Unions

California - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Box-Of-Rocks Lefty Tells City Council of ‘Vegetable Trees’ and ‘Slavery on the East Coast’

July 26, 2009 by 6 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You have to see this video to believe it. What you see here is a video of an open mike night at the Santa Cruz City Council. Unfortunately, the end result is not intentional stand-up comedy because this twit is serious. We see here an empty headed, box-of-rocks that thinks she has all the solutions for California and, in the end, proves why California is in such trouble. This is what you end up with when you mix our modern “educational” system with modern liberalism, folks.

One could not find a better example of the emptiness of lefty thinking… if “thinking” be the proper term.

Highlights of this brain dead liberal’s rant:

  • “…We need the food because it’s food and stuff…,”
  • “We can be rich in cotton and silk worms…”
  • “…on the east coast they have slaves and they believe in slavery and made in China, but on the west coast, the new west coast, we don’t believe in that, we believe in the union… and that is what we are…”
  • “… you can grow every kind of fruit and vegetable you want, that’s how they do it, they have fruit trees and vegetable trees that’s where fruits and vegetables comes from…”
  • “… you freeze the fruit and vegetables, it’ll last forever… well, it might go bad in a while…”
  • “… growing food is so good for the people because it’s free. All’s ya have to do is pay the farmers and pay for the land…”
  • “… um, the food’s free, so we should just sell it at the farmer’s market…”

Is it too much to hope for that the San Andreas fault sends California drifting off into the middle of the ocean somewhere?

Continue reading “

Box-Of-Rocks Lefty Tells City Council of ‘Vegetable Trees’ and ‘Slavery on the East Coast’”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?

July 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday a warning from TheTruthAboutTheEFCA.com was published that, despite the news reports, card check was not a dead issue. Dead, weakened, whatever, at least it looked as if the widening disdain for the card check feature of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was a step in the right direction. But, some are beginning to wonder if card check was merely a tactic all along.

A recent National Review editorial thinks that the loss of card check would be meaningless if its removal from the EFCA meant that passage was easier. After all, the EFCA is far more egregious and economy killing than just the destruction that would be wrought by the card check feature. We’ve said as much here on the blog, as well.

Continue reading “

Was Card Check a Trojan Horse?”

Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Small Victory, Card Check Slashed from Bill

July 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We can at last mark one small victory against the Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The card check feature of the bill has been successfully cut out of the bill in the Senate.

The card check feature would have allowed unions to eliminate the ages old democratic practice of allowing prospective union employees the benefit of a secret ballot to vote “yes” or “no” for organizing their work place.

Removal of this feature of the EFCA proves that our Senators can be moved by pressure from constituents. But, let’s not imagine that the war is now won. This one small victory still leaves a bill jammed full of anti-business, economy killing aspects and we need to keep the pressure on to kill this mess.

Continue reading “

Small Victory, Card Check Slashed from Bill”

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - History - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal

July 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new article on Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies has been published by the Milken Institute Review. The piece reveals how FDR’s strengthening of labor unions contributed to the continued economic downturn experienced during the Great Depression and how the country’s disastrous economic condition was exacerbated by the failure of the New Deal. As time passes more and more honest economists and historians – those not sold out to Roosevelt sycophancy – are coming to terms with the simple fact that FDR was a failure as president with everything except his prosecution of WWII. Here is yet another historical review in that vein. (See .pdf file of article)

The Article, titled “Where the New Deal Went Badly Wrong,” was written by Harold L. Cole and Lee Ohanian. Harold L. Cole, Ph.D. Economics, University of Rochester, 1986, is a professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee E. Ohanian, Ph.D. Economics University of Rochester, 1993, is a professor of economics at UCLA.

The pair have noted that the New Deal strengthened unions and gave to them powers for striking that brought industry to its knees just at a time when the country needed as many new jobs as it could get to tug itself out of depression. Unfortunately, the power given unions caused the depression to last far longer than it needed to last.

Continue reading “

Unions Contributed to Failure of FDR’s New Deal”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Rasmussen: Most Americans Oppose Union’s Card Check Ideas

July 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the main premises of the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature eliminates the right of potential union employees to have the benefit of a secret ballot when they vote for or against organizing under a union.

Recently, Rasmussen did a poll on the basic concept to see what the prevailing feelings were and it looks like the union position comes out heavily on the losing end of the stats with this one. What’s more, most people agree with the Republican position that opposes the union’s.

Continue reading “

Rasmussen: Most Americans Oppose Union’s Card Check Ideas”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Seeks to Impair Charter Schools

July 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school’s success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them.

But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in their operations.

In their adopted resolutions, the NEA paid lip service to the “potential” reforms and “creative teaching methods” that can more easily be adopted at charter schools. Yet the following resolutions seemed determined to undermine and eliminate the very freedom and flexibility it paid lip service to at the outset. One is struck by the logical disconnect. Why, exactly, do the unions imagine that the freedom realized at charter schools lends itself to that innovation in the first place? Conversely, why is innovation not seen in public schools?

Continue reading “

Teachers Union Seeks to Impair Charter Schools”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Health - Jobs - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

ACORN Shenanigans in South Carolina

July 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently, the Smosska Corporation swooped into Florence, South Carolina promising to instantly create some 400 new jobs with an assurance of 3,000 before next year is out. For an area that needs jobs this seemed like welcome news.

Last week a job fair was held in Florence by the new company at which free health care was offered those that would be hired. At that time an aptitude test was taken by applicants if, that is, they had the $40 fee to pay to take the thing. The company claimed this “fee” would be used to pay for drug tests if they were hired. This fee, however, made some people curious.

The fee and several other curious characteristics of this company caused suspicions to be raised about its legitimacy. It turns out, there is not yet an actual building in which this Smosska Corporation is housed, there don’t seem to be too many current employees, and there doesn’t seem to have been any actual products created by Smosska in the past — though the corporation is supposed to have been formed in 2001. Even the original email address given out was a Yahoo account, not an official corporate web host address.

Continue reading “

ACORN Shenanigans in South Carolina”

Anti-Americanism - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU’s Way or the Highway

July 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have a few questions for all you non-union employees out there (which is 80% of America). Can you lobby your employer for a raise any time you feel like it even when your company is nearly bankrupted? And, do you have employees that can get off work to do so when ever they want to? And do you have bosses that are also one of you and who can just bow to your every demand?

Sounds like a wonderful situation, doesn’t it? I mean, who wouldn’t want a situation where you can get whatever you want as an employee (including never getting fired) no matter if your company is bankrupt or not?

Well, that is the deal that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has with its employers. You see, they have folks that are so close with the employer that whenever they decide they want more benefits or a raise, they go demand it and it happens. It truly is the dream job.

The problem is, though, that WE are the employers. And WE are the ones paying the tab for that dream job because the SEIU represents government workers. And our politicians are the ones that give the SEIU anything it wants.

Continue reading “

SEIU’s Way or the Highway”

Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Stand In Way of Calif. Budget Reform

July 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Governor Schwarzenegger said it exactly right. Unions and lap-dog, Democrat legislators in Sacramento are doing their best to make sure that everyone but they have to sacrifice to save California’s budget. The governor told reporters that unions and Democrats are telling Californians, “We want you to make the sacrifices but we in Sacramento don’t want to make any sacrifices or any changes.”

Unions are pointing fingers at everyone but themselves and refusing to budge on cuts in their overweening benefits, lush pay scale and perks but are insisting everyone else make the sacrifices to save union jobs. And, let’s face it, jobs is all the unions care about. They have no interest in what is good for the state or the taxpayers.

I’d suggest a little fix that might help. Instead of furloughing state workers, how about firing some of the most unnecessary jobs and getting rid of them altogether?

Continue reading “

Unions Stand In Way of Calif. Budget Reform”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - California - Campaign Finance - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union President Stern the Hand in Obama’s Puppet?

July 1, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times had a very interesting piece last week on the unusually close relationship between Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and President Obama. The story revealed how Stern “enjoys unusual access to the White House,” and how often Stern is invited to attend meetings the administration holds on policy even as other union heads are left out of the loop.

The piece does cast some doubt on just how much clout Stern might have with Obama as several of the initiatives he has pushed hard for have yet to come to fruition — but it should also be remembered that this administration is only 6 months old. There is plenty of time, here.

Though it does not develop the theme, here is where the Times piece shows the danger that Andy Stern’s close connection with Obama presents to the country and its various governments, federal and state both.

Continue reading “

Union President Stern the Hand in Obama’s Puppet?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Health - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Oh, Now the SEIU is FOR ‘Anti-Union Tactics’?

June 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We have been reporting on the clash between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and it’s California subsidiary the United Healthcare Workers (UHW). We have talked of the battle between the two, how the SEIU has strong-armed or dismissed the elected members of the UHW board, and how at last thousands of members of what was the UHW are attempting to leave to start a new union to rival the SEIU.

But, it appears that the SEIU is a tad unhappy that so many of its California members would quit to form a new union. And so, in order to stop the rival union’s birth, the SEIU is using what the L.A. Times is snickeringly referring to as “anti-union tactics” to stop the bleeding.

Continue reading “

Oh, Now the SEIU is FOR ‘Anti-Union Tactics’?”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…

June 24, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Of course we’ve talked endlessly about the fact that the Democrat’s Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) eliminates the employee’s free choice to vote for or against unionization using the ages-old democratic practice of a secret ballot. Who hasn’t, right? In fact, we’ve talked about it so much that even Democrats are turning against this aspect of the act and this is one of the reasons that the bill has not been able to muster enough votes to get passed. So, we can mark that as a tentative victory.

But there is more in this horrible legislation that needs to be highlighted. Here is something as egregious, but perhaps not as flashy as the elimination of a secret ballot. It is the forced arbitration clause. Let’s call it the Back Seat Driver’s clause because it is essentially a rule that says government takes away any say in unionization from BOTH the union, the workers, and the employer.

Continue reading “

And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Are you a ‘Healthcare Worker’ By Taking Care of Your Own Son?

June 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I suppose, strictly speaking, if you are a mother that takes care of a developmentally disabled son, well, I guess you might be considered a “healthcare worker” of a kind. Also, I could easily see the state being such a buttinski that it forces such a mother to get “training” to take care of her own son in order to receive state aid. That seems just the sort of twisted logic that might be employed by the nanny state(s) under which we suffer. It might even behoove a mother of a developmentally disabled child to get some training of some type, too, if she so chose, even if the state didn’t require it.

So, that being said I present to you mother Lisa Brown of Fresno, California who is seen in a new Republican ad threatening a meeting of lawmakers. She is in attendance speaking as a member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the public employees union that might see some budget cuts befall it due to California’s bankrupt treasury.

Continue reading “

Are you a ‘Healthcare Worker’ By Taking Care of Your Own Son?”

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Environment - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Put Selves Ahead of ‘Saving Planet’

June 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now wait a minute. Aren’t unions on the side of good and light? I men, they sure pal around with leftists enough to make the claim, right? And the left certainly claims that unions are part-and-parcel to their whole package of policies for what is best for America, for sure. So, one would have to assume that unions are on the side of the fringe enviro movement pushing all these green initiatives, right?

Not so fast. It seems the only real green anything that unions are interested in have pictures of presidents on them; cash!

Continue reading “

Unions Put Selves Ahead of ‘Saving Planet’”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

When We Voted for Unions to Run State Gov’t…

June 19, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s a good thing that California’s public employee union is taking it’s rightful place at the head of our government by proposing new taxes for us to pay. Why when we voted to give a union power to control government, I… oh, wait. No one ever voted to put a union in charge of government fiscal policy or give them the role of creating new taxes to burden us all with. How, could I have forgotten that these union thugs are not elected officials?

How could I forget it? Why it’s easy to forget this small fact because our Democratic lawmakers act as a rubber stamp for the unelected, unconstitutionally empowered unions, that’s why.

Continue reading “

When We Voted for Unions to Run State Gov’t…”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tough Times Doesn’t Stop Union Chief’s Salary Double Dipping?

June 16, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last month the Las Vegas Sun had an interesting extended interview with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern in which he claimed that the Culinary union is “going through some tough economic times.” Not surprising in this economy, but tough times or not, it doesn’t seem that these economic conditions are stopping one of Culinary’s union bosses from double dipping his salary.

David Denholm, President of the Public Service Research Foundation did a little research on one of Culinary’s top officers and found some interesting revelations.

Continue reading “

Tough Times Doesn’t Stop Union Chief’s Salary Double Dipping?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Congress - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions

Healthcare Reform Flim-Flam

June 16, 2009 by 5 Comments

-By Dan Scott

President Barack Obama is seeking to help pay for his healthcare plan by sharply reducing the government’s medical spending, mainly by trimming payments to prescription drug makers, hospitals and other care providers and then hiking taxes.

…In his weekly Internet and radio address Saturday, Obama proposed cutting $313 billion from the programs over 10 years. That’s in addition to the $635 billion “down payment” in tax increases and spending cuts in the health care system that he announced earlier…

…He would cut $106 billion from payments that help hospitals treat uninsured people because his plan would cover nearly every American.

Source

Of course we could suspend our disbelief of Obama’s claim that he can insure 47 million people by cutting Medicare and raising taxes. Now I want someone to explain to me how you can cut Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals and keep the same level of service when in fact the reimbursements are at or below cost to the medical providers? This is outright flim-flam to make such claims.
Continue reading “

Healthcare Reform Flim-Flam”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Team With California’s State Controller to Stop Cost-Cutting Measures

June 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Democratic Controller of the State of California is joining with unions to prevent the ability of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to get a handle on the state budget by refusing to obey the governor’s furlough plan and pay cuts. And state officers, including the Republican Insurance Commissioner, are backing the Controller showing that unions have co-opted all of them.

State governments have spent themselves into oblivion, we all know. Unfunded mandates, programs that cannot be paid for and for which no provisions for funding were ever arranged, have been the modus operandi of governments across the country. Strange, indeed, is the government program that is properly and affordably funded.

Continue reading “

Unions Team With California’s State Controller to Stop Cost-Cutting Measures”

Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dem Pols Make Out Like Bandits With EFCA

June 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill has news of a new report that will show that Democratic Politicians will make out like fatcats if they are successful in passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) this Congressional session.

It is being estimated that unions would gain an additional $320 million to spend on political campaigns and much of this money would go right in the campaign accounts of Democratic politicians in D.C. and elsewhere.

“EFCA’s passage into law could generate billions of additional dollars for unions to spend on political activity to advance their agenda,” a WFI memo says. “And for those union leaders whose pension funds have been mismanaged, EFCA’s passage would also amount to a massive government-engineered bailout of their financial mismanagement.”

The report cites a claim made by Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern who estimates that the EFCA could enlarge union membership by as many as 1.5 million members.

Continue reading “

Dem Pols Make Out Like Bandits With EFCA”

Democrats/Leftists - Education - Freedom - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - Rights - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Up In Arms About… Smoking?

June 5, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston


As America’s dumbest generation gets dumber, teachers unions stand as an important stepping stone to educating our youth. Unfortunately, the stepping stones that the unions represent are paving a road to ruin as opposed to one of success. Still, one teachers union in Pennsylvania has used its power to great effect. Sadly, the effect is not one that has anything to do with education. On the bright side, though, at least it is an issue of reinforcing personal liberty.

It seems that Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities decided to ban smoking everywhere on campuses across the Keystone State. Pursuant to that, rules were made and students and teachers alike were told to leave their butts home, no smoking allowed.

The schools made one tiny miscalculation, though. They imagined that the unions would meekly agree to this universal ban and say nothing forcing teachers to stop smoking on the job. The schools were wrong.

Continue reading “

Teachers Union Up In Arms About… Smoking?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Communism - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Supreme Court - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Could Obama’s Left Wing Flap him to Death?

May 30, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Naturally from our vantage point, Barack Obama is a left-wing terror as president. To name just a few things, he is turning our system from one of capitalism to one of socialism, he is attempting to undermine the Constitution by placing an activist on the Supreme Court, he is weakening our national security by frittering away the gains of the previous administration and by bending over backwards for our enemies while constantly flipping off our allies, he is looking to destroy our national healthcare system by introducing a disastrous single payer system, and he is attempting to give anti-business unions the power to destroy what is left of the business community that he himself hasn’t gotten around to crushing as of yet. We on the right are alarmed by his trip down the ruinous road that Europe has already well traveled to rueful results.

One would think that the American left (or the anti-American left as the case may be) would be thrilled that their most fantasized about social, political, and economic sledgehammers were being wielded by their Obammessiah. But, one might be surprised to see that the extremists on the left are beginning to rumble in seething anger over the fact that, to date, Obama hasn’t gone fast enough or far enough to the extreme left to suit them. One of these wild-eyed, bomb-throwers has even just called for his resignation.

So, are we beginning to see waning the far left’s love affair with The One? Might this disappointment turn into the sort of lefty outrage that it did with Lyndon Baines Johnson? Will Barack Obama’s left wing flap him to death?

Continue reading “

Could Obama’s Left Wing Flap him to Death?”

Business - Censorship - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - Police - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Police Union Wants Anti-Union Employees Fired from Paper

May 29, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago the San Diego Union-Tribune got bought up by a private Beverly Hills firm named Platinum Equity. Platinum was heavily invested in by the Los Angeles police pension fund. And so, because the police are large stake owners of the news paper, the police union has called for the firing of certain employees it considers anti-union.

So much for freedom of the press as far as this union is concerned!

Continue reading “

Police Union Wants Anti-Union Employees Fired from Paper”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Misleading ‘Study’ Slams Anti-Union Forces

May 27, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group called the Economic Policy Institute is touting a paper by Cornell professor Kate Bronfenbrenner who claims to be investigating anti-union forces that she says are growing in intensity, boldness, and power. Bronfenbrenner writes that between 1999 and 2003 employer resistance to union organizing has increased causing unionizing efforts to fail despite what she claims is an increase in the public’s desire to see more union success. But it seems that there are some problems with her methodology: she never talked to anyone but disgruntled union organizers to gather her material.

Bronfenbrenner is concerned that there is mounting efforts in the business community to oppose union organizing and sets out to prove her theory. She investigates several unionizing efforts that failed and compiles some stats on such efforts. But, her facts are self-fulfilling her premise in that the percentage of failed union attempts seem to be higher than the average for National Labor Relations Board elections during the targeted years of study. (This according to Union Free America)

Continue reading “

Misleading ‘Study’ Slams Anti-Union Forces”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Boss Even Ripped off Little League Team!

May 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced former President of the New York City Central Labor Council (CLC), Brian M. McLaughlin (who was also part of the AFL-CIO), to 10 years in prison for fraud, embezzlement and corruption charges this week.

The 57-year-old McLaughlin was also a low-level New York City Assemblyman from Queens whose power came from his close ties to the labor union. He “pleaded guilty in March 2008 to racketeering charges that included using embezzlement, fraud and bribes to take money from taxpayers, labor unions and contractors, even from a Little League team in Queens,” reported The New York Times.

Continue reading “

Union Boss Even Ripped off Little League Team!”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO Uses Bulgarian Website to Advocate for Congress to Act on EFCA

May 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What, there aren’t any websites run by American workers and hosted in the USA that the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department could find to host its press releases? Apparently not as far as the union is concerned, anyway, because a press release to push a Washington conference in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is hosted on PR-USA.net, a misleadingly named site hosted and run in Varna, Bulgaria and registered by one Mr. Dobri Bojilov .

Another amusing aspect of this choice for a site host is the fact that the conference is discussing the issue of H2(b) visa reform. Of course, the H2(b) visa is the the work visa offered to foreign workers by the U.S. government. So, this union is using a foreign website to advocate against the importation of foreign workers. This union is using a foreign run site to advocate for American workers.

Why is the AFL-CIO using a foreign web service to host its press releases? Don’t they care about American workers?

I wonder if the AFL-CIO can spell hypocrisy?

Continue reading “

AFL-CIO Uses Bulgarian Website to Advocate for Congress to Act on EFCA”

Barack Obama - Communism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Local’s Sham Expenditures? $93,755 on ‘Computer Services’?

May 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Larry Seale of First Transit Employee Rights Blog found an odd expenditure for Los Angeles based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1277 early this month. The vexing question here is why would a Local union office need to spend $93,755 on “computer services”? What are they doing, rebuilding flight control for NASA?

On the Local’s LM-2 form, a financial disclosure form required by the federal government, the payout of “computer services” is listed as having been paid to a Doc Fixit, Inc of Santa Clarita, California. $93,755 is an awful lot of money for ”computer services” unless one was fitting an entire TV station, or starting up a printing company or some such major effort. But for sure that sort of money should be thought far and above what might be needed for a simple union Local’s offices.

Seale got curious when he saw the generous expenditure and tried to look up this Doc Fixit, Inc but couldn’t find a listing for it anywhere. It’s as if no such company exists. So where did this money go? What did it buy the Local? And where is this mysterious Doc Fixit, Inc computer company?

Something seems pretty fishy in L.A., doesn’t it?

Continue reading “

Union Local’s Sham Expenditures? $93,755 on ‘Computer Services’?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Gives Union Veto Power on State Funds

May 12, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When does an unelected union without legal governing powers get a say in what the federal government does with its dealings with a state? When a president that is more beholding to unions than he is to the Constitution and the people of the United States comes to office, that’s when. And now we have that in Barack Obama.

The L.A. Times is reporting that Obama allowed the Service Employee International Union to interfere in the relationship between the state of California and the federal government over the issuance of the “stimulus” funds coming out of Congress. Apparently, Obama gave the SEIU veto power over the “stimulus” funds that was supposed to go to the Golden State because Sacramento had voted for a wage cut for state workers that belong to the union.

Continue reading “

Obama Gives Union Veto Power on State Funds”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Members Don’t Even Trust Union

May 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York City carpenters union has been in trouble with the law for many decades. Organized crime has been endemic with the union for a long time and union chief after union chief has gone to jail over the ties and other corruption. Even shop stewards have gotten into the corruption game with four recently convicted on charges of fraud, conspiracy or bribetaking.

It’s so bad that even the rank-and-file member doesn’t trust the union to legally carry out union business. That distrust was seen again recently with a dispute arising between union members and union leadership over a plan to withhold quarterly benefit checks from members that refuse to sign away greater power to union officials who want to fine members that refuse to fall into line.

Continue reading “

Union Members Don’t Even Trust Union”