Detective Joe Frugoli was charged with Drunk Driving in an April accident that killed two people. Despite that, Chicago Police union members are throwing a fund raiser at their union facilities for Frugoli’s criminal defense fund despite that they found him at three times the legal limit during the accident.
Police said Frugoli’s blood-alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit when his Lexus SUV struck a car that had pulled over on the Dan Ryan Expressway north of 18th Street. The car exploded into flames and killed Andrew Cazares, 23, and Fausto Manzera, 21.
The Union’s president said that the union itself was not the sponsor of the fundraiser and that it was just planned by some members who “have a right” to use the facilities.
One would think that the union would be smart enough to tell its members that a fundraiser for a criminal cop responsible for the deaths of several young people through his negligence is not such a good idea, especially at union facilities. It casts way too much color of authority and support by the union on behalf of this criminal cop.
Not to begrudge his friends from donating money to him to help him out with his defense fund, but to hold this soiree? That is a step too far. After all, I am not an anti-cop sort of fellow, but this? This is just a little gauche, don’t you think?
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Chgo. Police Union Members Throw Fund Raiser for Officer Involved in Fatal DUI”
New Stop ACORN TV Ad
Illinois state government is so mixed up with AORN and the SEIU but the people are left in the dark about the truth. One group wants to launch an investigation into just how much state money these corrupt politicians are giving to ACORN and the SEIU.
SayNoToACRON.com has launched a new TV ad to inform Illinoisans on the threat to their government and taxes.
Anita MonCrief – A Modern David Takes on The Obama/ACORN Goliath
-By Ann “Babe” Huggett
On Tuesday, October 20, 2009, in a teleconference for bloggers hosted by Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart TV and BigGovernment.com and ACORN whistle-blower, Anita MonCrief, the launch of Ms MonCrief’s defense fund website, Fight for Anita, (http://fightforanita.com/) was announced.
A brief description of Anita’s website, which was included in the invitation, read, “ACORN is doing everything it can to intimidate Anita and others like her from telling the public what they know about ACORN. In June 2009, Project Vote and ACORN filed a lawsuit against Anita to try to get her to stop talking. The defense fund, Fight for Anita was created to help Anita with her very expensive legal fees during this crucial battle for Anita’s First Amendment rights so that she may continue to tell her brave story.”
The Fight for Anita site is as direct and as straightforward as the lady is herself. Anita never wanted the publicity, legal persecution or notoriety of whistle blowing on ACORN, Project Vote and ultimately President Obama himself. However, her innate honesty, patriotism and the very same idealism that led her to work for ACORN in the first place, also gave her the strength and courage to reject and expose the corruption, voter fraud and thuggery she saw around her.
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Anita MonCrief – A Modern David Takes on The Obama/ACORN Goliath”
Union Threatens Blog Against Using Union’s Name
-By Warner Todd Huston
In an interesting take on what is or isn’t legal, a union is threatening a critical blog for using the union’s name in its blog title. The American Federation of Teachers had its lawyers send a cease and desist letter to the operators of a blog called AFTexposed.com.
Now right off the top, this is an idiotic attempt to use legal threats on a blog. Imagine if this proscription became a legal precedent! Imagine a movie reviewer not being able to use a movie title in an article critical of the movie. Imagine a TV news station not being able to use the name of an organization it is investigating. Obviously this is more union thuggery on display, attempting to use the threat of law to stop people from criticizing them.
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Union Threatens Blog Against Using Union’s Name”
Illinois Rep. Biggert Introduces Defund ACORN Bill
-By Warner Todd Huston
U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R, Hinsdale, IL) introduced legislation last week intended to prevent misuse of federal housing counseling funds.
“It’s abundantly clear that ACORN and its affiliates cannot be trusted as a federally certified entity,” said Biggert, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. “Given the group’s clear links to illegal and inappropriate activities, how can we knowingly give them federal certification to divert precious resources from legitimate housing counselors working overtime to help struggling homeowners?”
For years federal funds have flowed into ACORN’s coffers for services given to low-income home buyers across the country. These services are intended to counsel low-income buyers on how to go about the mortgage process, to inform them of subsides and government services, and to assist the purchase.
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Illinois Rep. Biggert Introduces Defund ACORN Bill”
Union Plans Voted Down by Home Healthcare Workers
-By Warner Todd Huston
If CBS News has it right, the majority of in-home healthcare workers in Illinois voted not to join a union despite the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Governor Quinn’s best efforts to force the issue.
Earlier in the year, Governor Quinn signed Executive Order 09-15 that gave away the private information of every in-home healthcare worker in the state to several unions so that they might begin a campaign to cajole these workers into joining a union by calling them on the phone and visiting them at their homes.
In-home healthcare workers receive a stipend from the state in order to help them care for developmentally disabled or medically at risk family members.
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Union Plans Voted Down by Home Healthcare Workers”
ACORN Destroying Republican Voter Registration Forms
-By Warner Todd Huston
Not long ago, Pam Geller told the story of an ACORN office in Florida that had destroyed all the Republican voter registration forms it had gotten during a 2008 voter registration drive.
Geller had a first-hand account of this crime from one Fathiyyah Muhammad, an Obama voter that is a registered Republican. She is also an African-American.
“This is my first experience” with ACORN, Muhammad said. “This was before Obama got the nomination, long before then….I heard about this group that was paying $3.00 per person, to go out and to get people to sign up to vote. So I went over, I thought that well this is a good way to make some money because I know everybody, you know. I went over there and this guy signed me up and everything, and gave me my little pad, all this stuff.”
Muhammad dutifully went out and registered a bunch of Republican voters in Jacksonville and returned to the ACORN office to turn in her results. However, the ACORN representatives were incensed to find out that her registrations were for Republicans and not Democrats.
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ACORN Destroying Republican Voter Registration Forms”
Even SEIU Says ACORN is Toxic
-By Warner Todd Huston
In an amusing case of the pot calling the kettle, Anna Burger, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told Representative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that the SEIU had dumped ACORN during a Sept. 30 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services Committee. Apparently Mrs. Burger felt that ACORN was too toxic for the SEIU to associate with.
Certainly it is quite amazing that the SEIU has taken the step to dump ACORN as a vendor. Groups such as SEIU rarely reassess associations preferring to stubbornly stick to their guns in most cases.
During the hearing, Rep. McHenry mentioned to Mrs. Burger that the U.S. Census Bureau, the IRS, and even Bank of America had cut ties with ACORN because of the community organizer’s declining credibility and apparent criminal activities. Burger replied, “SEIU has also cut all ties to ACORN.”
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Even SEIU Says ACORN is Toxic”
The Big Score: Springfield’s Subsidies to ACORN
-By Warner Todd Huston
For a little further information on the cozy relationship between the Illinois State government in Springfield and the troubled Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the sort of corrupt bargain to which we are attempting to bring sunlight, we’ve done a little research into some of the funding distributed from our tax dollars to ACORN. In this case, we have some documents on funds given to ACORN for the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Predatory Lending Database Program (PLD) and related programs.
It isn’t just the taxpayer’s money given to ACORN that is at issue, to be sure. Not only do we see our tax dollars going to this organization that has so often been caught up in instances of criminal voter fraud across the country as well as a $5 million embezzlement controversy, but our state government has allowed this group to help it create government programs and policies, as well.
Why would the state turn to this often times criminal organization to help it create the PLD program? For the answer to that we turn to the 2008 Annual Comprehensive Housing Plan progress report.
The Big Score: Springfield’s Subsidies to ACORN”
Brave Mom Fights Forced Unionization and Gov. Quinn
-By Warner Todd Huston
We’ve been reporting to you of the outrageous under-the-radar actions of Governor Pat Quinn and his Executive Order 9-15. This EO both handed the private information of Illinois citizens to unions and set up a payoff for his union supporters by automatically unionizing hundreds of Illinois home healthcare workers whether they want to be unionized or not.
Well, one mother is fighting back. Pam Harris serves as the primary care specialist for her developmentally disabled son and in so doing receives some helpful funds from the state for that purpose. When she found out that Quinn’s EO gave her personal information to several unions she was concerned. And when she later found out that she would have to pay dues to a union even if she didn’t want to join one she became incensed.
In a report on our local Fox affiliate, Harris said, “When my doorbell rings at eleven thirty Sunday morning and there’s two people in purple shirts, one from California, one from Virginia– nice enough young people– nice enough, but that’s an invasion of my privacy.”
Harris is sure that no union will benefit her.
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Brave Mom Fights Forced Unionization and Gov. Quinn”
Railroad Union Chief Solicits Bribes from Lawyer, Gets Arrested
-By Warner Todd Huston
Eddie Rodzwicz (don’t ask me to pronounce that one) is sure to claim he was railroaded. Like a good union thug he’ll likely try to blame everyone else. But whatever Ed claims about the charges filed against him it seems he’s run off the rails. It’s charges of bribe taking and soliciting bribes being pressed against Rodzwicz we are told.
It seems that this union criminal got up a full head of steam and chugged forward toward his troubles by contacting an attorney that was supposed to be taken off the union approved vender list because of the lawyer’s ethical problems and asking for a $20,000 bribe to surreptitiously leave the lawyer on the list despite the ruling against the lawyer. That way, if the lawyer would remit the $20,000 bribe, the union chief gets some tender in his box and the lawyer can keep getting union business.
Unfortunately for the bribe engineer the lawyer contacted the feds to let them know that the union boss was the little engine that could… take a bribe or two.
Did I mention that Ed Rodzwicz is the chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen?
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Railroad Union Chief Solicits Bribes from Lawyer, Gets Arrested”
Obama’s Pledge to Help SEIU ‘Turn The Nation Purple’
-By Warner Todd Huston
If you want to know how “connected” the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is to the White House, a video of then candidate Obama’s appearance at an SEIU campaign rally event is revealing. Obama revealed his intimate connection to the SEIU (from even before he ran for office) and promised to “turn the nation purple,” in an allusion to the SEIU’s corporate color scheme.
This is how close President Obama is to the SEIU and how engaged SEIU Local 880 is in politics in Illinois.
Join us and Say NO to ACORN.
Sign the petition and tell Governor Quinn that you want a real investigation to end corruption for good.
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Obama’s Pledge to Help SEIU ‘Turn The Nation Purple’”
Economic Freedom Alliance Targets EFCA
-By Warner Todd Huston
A rather new group called the Economic Freedom Alliance (economicfreedomalliance.org) is now taking on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) by erecting billboards to target five key Democrat congressmen in hopes of getting their constituents to urge them to drop support of the EFCA.
In one section of Illinois, for instance, the billboards say simply “DoNotLetBillFosterKillJobs.com.” Bill Foster is a Democratic Representative from south west of Chicago who now holds the seat that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert once occupied.
Other Democrats that the billboards are targeting elsewhere in the country are Democrat Representatives Debbie Halvorson (Ill.) and Ike Skelton (Missouri), as well as Democratic Senators Evan Bayh (Indiana) and Claire McCaskill (Missouri).
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Economic Freedom Alliance Targets EFCA”
School Superintendent Kills Himself
-By Warner Todd Huston
In Ottawa, Illinois schools superintendent John Harrison committed suicide over the weekend. Ottawa is south west of Chicago in LaSalle County.
The school is suffering a teachers unions trike at this time, but it isn’t known if the strike and controversy is connected to the suicide.
One interesting part of the report on the CBS News site, though, showed one aspect of today’s teachers unions that is galling.
Teachers went on strike Sept. 30. They’re objecting to a school board offer that would require them to chip in for family health insurance coverage. About 1,600 students attend the school.
Seriously? These teachers think they shouldn’t have to pay any part of their own health insurance coverage? I guess we shouldn’t expect teachers to be like everyone one else in the country, eh? Naturally these greedy unions think teachers should get free healthcare all paid for by the taxpayer!
At this point these greedy, anti-student teachers unions are more like criminal syndicates than organizations with the interests of the people at heart!
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School Superintendent Kills Himself”
Smosska’s ACORN Smoke Screen
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is an update on a story about a company in South Carolina named Smosska that I covered back in July. At this point, it seems beyond question that Smosska is a sham organization that was set up by ACORN in order to hide “community activism” behind a false front in South Carolina.
Back in July I reported on a corporation that swept into Florence, South Carolina promising all sorts of new jobs with wonderful new benefits. Naturally none of these jobs have materialized. Looking into this Smosska, Corp. proves that the company is a sham group formed to serve the needs of the criminal ACORN organization.
Well, for an update, it looks like this sham company is getting served with an eviction notice.
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Smosska’s ACORN Smoke Screen”
More Big Labor Angst over Obamacare
-By Warner Todd Huston
It is often portrayed by the Old Media that Big Labor is lining up behind Obamacare with gusto. While many unions are doing just that, the not all unions are so happy with Congress’ current plans. We discussed this last month when we reported that the various propositions to tax so-called Cadillac healthcare plans has gotten some unions nervous.
Now, 157 House Democrats have sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi (D, Calif.) declaring their opposition to taxing high-end healthcare plans. One of those reasons is that many unions have given away pay raises in order to enlarge their benefits packages and such a tax will hit union members hard.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., who organized the petition, said the tax would hurt too many middle-class people in addition to the wealthier people it is intended to hit.
“This would have an impact far wider than just the Paris Hiltons of the world,” Courtney told reporters Wednesday.
Leading the charge against these tax plans is the AFL-CIO. As IBD reports:
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More Big Labor Angst over Obamacare”
How ACORN Hides Behind Fake Names
-By Warner Todd Huston
Many states have ways to look up the businesses, organizations and people with whom the state does business. Illinois has such a service on the Secretary of State’s website.
In Illinois there is a way to search the folks the state does business with on a page titled Corporate/LLC Search / Certificate of Good Standing. There you can input the name of a corporation or LLC and find out the address of its offices, its registered manager’s name, etc.
Sadly, this feature is not easy to use. The problem is you have to know the actual name of the corporation you are looking for. Of course, if you don’t really know what you are looking for you just cannot find anything useful.
The problem with the Illinois search system is that groups like ACORN register hundreds of different shell corporations to hide behind. They register them to their workers and their directors and then they offer them to government as a vendor or organization for the state’s use. Naturally, state funds flow like water into ACORN’s coffers as a result.
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How ACORN Hides Behind Fake Names”
Obama’s Stimulus for Unions
-By Warner Todd Huston
Stimulating the economy isn’t nearly as important to President Obama as putting federal dollars into the pockets of his union cronies. Because of Obama’s PLA Executive Order, thousands of jobs are going to unions in states that have few union members.
The Washington Times, for instance, reports that Obama has grandiosely given a $35 million federal construction project to the New Hampshire. But there are strings attached, strings that pull federal pay levers for the exclusive benefit of unions.
In February Obama signed Executive Order 13202 that demanded that project labor agreements be forced on every federal construction project. These PLAs would demand that federal construction projects either hire union labor or pay all workers union wages. Of course, as these non-union workers are getting union wages the government will also be deducting union dues from their paychecks regardless of whether said worker is in a union or not. This is little else than a direct transfer of federal money to union coffers.
And what of this New Hampshire project? Well, the PLA is in play as a matter of course. This $35 million federal construction project will either employ an all-union workforce, or force contractors to pay union wages to non-union workers as well as remove dues fees from said workers.
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Obama’s Stimulus for Unions”
Illinois Families Forced Into Unions Courtesy of Gov. Quinn
-By Warner Todd Huston
Governor Pat Quinn signed Executive Order number 09-15 earlier in the year. This order gave the state government the OK to hand over the private information — the addresses, names, and telephone numbers — of hundreds of families that have developmentally disabled children and other family members with chronic medical problems in their homes. Many of these people are considered home-based healthcare workers by the state and they receive state aid to help them take care of their disabled family members.
Unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) are salivating to take some of this money out of the pockets of these needy Illinois citizens that only want a little help to take care of family members with major and costly medical problems.
Now, with the signing of EO 09-15, Governor Pat Quinn has given these unions the “in” they need to accost these citizens in their homes or on the phone in order to cajole them into joining their unions. Once these unions get done bothering Illinois citizens in their homes, thanks to being given private addresses by Quinn, they will then begin to reap the reward of millions of dollars in forced dues remittances.
Quinn has also agreed that these unions will get a portion of these citizen’s state aid whether they join a union or not.
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Illinois Families Forced Into Unions Courtesy of Gov. Quinn”
Capitol Fax Smacks Candidate Kelly Around
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax politics blog is one of the best Illinois political blogs out there… so, there, I said that right upfront. But I found Miller’s recent posting on the admittedly quixotic candidacy of William Kelly, well, a bit quixotic in itself, if only on one small point.
Last Wednesday, Capitol Fax found itself a bit confused by Mr. Kelly’s tactics for his campaign for Illinois Comptroller. Kelly, you see, has made a point to repeatedly go after current State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias as a way to gain public attention for his own race for Comptroller.
Mr. Kelly did an ambush styled video where he was following Giannoulias, a current Democratic Party candidate for Senate, down a hallway asking the State Treasurer why he’d be seeking and accepting an endorsement from the Service Employee’s International Union (SEIU), a group that is hip-deep with the criminal organization ACORN.
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Capitol Fax Smacks Candidate Kelly Around”
Join Me, Illinois, to SAY NO to ACORN!
Illinois is a bankrupt state, yet our accidental Governor Pat Quinn is handing over millions of state dollars to ACORN/SEIU and any other union that wants to put its hand out. Join me and Americans For Prosperity to Say NO to ACORN.com.
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Join Me, Illinois, to SAY NO to ACORN!”
AWF: Ill. Gov. Invades Privacy of State’s Citizens
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Alliance for Worker Freedom has decided to send a letter to replacement Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois asking him how much his favoritism and goodies given to unions in the state have cost the taxpayers of Illinois. (I say “replacement gov.” because Quinn is the former Lt. Gov. that became the accidental gov. when Rod Blagojevich was indicted and then impeached from office)
Quinn is guilty of handing over the personal information of thousands of Illinois home-based support workers that receive state aid to take care of family members with severe medical conditions to several unions so that the unions could attempt to strongarm these people into a union. The executive order is #09-15, the Collective Bargaining By Individual Providers of Home-Based Support Services order.
Without regard to the privacy of the personal information of these people that receive state aid to take care of their relatives in their own homes, Gov. Quinn freely handed over their phone numbers and addresses to any union that wanted them. Many home healthcare workers have since been accosted by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) recruiters as well as operatives from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
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AWF: Ill. Gov. Invades Privacy of State’s Citizens”
Federal Recovery Tracking Website Hides $$ to ACORN
-By Warner Todd Huston
We are discovering that Obama’s promised transparency only goes so far in reporting where stimulus money ends up going. The new tracking website, Recovery.gov, is supposed to let us all know where the federal “stimulus” money is going but apparently will not track money that goes to groups like the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
The Denver Post published a story by reporter Miles Moffeit that reveals that the stimulus tracking website will only report so far into the chain of agencies and organizations that end up receiving stimulus cash and will not report where billions of dollars actually end up.
The site will delineate which state and local governments get what amounts of money but will not report any destinations after it arrives in the accounts of state and local governments. If I read Moffeit’s article correctly the site apparently will not report the identities of the agencies and vendors that end up actually getting all the cash at the end of the line.
The Post reports that payments to “grassroots-level recipients and their identities, such as subcontractors, the subcontractors’ own vendors” will not appear on Recovery.org and will remain unreported unless the states themselves decide to post the ultimate destination of the funding.
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Federal Recovery Tracking Website Hides $$ to ACORN”
Why Obama Will Throw ACORN Under the Bus
-By Frank Salvato
The spotlight of scrutiny is shining brightly on ACORN these days and rightly so. Where ACORN’s defenders have the audacity to insist that the employees caught on undercover videotape giving advice to a perceived “pimp” and “prostitute” on how to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and internationally traffic in underage Guatemalan prostitutes were simply “a few bad employees,” anyone with a brain recognizes that the problem is systemic in the organization. But what some are misdiagnosing or not completely understanding is how President Obama could be so nonchalant about the issue in recent interviews. It’s because ACORN – for Mr. Obama – has served its purpose and just like Van Jones, Tom Daschle and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, ACORN is about to be tossed under the bus.
In past articles and in many radio interviews, I have insisted that Barack Obama is just another Chicago machine politician, albeit a very successful one (If you don’t understand the phrase “Chicago machine” read the book Boss by legendary Chicago journalist Mike Royko). And like every good Chicago machine politician, Barack Obama is following the cardinal rules:
- Do what you have to in order to get elected.
- Once elected, consolidate as much power as you possibly can.
- Reward those who helped you get elected.
- Position yourself for re-election and your retention of power.
In each of the steps Barack Obama has performed so far he has done so in a most exemplary fashion.
Why Obama Will Throw ACORN Under the Bus”
Unions Threatened by New House Healthcare Provision?
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Democrat leadership of the House of Representatives now wants to pay for H.R.3200 — the House healthcare bill — by charging a tax on the so-called Cadillac healthcare plans. This surtax is something that has been talked about in the Senate and forms an integral part of the Baucus bill, but this is the first time that House leaders have broached this revenue idea for inclusion in H.R.3200.
The idea, a classic class warfare styled policy, would tax what Congress considers high-end healthcare plans, purportedly only hitting “the rich.” But it is highly possible that this “rich man’s” surtax might also apply to millions of union members that have traded pay raises for higher levels of benefits over the last decade.
This surtax idea is one of the reasons that many of the unions had been pushing for the public option. Unions chiefs felt that the surtax would unduly affect their membership and that the public option would give union members a “free” place to go if they had to cut back on benefits or what have you.
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Unions Threatened by New House Healthcare Provision?”
Union Rules: Teachers Paid Not to Teach
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here is yet another story where union members undergoing disciplinary procedures can sometimes spend years being paid their full salary to sit home and watch TV, doing nothing, working not a minute of their day. In this case it is costing a local school system at least $2.25 million to pay teachers that aren’t teaching.
This story focuses on teachers in Buffalo, New York but it is a story repeated in unions of all sorts all across the country.
The problem is that unions are allowed to become so meddlesome in member’s disciplinary procedures, the unions are allowed to block them so easily, that disciplinary procedures take an inordinate amount of time. All too often boards of review and other provisions to determine the culpability of bad teachers and arrive at a suitable punishment are opposed tooth and nail by unions. Unions especially fight the ultimate punishment: firings.
To be sure, no one thinks that unions should be so powerless that teachers can be fired on a whim. There certainly must be fairness for both parties, teachers and school administrations (the employer) alike.
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Union Rules: Teachers Paid Not to Teach”
School Pensions Making Millionaires out of Retiring Employees
-By Warner Todd Huston
Bill Zettler recently submitted a Freedom of Information request on the pensions of 13 retiring public school employees from District 211 in Palatine, Illinois and he found that the people of Illinois are on the hook for over $50 million in pension benefits promised to people retiring at the average age of 58.
Zettler found that these school employees are seeing an average of $96,000 a year in pension benefits whereas the average Social Security benefit is $13,500 a year. SS recipients also don’t get their benefits until they’ve reached 63 at least while the average retirement age of these public employees is 58.
I’ll get right to Mr. Zettler’s pullout quote, one that really puts the whole situation in perfect focus. “If the purpose of taxation is to provide for the common good,” Zettler said, “we may ask what common good is provided by making public employees multi-millionaires in their fifties?”
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School Pensions Making Millionaires out of Retiring Employees”
McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers
-By Warner Todd Huston
For the McClatchy news chain, Rob Hotakainen chose an interesting way to spin a discussion on the seeming failure of late of teachers unions to push their agenda. Instead of writing that it is teachers unions that are “feeling squeezed from all sides,” Hotakainen writes that it is the “teachers” themselves feeling this squeeze. In other words, Hotakainen tried to make it seem as if reform forces are against teachers, not the unions that represent them.
The truth is, of course, that no reform minded government official or non-governmental organization is against teachers. They are against the fraud and waste of union practices and are against union intransigence that fights against the best interests of our children’s educations.
Hotakainen points out that both the California NAACP and local Hispanic groups — groups that are traditionally on the side of unions — have supported recent moves to increase state funding for privately operated schools and instituting merit pay for teachers. He then claims that this is causing “teachers” to feel beset by all sides, left and right.
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McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers”