Unions

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thugs Beat Member for Disagreeing With Party Line

August 21, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Members of the carpenters union in New York City have ruined any chance that authorities there will take their union out of government oversight by beating unconscious William Davenport, a union dissident running for office in the union.

After an August 5 candidates forum, the candidate was beaten by members of the carpenters union audience outside a church. Outside a CHURCH!

This thuggery along with continued Mob involvement, indictments and convictions on corruption of union members convinced Judge Charles S. Haight, Jr. not to release the union from government oversight.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Source of ACORN Embezzlement Payoff Discovered

August 19, 2008 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You may recall the news that the brother of the chief of the extremist, leftist, activist group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) stole $1 million dollars from the organization? Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade, embezzled the money in 2000.

Well, now it has been determined who tried to secretly pay off the theft so that no one would get in trouble. It appears that Drummond Pike of the Tides Foundation a purveyor of leftist tropes, slipped ACORN the cool mil so that Wade Rathke could keep his little bro out of jail.

As the New York Times reports, the Tides Foundation has since 2000 provided over $400 million dollars to various far left organizations and causes. The Tides Foundation has said that none of their money went to ACORN and that Pike was on a “leave of absence” from their board.

ACORN did its level best to keep everything secret and off the books, too. They way they tried to paper over the theft and pay back is worthy of the best cloak-and-dagger book plot.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Loses in California, Now Trying to go National

August 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the most annoying sayings in American politics is “what happens in California will next happen in the rest of the country” as if California is always at the cusp of all the good ideas in politics. Well, apparently the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is finding that old bromide not very helpful because its latest political coup failed to pass in California. So, in true never-say-die union thug fashion, the SEIU is reversing the truism. It didn’t work in California, so they are trying to force it on the rest of the nation anyway.

The Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal has an interesting little story on how the SEIU is taking their legislative fight against Private Equity firms to Congress since they lost their battle in the California State House to force the PEs into stricter regulation.

It seems that the SEIU thinks that the PEs should have greater transparency in their investing practices. The SEIU imagines that it should be allowed to create rules for the PEs to reveal all sorts of information on their investments they currently don’t have to disclose.

Of course, what the SEIU is trying to do here is use that info to root out what investments that the PEs have with non union companies and then use that info to try to pressure the PEs into closer involvement with unions.

In any case, the transparency law failed in Sacramento so the SEIU is now shifting focus to Congress to try and force the bill that failed in California on all of us.

It is interesting how the unions are trying to force other people to comply with more transparency laws when unions have always fought tooth-and-nail to defeat transparency laws when it comes to their own business!

Continue reading “Union Loses in California, Now Trying to go National”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Dangerous Sop to Unions

August 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Donald Lambro had a great piece warning about the promises that Barack Obama has quietly made to the nation’s unions on August 8. Of course, we have talked about it many times here on the blog, but the union’s “card check” plan in their so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” is a bad, bad bit of policy that would deprive union members of one of the oldest benefits of a democracy: the secret ballot.

Lambro does remind us of Obama’s union promises, but he makes two great points that I have not really seen discussed.

Firstly, Lambro mentions that Obama’s union support has been quiet.

Obama doesn’t talk about this issue much before general audiences, but it his No. 1 promise when he speaks to unions — pledging that the so-called Employee Free Choice Act will become law in 2009 if he wins the presidency in November.

Unlike past candidates, Barack Obama has not used his union support very obviously in stump speeches. Its as if he is trying to hide from the general voting public his union support. This is an interesting observation.

Secondly, Lambro brings out a singular fact that should be talked about more often.

The House passed the card-check bill last year, but when it went to the Senate, it fell nine votes short of the 60 votes needed to end a Republican filibuster. With predictions of a six-seat Democratic gain in the Senate this year, Obama Democrats hope they can get just close enough to a 60-vote majority to pass this dangerous and very anti-democratic legislation.

If John McCain does not win and the GOP loses more seats n the Senate, a victory for the anti-democratic unions seems a sure thing. We anti-unionists should be discussing this thin wall blocking “card check” in the Senate far more often than we have.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union, Charity Paid Thousands to Firms Owned by Official’s Relatives

August 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A.Times had a great investigative story this week about typical union corruption. Before going into the story, I’ll remind you that Barack Obama is promising the unions that he will gut the Office of Labor Management Standards responsible for rooting out and prosecuting union corruption. It seems Obama thinks unions are innocent until their corruption is ignored later.

Now, as to the Times story, what he have is typical union cronyism and corruption writ large. Paul Pringle of the Times give us “Union, charity paid thousands to firms owned by official’s relatives” in which we discover the sort of union cronyism that we find in nearly every union everywhere, especially in the Service Employee International Union (SEIU).

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Negotiates State Contract While Running TV Ads for Governor

August 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Interestingly, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on TV, radio and print ads helping Washington State’s Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire get reelected. This is the same Governor that the SEIU is negotiating a new contract with for state workers in that union. Naturally, Gregoire’s Republican opponents are crying conflict of interest, and its hard to deny their charge.

Republican candidate for Gov. Dino Rossi is saying that this is a definite conflict of interest. “When you have one party, whether it’s Republican or Democrat,” Rossi said, “that’s in power for so long, you end up with the appearance of institutional corruption, and that’s what this looks like.”

Rossi is also pointing to the favors Gregoire gave to Indian Casino owners for campaign support as a conflict.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Corruption With Boston Fireman’s Union Disability Claims

August 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On August 6, the Boston Herald reported the good news that Boston’s Retirement Board finally turned down the disability retirement claim of a fireman that was filmed participating in a bodybuilding contest even as he claimed that permanent back injuries suffered on the job had ended his firefighting career. The Herald hoped this decision heralded the end of the constant corruption of the Retirement Board that had become “a virtual adjunct of the firefighters union.”

Perhaps there might be hope that the corrupt Retirement Board is reforming what with the retirement of executive officer Robert E. Tierney who is leaving under a cloud of suspicion of corruption — and may be jumping ship just ahead of charges being brought against him.

Hopeful the Herald wonders if the backlog of undecided disability cases will soon be addressed as soon to be former executive officer Tierney allowed nearly 100 cases to sit unaddressed. Conveniently for the firefighters who have filed their disability requests, they continue to receive their salaries tax-free while they await the decision of their cases.

Naturally, the denied firefighter (Albert Arroyo) will appeal the decision and will continue to get his salary tax-free while he awaits that decision. Not only that, but he will not be required to pay back his previous ill-gotten salary.

But let’s not get our hopes up. After all, cronyism still rules the day in the Boston Fire union. For instance, the union employs one Larry Curran as a lobbyist on Beacon Hill (the State Capitol). Curran is also currently the Chairman of the Retirement Board. As it happens Curran announced that he is not seeking re-election this year. It turns out that Boston Fire Union President Ed Kelly is running his own brother to fill Curran’s soon to be vacated seat.

Yes, cronyism is alive and well in the Boston Fire Union. So, I doubt we’ll be seeing the cozy relationship between the Fire Union and the Retirement Board clearing up anytime soon. Corruption has become a way of life, after all.

Continue reading “Corruption With Boston Fireman’s Union Disability Claims”

00Publius Contributor - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Even George McGovern is Against Anti-Democratic ‘Card Check’ Union Plan

August 8, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On August 8, George McGovern had an editorial published by the Wall Street Journal that astounds for the fact that it runs counter to union aims.

In it, McGovern warns the unions against their woefully misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act,” the legislation that has as one of its main goals the elimination of democratic styled, secret balloting for union elections. Unions actually wish to eliminate the union member’s ability to keep his vote private. This act will serve to put pressure on union voters to conform to the union’s party line because, after all, every vote they make as individuals will be open for their union bosses to see.

Saying that voting is an “immense privilege,” McGovern worries that the unions are abut to destroy that privilege.

That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor.

The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak.

McGovern tells his fellow Democrats that “we cannot be a party that strips working Americans of the right to a secret-ballot election.”

McGovern sums up with the following warning:

I worry that there has been too little discussion about EFCA’s true ramifications, and I think much of the congressional support is based on a desire to give our friends among union leaders what they want. But part of being a good steward of democracy means telling our friends “no” when they press for a course that in the long run may weaken labor and disrupt a tried and trusted method for conducting honest elections.

I have to say that, for once, George McGovern is on the right side of an issue. I welcome his support to stop the card check system being implemented. However, I doubt his voice will be heard by the radical left, sadly.
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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Media Bias - News - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

CA Teachers Union Illegally Uses Dues for Political Campaigns

August 6, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday, August 1, the Press-Telegram of Long Beach, CA reported that the Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) has apparently been using general union funds to assist political campaigns of favored candidates for school board during the 2006 and 2008 campaign season. At least $110,000 was illegally used for political purposes.

An audit of the TALB’s books seems to show that, along with the funds legally set up to be used for political purposes, the general fund was also used for political campaigning. This is illegal because in California, union members can request that their dues not be used for political purposes. If a member makes such a request his dues are supposed to go to the general union fund and not into the political accounts.

Along with the misappropriation of funds for political purposes, there are questions on the method used by the union to pay back past political campaign overruns. The union basically extorted it from the members and also used funds that were to go for campaigning in other years.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Patriotism - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Negotiates UnAmerican Holiday, Dumps Labor Day

August 5, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new 5-year contract between workers and the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville, Tenn. has been negotiated in which the American holiday Labor Day has been eliminated as an official holiday to be replaced by the Muslim holy day Eid al-Fitr

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new 5-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate the hundreds of Somali Muslims who work at the plant .

Eid al-Fitr falls on Oct. 1 this year and marks the end of Ramadan.

Every American should be outraged.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Demands City Stop Saving Money

August 4, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The School District in the City of Madison, Ohio will save $300,000 each year for the next 5 years by privatizing their school busses. Naturally, the union is trying to stop this savings by taking the city to court.

Apparently, the union contract for the school busses ran out and the city decided to privatize the system instead of continue with the union. Of course, this is a long term savings, too. It eliminates the healthcare costs and pension costs to the city, as well.

All good policy decisions, to be sure. Saving the tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.

Naturally, the union is upset and are trying to take the city to court.

The 32-page lawsuit also alleges the school district breached its collective bargaining agreement with OAPSE when it terminated the bus drivers and other transportation employees and calls the contract, “a civil conspiracy by secretly devising a scheme to hire CBS” and also claims the board used code words such as “Phase 2” and “Phase 3” to strike the deal in secret.

This is one more example of why unions are not in the public’s interest. Here the city is saving all this money for the taxpayers and what is the union doing? trying to destroy that savings.

It is outrageous that this union is trying to rip off the taxpayers like this. But, it should be no surprise.
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00Publius Contributor - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

DoL Urged to Investigate Union Extortion of its Own Members

July 31, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Wall Street Journal today has an interesting little story highlighting a newly adopted change to the constitution of the powerful Service Employees International Union. At issue is whether it is legal for the union to require the locals to “donate” the equivalent of $6 per member to the SEIU political action committee. This new requirement has netted $150 million dollars that the SEIU is going to spend to help Democrats get into office in 2008.

The union adopted a new amendment to its constitution at last month’s SEIU convention, requiring that every local contribute an amount equal to $6 per member per year to the union’s national political action committee. This is in addition to regular union dues. Unions that fail to meet the requirement must contribute an amount in “local union funds” equal to the “deficiency,” plus a 50% penalty. According to an SEIU union representative, this has always been policy, but has now simply been formalized.

The problem is that this requirement placed upon the locals may violate Federal laws stating that contributions to a union PAC has to be voluntary, not mandatory.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union’s Lawsuit Against Its Own Members Fails

July 30, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You’d be excused if you felt like you fell down Alice’s rabbit hole with this story, only you’d soon discover that this Alice is named Andy, and it is quite real, indeed. Not long ago, Andy Stern, the radical chief of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), tried to sue members of an internal faction of his own union, the United Healthcare Workers (UHC). Stern alleged that the UHC was misappropriating funds. The suit was brought, conveniently enough, just before the SEIU convention held at the beginning of June, so that the worst possible light would be directed upon the insurgent faction of the SEIU just before they all came together to address the issues in dispute.

Well, as of June 222nd, US. District Court Judge John F. Walter threw out the SEIU’s lawsuit saying it was completely without merit.

The court ruled that SEIU had brought no valid legal claim against members of United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) and the case was dismissed without the need for a hearing. The ruling entitles UHW members to compensation fr≠om SEIU for costs incurred as a result of the illegitimate lawsuit. UHW will seek full compensation on behalf of the ten members named in the suit.

According to UHW’s Executive Board Member Rosie Byers, the lawsuit was only “PR stunt” initiated to “to silence reformers within the union.”

The charges made against local union members had no legal basis. The only purpose of this suit was to harass and discredit members of UHW who had spoken out against Andy Stern’s and Anna Burger’s backroom deals with corporations that hurt healthcare workers and our patients.î

Seems pretty obvious that Mrs. Byers is right on target with her claim. After all, if the suit was so baseless, Andy Stern’s own legal council would have been sure to make him aware of that fact. It is hard not to assume that he launched the lawsuit only in an effort to make the rest of his union membership feel that the UHW faction was illicit just before they arrived at the annual convention. This cloud over the UHW would have been sure to influence other union members that the UHW was untrustworthy and, therefore, would have discredited the UHW’s concerns and actions at that very convention.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union vs. Private Sector Pensions: How Secure Are Union Members’ Retirements?

July 29, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a follow up report to our earlier coverage, the Hudson Institute has unveiled its damning study on the largely ubiquitous insolvency of the pensions plans of the nation’s largest unions (download PDF here)

Excerpts:

At a time when unions are intensifying efforts to organize American workers, it’s troubling to see a widespread pattern of relatively poor performance among collectively bargained pension plans. They perform poorly relative to plans sponsored unilaterally by employers for nonunion employees. Equally disturbing, some pension plans for union officers are better funded than the plans for rank-and-file union members. The disparity raises this question: Do collective bargaining contracts lack provisions for the funding necessary to generate the generous retirement income that unions advertise?

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Brother of ACORN’s Chief Embezzles $1 Million of Organization’s $$

July 27, 2008 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s home political supporters, the leftist “community” organization called ACORN, is guilty of hiding the theft of one million dollars of its funds by the brother of the organization’s founder, Wade Rathke. But, it is even worse than just a case of common embezzlement. It turns out that the ACORN board and brother Wade, leader of the political activist group, tried to cover up the theft so that his bro wouldn’t get caught up with the Feds and punished for his theft.

This from the July 9th edition of The New York Times:

Acorn chose to treat the embezzlement of nearly $1 million eight years ago as an internal matter and did not even notify its board. After Points of Light noticed financial irregularities in early June, it took less than a month for management to alert federal prosecutors, although group officials say they have no clear idea yet what the financial impact may be.

The brother, Dale Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000, Acorn officials said, but a small group of executives decided to keep the information from almost all of the group’s board members and not to alert law enforcement.

These are the kind of ner-do-wells we are dealing with where it concerns ACORN. Cronyism, theft, embezzlement, cover ups…. and these are the people behind the many union efforts across the nation, as well as the Barack Obama campaign. It is also the group that Obama grew into political maturity with.

If these facts don’t show you what sort of nefarious characters we are dealing with… well, you aren’t interested in truth.
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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

ACORN and its Connection to Organized Labor

July 27, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We have been reporting a bit on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN) this week on the Union Label Blog and ACORN is an organization that bears close watch. It was reported that ACORN made $2.9 million from organized labor last year and a lot of this money seems to be slipping past Federal regulators raising significant questions of ACORN ties to big labor.

This money paid to ACORN supposedly covered the expenses for a number of shadowy union activities.

  • Training organizers to devise and implement anti-corporate campaigns
  • Providing “strike support”
  • Conducting campaign research and providing staffing
  • “Protecting market share”

Some of these services ware also paid on retainer and not just after services rendered.

ACORN has developed very close ties to the labor movement becoming a sort of “one-stop shop for unions looking to contract out labor activities,” according to Maverick Strategies. ACORN’s efforts have thus far flown under the radar for Federal regulatory agencies that act as watchdogs and regulators over union activities.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Outsourcing it’s Own Web Design to Eastern Europe?

July 20, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unions have been decrying outsourcing for years. The word “outsourcing” has been used as a boogieman to blame declining union jobs upon for the last decade. Unions, for their part, claim to desire to stand up against outsourcing — especially that of outsourcing jobs overseas — and wish to push the home grown alternatives to outsourcing jobs, namely keeping them in the country and under the control of the union.

Yet what have we discovered here on the blog? Why that the nation’s largest union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has outsourced the design of one of their own web pages to someone in Slovakia, that’s what.

We’ve waited to report this story because the webpage in question presented a time sensitive situation. The SEIU was trying to create what they were calling the “Take Back the Economy Day” and that day was to be July 17th. The SEIU hoped to spur people to “take aim at the special perks and tax loopholes that buyout firms depend on to get rich,” and get people involved to protest the success of “buyout firms” such as Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts.

Well, July 17th has passed us by and we here on the blog are not in danger of accidentally advertising their event in time to assist anyone in joining their July 17th effort.

Continue reading “Union Outsourcing it’s Own Web Design to Eastern Europe?”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Democrat Lies About ‘Rights’

July 18, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s amazing to see how a Democrat so warps the word “right” these days. Last week California Democrat Rep. Brad Sherman was only the latest Democrat to take the word “right” and misuse it for his disgusting, partisan ends when he decided that it was a “right” to unionize, but NOT a “right” to eschew a union.

Sherman proposed last week that Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley act of 1947 be repealed. This section deals with a real right, that of being guaranteed that you can keep your job WITHOUT being forced by the state to join a union. With a warped sense of “rights,” Sherman wants that section repealed so that states can force employees to join unions.

Sherman wants to repeal a true right and substitute state coercion in its place. Sherman gives us a typical Democrat lie to explain himself saying, “It is time that we let unions organize and time that we allow workers who want to have a union, to enjoy that right.”

Time we “let” union organize? Is Sherman living in 1898? No, what it is really time for is for Americans to know that they have a democratic choice. Join a union if you feel so disposed, but don’t have the iron boot heel of Brad Sherman forcing you to join one just so you might have the privilege of earning a paycheck.

Rep. Brad Sherman is an oppressor of rights, not an advocate of them and unions are his storm troopers.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Underfunding Their Own Members’ Pensions, Study Says

July 15, 2008 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few days ago I posted a story on a recent article in the New York Sun by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow at The Hudson Institute, that focused on how the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had not fully funded the pension plan of their rank and file members while they had over funded the pension plan of the Union’s chief officers.

Well, today at noon (CT) I was included as part of a conference call on the pending release of the full study upon which that earlier article in the Sun was based, written by by Diana Furchtgott-Roth. This study reviews 21 — the SEIU included — of the largest unions in the country to see where pension solvency stood in general. The results are shocking.

The Hudson study found that by 2005, the last full year of reports filed, 21 of the nation’s biggest unions show that their rank and file members’ pensions are only funded at an appalling 67.7%. Conversely, the pension funds of the union bosses are funded at a much better 88.3%. So, the union bosses — all of who have a separate pension fund than their own rank and file members — have made sure THEIR pensions are funded at a much higher rate than that of their own members. Needless to say, the union bosses administer both their own and the rank and file members’ funds.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Binding Arbitration = Financial Collapse of Business Sector

July 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We are reminded here on the blog that there is one aspect of the lie that is the Employee Free Choice Act bill that isn’t much discussed. That is the binding arbitration feature of this business/economy killing legislation. Besides the card check aspect where a union can dispense with the ages old democratic system of the secret ballot when employees are voting as to whether or not they even want a union in the first place — leaving employees open to union pressure and thuggery — there is the binding arbitration aspect of this legislation.

The binding arbitration will force business to decide their contract within 120 days of the card check vote should that vote favor the union. If the contract isn’t settled in 120 days, then a federal arbitrator steps in to decide the matter. In other words, it will be taken out of the hands of both union and business owners and will become another illegitimate, nanny state venue of government.

Now, since unionism adds at least 22% to the administrative costs of business that are forced into unionism, this far, far easier path to unionism will surely force many smaller business to fold as well as force thousands of workers into underfunded pension plans all across the state, and later the country if this debacle spreads.

So, there is more in the EFC Act that is detrimental to our economy and way of life than just the anti-democratic idea of card check.
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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Ripping Off It’s OWN Pensioners

July 14, 2008 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It must be nice to be spending 85 million dollars on political campaigns yet refuse to fully fund your own member’s pension plan. That, among other things, is exactly the sort of hypocrisy that it was revealed that the SEIU has been caught indulging in this week. Diana Furchtgott-Roth did yeoman’s work in detailing the state of the SEIU’s underfunded pension obligations in the New York Sun yesterday.

The Sun’s Furchtgott-Roth details the SEIU’s latest campaign against New York financier Henry Kravis of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts whom they accuse of all sorts of nefarious activities… none of which are actually breaking any laws. But as the SEIU attacks KKR, the Sun shows that they are not keeping their own house in order as they throw stones at others.
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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NJ Guv’s Girlfriend Removed From Union Job Over Theft of Union Funds

July 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The ex-girlfried of Governor John Corzine (D- NJ), Carla Katz, found herself in a spot of bother this week. It seems she was removed from the presidency of the largest state-worker union in New Jersey because an internal investigation revealed she had “misappropriated” union funds and violated Federal labor laws.

“An extensive internal review revealed probable cause to believe that the local is engaged in ongoing financial malpractice, the misappropriation of union funds, a failure to comply with state and federal law, as well as the CWA constitution, and the suppression of dissent,” CWA’s national board said in a news release. “The CWA national executive board has determined that it has no choice but to take this action to protect the rights and resources of the members of Local 1034.”

Naturally, Governor Corzine refused to comment on the news, but Katz is putting on the faux outrage in her statement.

“This action by the national union is appalling and the charges against our local’s leadership are completely false. It is a travesty that the retaliation against me, and my fellow union leaders, for our opposition to the bad state worker deal, continues in full force,” Katz said. “The national’s baseless and extreme action, done without any notice, tramples the democratic rights of the members of our union under the deceptive guise of protecting democracy.”

The guv and this union member have been in trouble before when gifts from Corzine to Katz were revealed raising the question of the propriety of the gifts.

Here is what the guv’s luv thug is accused of:

Continue reading “NJ Guv’s Girlfriend Removed From Union Job Over Theft of Union Funds”

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NJ Guv’s Girlfriend Removed From Union Job Over Theft of Union Funds

July 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The ex-girlfried of Governor John Corzine (D- NJ), Carla Katz, found herself in a spot of bother this week. It seems she was removed from the presidency of the largest state-worker union in New Jersey because an internal investigation revealed she had “misappropriated” union funds and violated Federal labor laws.

“An extensive internal review revealed probable cause to believe that the local is engaged in ongoing financial malpractice, the misappropriation of union funds, a failure to comply with state and federal law, as well as the CWA constitution, and the suppression of dissent,” CWA’s national board said in a news release. “The CWA national executive board has determined that it has no choice but to take this action to protect the rights and resources of the members of Local 1034.”

Naturally, Governor Corzine refused to comment on the news, but Katz is putting on the faux outrage in her statement.

“This action by the national union is appalling and the charges against our local’s leadership are completely false. It is a travesty that the retaliation against me, and my fellow union leaders, for our opposition to the bad state worker deal, continues in full force,” Katz said. “The national’s baseless and extreme action, done without any notice, tramples the democratic rights of the members of our union under the deceptive guise of protecting democracy.”

The guv and this union member have been in trouble before when gifts from Corzine to Katz were revealed raising the question of the propriety of the gifts.

Here is what the guv’s luv thug is accused of:

  • Misappropriated union funds to support her own personal interests and her own union election campaign by using local dues to pay for travel and lodging and other expenses for people recruited to campaign for her.
  • Authorized — with little or no oversight — the use of more than $700,000 in union funds to be used for political donations, some of which went to candidates in areas where the local has few members.
  • Threatened the employment of an internal critic and retaliated against union members in violation of federal law and the CWA constitution.
  • Failed to maintain mandated time records to establish what she has been doing as the top official of her local.

Looks like Katz is finally getting her comeuppance.

Continue reading “NJ Guv’s Girlfriend Removed From Union Job Over Theft of Union Funds”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How Unions Demonize Opponents

July 11, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is an interesting little report about a city Supervisor in Amherst, New York and how the city employee unions have demonized him since being elected as a reformer 2 years ago. It is an object lesson in how unions will demonize instead of work with anyone.

When Mohan took office 2 years ago as a reformer, he clearly specified that he wanted union contracts — a huge financial burden for most municipalities — retooled to pare back rich pay packages and fringe benefits.

“Someone has to speak for the people,” he said at last week’s Town Board meeting, where he opposed a police union contract that ultimately passed with only Mohan voting “no.”

Sounds like a fine public official to me! And one thing is sure, the unions sure aren’t speaking for the taxpayers in ANY city in ANY state of the Union. All they want is to rip off the taxpayers as much as possible.

Naturally, Supervisor Mohan’s success at opposing union thugs and paring back thei ill-gotten gains has made him a target of unions.

But the town’s union leaders describe Mohan’s comments as outrageous, offensive and, in some cases, “outright lies.”

In any case, we here at the blog wish Supervisor a long, long, union agitating career.

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

L.A. Outlaws Non-Union Truckers

July 10, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pretending they are interested in “clean air,” the kindly union bought folks in the Mayor’s office in Los Angeles signed a new law that makes independent trucking basically illegal in the ports of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the law on the 26th that requires independent truckers to join trucking companies, and, therefore, the unions.

The law requires independent truck drivers servicing the port to become employees of trucking companies, and bans independent contractors. Both Villaraigosa and port authorities argue that independent, low-income drivers will not be able to afford the new $100,000 trucks that meet the port’s strict low-emissions requirements.

And, of course, this makes sure every trucker is forced to join a union just to have a job, since their privately owner business have just been made illegal.

That requirement was backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which believes the provision will make it easier to organize truckers. But it’s opposed by the American Trucking Assn., which has vowed to file a lawsuit to block that part of the plan.

“This isn’t about clean air,’’ Curtis Whalen of the trucking association said of the pending legal action. “It’s about control of a deregulated industry and LA’s a pro-Teamster point of view.’’

Exactly right. We have arrived at a day when the fake worries about global warming and the environment can be used to destroy businesses and force them into becoming vassals of the state and the minions of corrupt union thugs.

We are witnessing the death of the private sector, slow but sure.

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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Update on NY School Bus Union Mob Ties

July 3, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve reported on this story several times in the past and we have a conclusion for at least one of the mobbed-up participants in this case. The former president of the union representing 15,000 New York school bus drivers, Salvatore Battaglia, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in Federal prison after he leaded guilty to extortion and receiving bribes from mobsters under the control of Matthew Ianniello, the former acting boss of the Genovese crime family.

Mr. Battaglia was the president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union from 2002 to 2006, when he lost the job because of his indictment in the case. In that indictment, he was accused of being a member of the Genovese family.

Two other union officials have pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Julius Bernstein, an employee and officer of Local 1181 for more than 30 years, pleaded guilty in August 2006 to working with the Genovese family since the 1950s and admitted crimes including labor racketeering, extortion, bribery, gambling and obstruction of justice. Ann Chiarovano, an employee of the union for more than 40 years, also pleaded guilty in August 2006 to charges of obstruction of justice.

Despite constant claims to the contrary by union supporters, the Mob has never been very far away from any union. At least these mob controlled union thugs were apprehended and kudos to the investigators for doing so.

Continue reading “Update on NY School Bus Union Mob Ties”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Says Public Has No Right to Know About State Payments to Unions

July 1, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What happened when the Evergreen Freedom Foundation decided to request the public government records of the negotiations between unions and government in Washington State? All hell broke loose, that’s what.

The bloated public employee unions banded together to stop the public from finding out what went on between the government and the unions during the negotiations of state contracts — that is contracts FUNDED by tax money, by the way — for employee benefits and rules. They filed suit saying that the public had no right to know how their own tax money was to be spent.

One union official even said that if he thought his words would become public record he would “not be comfortable speaking” until he had “fully thought through” what he had to say. Of course, this forces one to wonder why he would open his yap without thinking about what he is saying whether his yammering would be public knowledge or not?

Yes, the Unions fought the EFF tooth and nail to keep their negotiations secret from the very public that is paying their bills.

Check out the whole outrageous story at Capital Research Center’s “When unions negotiate with governments” and download the PDF report. Its a great read and a cautionary tale that supports our contention here on the Union Label Blog that unions are antithetical to good government.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Washington State’s Union Bought Governor

June 28, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democrat Governor Christine Gregoire won the governorship of Washington State in 2004 under a cloud of suspicion and possible voter fraud. The election was very close and after a recount Gregoire’s Republican rival still had the win. But, the Democrats weren’t happy with the recount. They wanted a second and calls went out for giant donations to get it done.

To steal the governorship Gregoire’s biggest donors were unions. Teachers unions and labor unions donated big money. Once the miraculous second recount suddenly showed that the Democrats had won (by 129 votes), Gregoire settled into office.

And then the payback began with unions making out like fat cats.
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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Basically Proposes Gov’t Run Grocery/Drug Stores?

June 27, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It sure seems as if a union head has basically proposed that the government take over grocery and drug stores in New York. John R. Durso, president of Local 338 of the Retail Worker Department Store/United Food and Commercial Workers union, wrote in a recent public statement that the people cannot expect stores to serve the public and that government should step in with more legislation.

A recent report by the New York state’s attorney threatened a lawsuit against the drug store chains Rite Aid and CVS after an investigation found that expired goods were being sold at stores in New York. This prompted the union chief to say that the investigation “proves that we shouldn’t rely on drug stores to provide necessary food items to the community.”

Durso’s union supports a program of incentives and tax breaks to encourage development of supermarkets, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. But, what his statement said could easily be taken to further ends than mere tax breaks. If we cannot expect businesses to serve the public, what is left if not a take over of supermarkets and drug stores by government?

Imagine the big government aspect of this sort of idea? Big brother responsible for feeding us? What would follow, of course, would be price fixing and rationing once price fixing began to negatively affect the market. Ah, but the union thugs would have life easy if this all happened. After all, one apparently cannot be fired from a government job!

Once again the lesson is that unions are antithetical to the public weal, wholly detrimental to good government.
Continue reading “Union Basically Proposes Gov’t Run Grocery/Drug Stores?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Anti-Union Ads in Colorado Raising Ruckus

June 24, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Looks like the union thugs in Colorado are getting a bit worried that the Center for Union Facts TV ads are making people aware of the sham the unions are trying to perpetrate on Coloradans with their opposition to Amendment 47.

Even though TV 9 News’ report leans in favor of the unions, the story does give TCUF a little space to layout some of their issues.

The ads running on stations around Denver, including 9NEWS, are paid for by the Center for Union Facts. It’s an organization founded more than two years ago because “labor bosses were going unchallenged,” said spokesman Tim Miller. “The commercials are our way to educate the public about the mismanagement of union dues.”

Amendment 47 is a hot button issue for Colorado and if passed would prevent unions from collecting mandatory dues from people that don’t want to join the union.

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