Unions

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

Unions Kill Trade Agreement – Real Improvement Unrewarded

May 6, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The powerful union lobbies in the US have cornered their lapdogs in the Democrat Party and succeeded in killing the free trade agreement that we had brokered with Colombia. The main reason that unions twisted the arms of their Dem representatives is supposed to be because of Colombia’s admittedly horrid history of violence against unions and workers.

John Sweeney, president of the largest US federation of unions, the AFL-CIO, detailed the allegations in a Washington Post op-ed April 14: “In Colombia, joining a union or advocating for workers’ rights can be a de facto death sentence,” he said. “The human-rights atrocities against union activists and supporters are not isolated, rogue events; they are committed largely by the armed forces and paramilitary organizations with ties to elected officials close to President [Alvaro] Uribe.”

Now, who can deny that such a history is lamentable? I, for one, am one of those folks who complains that the US government works so closely with the murderous, inhuman Chinese, for example, so I can very much sympathize with the sentiment that we should not reward criminal nations that perpetrate such murderous and violent actions against their own people.

Continue reading “Unions Kill Trade Agreement – Real Improvement Unrewarded”

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

Dock Workers Stay Shut Down Docks: For Benefits? No, to Protest War!

May 1, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is national security policy any business of a dock workers union? Just think about that for a second. Should some union, just because they have the power to shut down a vital business, take advantage of that capability for ANY reason outside of their direct concerns with their jobs? What other reasons beside their actual business should they be allowed to inconvenience the whole country for? Should dock workers be able to cost the country billions of lost business because, say, they are upset that the L.A. Lakers aren’t doing so well this season? Maybe they’ll shut down the entire west coast because the right person didn’t win on “American Idol”?

In any case, a protest of the Iraq war (something that is not the union’s business either directly or even indirectly) is why union thug Bob McEllrath sadi that the dock workers all walked off the job today.

All 29 ports on the West Coast, including the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, have been effectively shut down this morning as thousands of dockworkers stayed home to protest the Iraq war. The walkout comes two months before the contract between dockworkers and and port operators expires. Louis Sahagun has the story:

“We are supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq,” union president Bob McEllrath said.

What the government does in Iraq is NONE of the union’s business. Certainly as American citizens it is the business of each member. but this has nothing whatsoever to do with union business. This is an illegitimate strike and each and every one of these “workers” should be fired immediately.

This is an unconscionable misuse of the power of a union.

Continue reading “Dock Workers Stay Shut Down Docks: For Benefits? No, to Protest War!”

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

Teamsters: We Promise not to use Guns and Knives (wink, wink)

May 1, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

George Lenard has a great little post at his “George’s Employment Blawg” about how the Teamsters are promising not to use violence, guns, knives, etc., in their protests against employers. But, here is the thing: they wouldn’t have to make these promises unless they either already HAVE done that stuff before or they have a propensity to do it.

Here’s George’s post…

Overnite-Teamsters NLRB settlement reveals Teamsters’ ugly underbelly

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page (sorry, subscribers only), has an editorial entitled “The Teamster Promise” that excerpts from and links to the Teamsters’ NLRB settlement arising out of “a nasty–and ultimately unsuccessful–strike against Overnite Transportation Co.”

The posted notice, which is buried deep in the Teamsters’ website, is of course part of a “non-admit” settlement. The number of charges alone is mind-boggling. But, knowing NLRB practices, one must assume there was credible evidence some Teamster somewhere, engaged in every one of the following outrageous activities they have now promised not to do. I’m quoting extensively, as did the Journal, because it really covers the waterfront of union violence:

  • “WE WILL NOT brandish or carry any weapon of any kind, including, but not limited to, guns, knives, slingshots, rocks, ball bearings, liquid-filled balloons or other projectiles, sledge hammers, bricks, sticks, or two by fours .
  • “WE WILL NOT use or threaten to use a weapon of any kind, including but not limited to guns, knives, slingshots, rocks, ball bearings, liquid-filled balloons or other projectiles, picket signs, sticks, sledge hammers, bricks, hot coffee, bottles, two by fours, lit cigarettes, eggs, or bags or balloons filled with excrement .
  • WE WILL NOT damage, threaten to damage or attempt to damage any vehicle or equipment owned or operated by Overnite, its employees or security guards, by any means or manner, including but not limited by slingshots, rocks, ball bearings, liquid-filled balloons or other projectiles, knives, picket signs, sticks, sledge hammers, bricks, bottles, two by fours, eggs, or paint, or by tearing off mirrors, windshield wipers or antennas, or breaking windows.
  • WE WILL NOT disable or attempt to disable vehicles owned or operated by Ovemite, by any means or manner, including but not limited to disconnecting or otherwise severing air brake lines, padlocking doors, spraying substances in or otherwise jamming locks, stealing keys, puncturing radiators, cutting hoses or door cables, flattening tires or throwing, placing or otherwise spreading any nails, screws, star nails, jack rocks or similar devices capable of puncturing tires on any road surface.
  • WE WILL NOT endanger or impede the progress of or harass any non-striking employee or any employee of a neutral person doing business with Ovemite, while he or she is operating a company vehicle or his or her own personal vehicle, by forcing or attempting to force him or her off the road, blocking, delaying or limiting his or her access to or passage on any road, swerving toward, driving recklessly near, tailgating or braking abruptly in front of him or her, impeding his or her progress by speeding up and slowing down, driving at speeds below the legal minimums while in front of him or her.
  • WE WILL NOT endanger or impede the progress of or harass any non-striking employee or any employee of a neutral person doing business with Ovemite, while he or she is operating a company vehicle or his or her own personal vehicle, by jumping on vehicles, by attempting to open the doors of vehicles, by throwing paint on windshields, by using mirrors, laser pointers, spot lights or flash photography in the eyes of drivers, or by obstructing the view of drivers by holding picket signs over the windshields of vehicles.
  • WE WILL NOT engage in mass picketing or otherwise impede the ingress or egress of Ovemite employees or employees of any other employer to or from any Overnite service center or any facility of any neutral person doing business with Overnite or patrol or walk across the entrance of any Ovemite service center or a facility of any neutral person doing business with Overnite in such a manner as to impede or delay the ingress or egress of any individua1.
  • WE WILL NOT batter, assault, spit on, blow whistles loudly near a person’s ear, throw any liquid or solid object at, or attempt to assault any non-striking employee of Overnite or any member of his or her family or any employee of a neutral employee doing business with Overnite, or any security guard or supervisor or manager of a neutral employee doing business with Overnite in the presence of employees.
  • WE WILL NOT threaten to kill or inflict bodily harm, make throat slashing motions, make gun pointing motions, challenge or threaten to fight or assault employees, threaten to sexually assault non-striking employees or their family members, threaten to follow non-striking employees to their homes, use racial epithets or obscene gestures at non-striking employees or otherwise threaten unspecified reprisals on any non-striking employee of Overnite or any member of his or her family or any employee of a neutral employee doing business with Overnite, or on any security guard, supervisor or manager of Ovemite or neutral employers doing business with Ovemite in the presence of employees.
  • WE WILL NOT videotape or photograph any non-striking employees of Ovemite, or vehicles of Ovemite or of its nonstriking employees while engaging in coercive activity observed by or known by those being videotaped or photographed or threaten to release the photographs, names, addresses or phone numbers of non-striking employees in order to intimidate the non-striking employees.
  • WE WILL NOT prevent any non-striking employee from accessing an Ovemite vehicle or a personal vehicle or block Ovemite vehicles or the personal vehicles of non-striking Ovemite employees.
  • WE WILL NOT threaten to fine or cause the discharge of non-member employees because they cross a picket line or refuse to go on strike.
  • WE WILL NOT threaten to cause any employee’s discharge if they do not engage in a strike or picketing of Ovemite or of any neutral person doing business with Ovemite.
  • WE WILL NOT attempt to harass and intimidate employees or security guards on Ovemite property by using mirrors to reflect sunlight into the eyes of Ovemite drivers or use mirrors or laser pointers to shine light into the eyes or video cameras of security guards.
  • WE WILL NOT remove the personal property of non-striking employees from their personal vehicles.”

There you have it. While hopefully not every Teamsters’ local is equally disgusting, that’s their potential bag of tricks. Such conduct should be anticipated and prepared for by employers facing a Teamsters strike. And employees facing a decision about Teamsters representation should probably be given a copy of this notice as fair warning of what they might be getting into.

____________

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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

Corporate Heads Make Too Much? What About Union Leaders?

April 26, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Center For Union Facts, put out a press release jabbing unions in the ribs for their unprincipled finger pointing at the high salaries of corporate heads like CEO’s, CFO’s, etc. But, as the CUF points out, union chiefs make the same sort of money and no one is pointing fingers at THEM saying that the bloated salaries of union scammers are too high. Where are the calls for union heads to give back their exorbitant salaries?

Here is a list of some union thieves’ grossly bloated salaries.

  • The Plumbers paid former General President Martin Maddaloni $1.3 million in total compensation, and Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Patchell almost $900,000 – after they were ousted for disastrous pension investments in a Florida hotel. According to the Association for Union Democracy, the buyout agreement included “salaries and benefits plus free use of cars and other perks through the end of 2006.”
  • AFSCME President Gerald McEntee recorded total compensation just shy of $585,000.
  • General President of the Laborers Terence O’Sullivan made more than $528,000.
  • National Education Association President Reg Weaver made almost $439,000.
  • The presidents of unions for players in the National Football League and the National Basketball Association made more than $1 million each. The NFL union head, Eugene Upshaw, made $2.4 million. Moreover, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb received $900,000 from his AFL-CIO affiliated union as a player representative.

Wow. Seems rather hypocritical of these union folks who point fingers at corporate heads, doesn’t it?

And, as CUF Executive Director Richard Berman points out, the money that union chiefs get paid are from the dues of union members and NOT the profits from a company.

“While stockholders always have the option of showing their dissatisfaction with salary issues by dumping their stock, union executives have made it virtually impossible for a union member to escape paying for high salaries and perks through mandatory dues.”

Just so!

So, let me be one of the few that will call for these union thugs to pay back their undeserved salaries!

Continue reading “Corporate Heads Make Too Much? What About Union Leaders?”

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

Union Costs Help Lead to City’s Bankruptcy

April 25, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Looks like the California city of Vallejo is closer every day to bankruptcy. And one of the chief reasons is the unfunded mandates forced upon it by the unions that contract with the city workers.

City staff members have been unable to come up with a detailed, long-term financial plan because negotiations with the police and fire unions are still ongoing. The city is asking for steep concessions from the unions, whose members are among the highest paid in the Bay Area and whose salaries comprise about 74 percent of the city’s budget.

Naturally, the unions couldn’t care less about good fiscal policy and what is right for the people of Vallejo. They are too greedy for that.

Negotiations with the unions are not going well, according to city officials. The parties met three times last week and the city is expected to look at a proposal from the unions on Monday, but no meetings are scheduled after that, Davis said.

Yeah, I’ll bet “not going well” is an understatement.

Here is the reason why unions are anathema to good government. Unions are not interested in what’s best for the people, they are only interested in high salaries, whether the city has the revenue or not, for their members. Good government, good fiscal policy…. well those are things no union cares about.

Government workers should never be allowed to be under a union contract. This is perfect proof of that maxim, too.
Continue reading “Union Costs Help Lead to City’s Bankruptcy”

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

Call For Barack Obama to Repudiate Violence of His Union Supporters

April 21, 2008 by

Warner Todd Huston

This week a TV ad for Barack Obama was debuted. It was made by a union that supports Obama, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Last week, the SEIU sent 700 of its members to violently break into a conference being put on by a union supporting magazine called Labor Notes Magazine. Several women were injured by the violent protests sponsored by the SEIU.

WE CALL FOR BARACK OBAMA TO REPUDIATE HIS SUPPORTER’S VIOLENCE!

What sort of candidate would gleefully accept the support of a union that violently attacked other union members? This was no heated argument that just blew up, either, no accident of passions. It was a purposefully violent attack planned and executed. The SEIU organized hundreds of its members, rented 7 busses to transport them to their target site, and then unleashed them to push, shove and beat their way into a conference being held by the union supporting magazine. It was no accident that people were hurt. That was the SEIU’s goal.

It isn’t just one incident, either. SEIU members have been engaged in a campaign of violence and harassment and stalking of members of the California Nurses Association for many months now. The courts are even having to get involved.

And here we have Barack Obama blithely accepting the support of the violence prone SEIU without raising his own voice against the attacks!

Continue reading “Call For Barack Obama to Repudiate Violence of His Union Supporters”

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

SEIU Storms Conference, Injures Visitors

April 18, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, it was funny seeing the SEIU and the CNA squaring off for a battle royale, but now things are really getting serious and at this point even a staunch anti-unionist has to say that things are getting out of hand.

The folks over at LaborNotes.org brings us the story of SEIU members being bussed in six, count them SIX, busses to invade and disrupt a conference being attended by California Nurses Association members in Dearborn, Michigan last weekend. Reports are that people were injured as the hundreds of bussed in SEIU members forcibly broke into the conference to disrupt the proceedings.

The ridiculous thing is that the conference was supposed to be about “democracy” in unions put on by Labor Notes Magazine.

This escalation of violence by SEIU members is a disturbing trend that really does make the lie to the claim that SEIU prez Andy Stern is interested in legitimate representation, but is more interested in coercion and intimidation.

Continue reading “SEIU Storms Conference, Injures Visitors”

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

Now CNA and SEIU Members are Beating Each Other Up

April 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Beatles once had a song in which the line “It’s getting better all the time” was featured as the theme. Well, that is how I feel about this fight for supremacy between the CNA and the SEIU over the enrollment of Ohio’s healthcare workers. Each day this fight gets funnier and funnier for those of us that are not a real big fan of unions.

Well, last week things got physical, the fight boiling over into fisticuffs for some members of the two battling unions. We get the gory details from the Los Angeles Times.

A nasty fight erupted at L.A. County hospitals today when organizers for the California Nurses Assn. launched a campaign to persuade 6,000 county-employed nurses to ditch the Service Employees International Union, the powerful organization that represents them, and join the CNA instead, Garrett Therolf reports.

Police arrested a CNA organizer accused of slapping an SEIU organizer and of stomping on the foot of another. A county official who asked for anonymity claimed CNA organizers dressed up as nurses so they could get into areas of the hospital normally off limits.

Every time I open a paper to see a story about the CNA/SEIU fight I feel like I should be popping some pop corn for the show I’m about to enjoy!

Ad the fight is spreading. From Ohio to California, Texas, and Nevada the CNA is aggressively courting new members setting the SEIU’s nerves on edge.

Now that they are starting to get physical we can assume that this fight is way beyond the annoyance stage and now into the truly meanstreet phase. We’ll keep an eye on the fun.
Continue reading “Now CNA and SEIU Members are Beating Each Other Up”

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

Union to Rebate Misspent Dues to Members

April 16, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This one is interesting. The SEIU was ordered by a California judge to rebate assessments charged non-union members who were charged fees by the union that were used to fight a political campaign against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We get the story from the Sacramento Bee.

Judge Morrison England, in a decision Thursday, ordered Service Employees International Union Local 1000 to send notices to the workers who opted out of union membership. The union must issue refunds, with interest, to those non-union members who object to the special assessment. The rebate would amount to $135 plus interest for a worker who made $4,500 a month in 2005.

The special fee raised $12 million to fight Schwarzenegger’s agenda, about a quarter of which was paid by state workers who chose not to join the union.

But, how is it that this union was able to extort money from non-members in the first place, you might ask? It’s only because of the cozy relationship that the union has with the state that allows even non-union members to be ripped off by the union. Thanks to the stupidity of the state of California, even non-members have to pay money into the union! In any other situation this would be called theft. But, when a state government that bends over backwards for unions is involved, it’s called law.

Naturally, the SEIU thinks this is a bad ruling because it limits their “free speech.”

Continue reading “Union to Rebate Misspent Dues to Members”

00Publius Contributor - Business - News - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Launches Website to Attack Another Union

April 16, 2008 by

Well, now I have laughed out loud. It seems that the Services Employee International Union (SEIU) has now launched a website made solely to attack the California Nurses Association (CNA) all over their fight to unionize healthcare workers in Ohio.

It is un-inventively called “Shame on CNA” and it features video clips of nurses and workers who are upset at the CNA for their efforts.

It has sensational titles like “CNA exposed” and sections imploring folks to “take action.”

Ya gotta see it to believe it.

Doncha just hate union on union violence? I have to admit, I find it all hilarious.

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

Dues Forcibly Used for Political Causes Coming to an End?

April 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is a story that has been coming to the fore more every year. The idea that union members should have a choice whether their dues money goes to fund political causes is getting more cachet all the time. Today we have another call to stop unions for using dues money for political causes without getting permission from the dues paying union members first, this time from the Sacramento Bee.

Editorial: Refunds from union are only right

Should government workers be forced to pay for political activities with which they disagree to keep their jobs? That was the fundamental question underlying the case federal court Judge Morrison England decided last week. In a ruling that relied on simple fairness and federal law, Judge England said no.

In the case before the court, the Services Employees International Union Local 1000 had imposed a special assessment on state workers it represented to bankroll its “Political Fight-Back Fund.” The fund was established in 2005 to finance the union’s campaign against Propositions 75 and 76, two measures on the November ballot that year, pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The union deducted $12 million from the paychecks of 92,500 of its state worker members to support SEIU’s campaign to defeat the initiatives. Some 28,000 non-union workers, state employees who opt not to join the union but are required to pay fees to finance the union’s bargaining activities from which they benefit, were also forced to pay. That’s where the union tripped up. The non-union members sued to get their money back, and last week they prevailed.

As the Bee editorial notes, its a good thing that unions are beginning to have taken away the ability to casually use of everyone’s dues money to fund the union leadership’s pet political causes. After all, what if Democrat union members were forced to see their dues used to fund Republican causes?

If this idea separating the use of union money from political campaigns becomes more widespread, this could put a great dent in funding for extreme leftist, anti-business, anti-American causes.

Let’s hope this is a ball that find a continued downhill path!

Continue reading “Dues Forcibly Used for Political Causes Coming to an End?”

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

Democrats’ Slavish Devotion to Big Labor a Vote Loser?

April 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jennifer Rubin over at Commentary Magazine has a rather interesting little piece on CM’s “Contentions Blog” that, if true, shows that the Democrat Party’s devotion to Big Labor isn’t really the winning strategy that they think it is.

After noting that the AFL-CIO announced that they were devoting 53 million dollars to attack John McCain during this election cycle, and after noting that the Barack “no special interest money” Obama doesn’t seem to mind this absurd outlay of cash, Rubin reports on a study that shows some bad news for unions and their lap dogs in the Democrat Party.

Now comes some evidence that Democrats do the bidding of Big Labor at their political peril. McLaughlin & Associates, a well-regarded GOP polling group, has conducted a survey for a business group, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, in the battleground states of Minnesota, Colorado, and Maine. The results (according to the press release) show that large majorities of voters in Colorado (68%), Maine (72%), and Minnesota (65%) oppose the EFCA. Moreover, voters in Minnesota and Colorado would be less likely to support Democratic senate candidates who support the EFCA. (Specifically, a plurality of voters would be less likely to vote for Democratic Senate candidates Mark Udall (44%) and Al Franken (41%) if they support this legislation.) To boot, at least 80% of voters in all three states believe that secret ballot elections are the cornerstone of democracy and should be retained for union elections.

This is one more instance in which Democrats have confused the interests of union power brokers with the interests of working-class voters. Unions may want to do away with workplace democracy, but real workers do not. Similarly, teachers’ unions hate school choice measures, but working-class voters whose kids are trapped in underperforming public schools like them.

Of course, the fact that the excesses of union manipulation, corruption, and stupidity won’t slow down Big Labor’s iron grip over the Democrat Party any time soon, but, as Rubin notes< these facts do lend Republicans with some clear strategy choices in the meantime.

Continue reading “Democrats’ Slavish Devotion to Big Labor a Vote Loser?”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Unions

Labor Union Perspective

April 14, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

As the proposed trade agreement with Colombia reveals, labor unions are organizations of self-centered greed, which disingenuously cloak themselves with pretense of God, country, and mom’s apple pie.

President Bush, by calling for Congressional approval of the trade agreement with Colombia, is compelling liberal-progressives to choose between the high-flown, one-world internationalism to which they give lip service and kow-towing to organized labor.

Columnist Robert D. Novak described it this way in his April 4th article:
Continue reading “Labor Union Perspective”

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

Union Rigging Election at its OWN Convention

April 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This internal brawl within the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is getting uglier by the minute. Readers of the Union Label Blog will certainly know we’ve been watching the fisticuffs inside the union over the direction and policies of current president Andy Stern and we have to admit that there’s been no lack of smirks and guffaws over the union’s infighting among the denizens of the ULBlog offices! Some of us here have even been tempted to chortle openly at the union’s troubles.

Still, when serious reflection is directed at this incident it cannot escape notice that everything that is going on within the SEIU seems to violate every principle that unions are mythically assumed to hold dear. Under Andy Stern’s leadership, the “democratic process” has been steadily thwarted and union leadership has attempted to create a top-down, autocratic style of control belying the supposed principle of the rank and file “having their say” in how the union operates. Andy Stern has done his best to emulate Stalin instead of Ghandi. Stern seems the very picture of the elite instead of a man of the people.

And, isn’t it the common assumption that unions stand against “the man” telling them what to do? Yet, here is Andy Stern doing his level best to himself become the man!

Well now we can add delegate stacking and election rigging on top of his other tyrannical attempts to rule with an iron fist. According to a San Francisco Bay Guardian story by JB Powell, Andy Stern’s office has been exposed for efforts to make sure that SEIU dissidents don’t end up elected as delegates to the upcoming SEIU convention.

Continue reading “Union Rigging Election at its OWN Convention”

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

More NYC Buss Union Fallout

April 10, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For those of you that have been around our Blog for a while, you’ll remember we’ve highlighted the troubles of mob infested New York City bus drivers union before. Well, we have another update in this tale so filled with corruption, criminal activity, and mob actions.

The Village Voice reports that three union officials are now on the outside looking in at their former positions in the union.

Three officials with alleged mob ties got the boot today from the union representing the city’s 15,000 school bus drivers and escorts. Union delegates Paul Maddalone, his brother Nick Maddalone, and Gary Gugliaro were told they were personnae non grata by union trustee Tommy Mullins, who has been running Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transport Union since the local was exposed as a nest of mob corruption by a federal investigation.

The officials’ removal comes one month after The Voice reported that former union bigs had named the Maddalones and others of having ties to mobsters.

All three men were closely associated with ex-local president Sal Battaglia, a Genovese crime family associate who pleaded guilty in January to federal bribery and conspiracy charges.

This, I’m sure, is but another small chapter in the ongoing mess happening in New York. You’d be best advised, though, not to imagine that this is an isolated case of union corruption. It seems all too representative, unfortunately.

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

Secret Multi-Million $$ Group Behind Many Union Backed Ballot Initiatives

April 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now, this is the sort of thing that liberals do very well. They hide behind grand sounding organizations that claim to be “community” based, “non-partisan,” or but humble servants of the people. What they really are, however, are subversive organizations that try their best to stay behind the scenes while they promulgate their special brand of socialist policies. Most of all, they are massively funded by people like George Soros who have specific anti-American policies they wish to put into effect.

A new report from the Capital Research Center by James Dellinger and Karl Crow has recently been released to highlight the efforts of at least one of these back-room, secretive, leftist organizations.

In 2006, voters in 37 states faced a total of 203 state ballot initiatives and supporters and opponents of these measures raised and spent more than $350 million. Many ballot initiatives were sponsored and supported by labor unions, and often they received help from the little-known Washington, D.C.-based Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which quietly provides assistance in promoting ballot initiative campaigns in states where the initiative process exists. But the Center plays another increasingly important role for Big Labor and its allies. It devises tactics for blocking ballot initiatives by union opponents using aggressive methods.

Conservatives have seen success lately using ballot initiatives and this has caused liberals to try to subvert the process of ballot initiatives that their side has used to effectively for decades. This shows once again that the left is not interested in the democratic process… unless it is on THEIR side.

Continue reading “Secret Multi-Million $$ Group Behind Many Union Backed Ballot Initiatives”

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

SEIU Union Fight Gets Ugly

April 8, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Uh, oh. Looks like SEIU Chief Andy Stern isn’t taking this insurgency in stride. He’s breaking out the long knives for this one.

We’ve mentioned before how the SEIU president is under internal pressure over his growth model. Stern’s internal union opponents are claiming that he gives away too much power to employers solely to get new membership. Because a certain faction of the SEIU thinks Stern is weakening the union, they have risen up from within and challenged his position as the union chief.

Well, ol’ Andy isn’t taking this lying down. He’s fighting back like a good union thug does by making allegations and trying to have his opponent thrown out of the union. Yes, in typical undemocratic union style, Stern is ignoring the real issues and trying to strong-arm his opponent into oblivion!

We get the tale from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The president of one of the nation’s largest labor unions moved this week toward ousting the leaders of its West Coast affiliate, in a power struggle that could affect hundreds of thousands of California workers and the state’s strained health care industry.

Ooopsie, trouble in the worker’s paradise.

Andy Stern, president of the Washington-headquartered Service Employees International Union, sent a letter on Monday – obtained by The Chronicle – that alleges misconduct by Sal Rosselli, president of the Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers West, who has been Stern’s most vocal critic.

I guess we shouldn’t expect Stern to delineate his strategy, bring it to the membership, and run on the strength of his ideas, huh? No, like a true union thug, Stern has to try and use strong-arm tactics to eliminate the opposition.

Stern’s opponent, Sal Rosselli is a bit taken aback, too.

Continue reading “SEIU Union Fight Gets Ugly”

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

Denver City Hall Totally Sold Out to Unions

April 4, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We just ran across this interesting article in the Rocky Mountain News by Vincent Carroll. Carroll bemoans the way that the Denver City council has so completely sold out to unions that even the fact that the city could save money on parking contract management fees makes them think unions are somehow under attack.

After all, kowtowing to union interests has gotten so pronounced that one council member objected last week to a proposed contract with a company to manage airport parking for fear that its modest management fee signified a covert plan to cut union staffing.

“That raised my eyebrows, and right away I thought that I hope that doesn’t come on the backs of the employees,” said councilman Paul Lopez.

In the normal course of affairs, it would be considered good news that the most highly rated bid for a $70 million, five-year parking contract also included the lowest management fee among four proposals. But such is Lopez’s union-centric view of the world – he worked as an organizer before his election last year – that even a management fee can’t be accepted at face value.

Believe it or not, Lopez is only one of several council members who have expressed reservations about the proposed fee for Standard Parking ($510,000 a year, as opposed to bids of $656,000, $790,000 and $1.3 million). It’s as if the company, which also operates parking at airports in Chicago, Kansas City, Cleveland and Portland, wasn’t competent to figure out what fee makes sense to its bottom line.

Council members didn’t only wonder whether the city might be better off paying a larger fee. They lectured the company on its duty to reach a “mutually agreeable” collective-bargaining deal. “Having a union representing our work force out at the airport is very important, particularly in light of the thousands of union members that are going to be flying in and seeing our city with the Democratic National Convention,” declared Chris Nevitt rather superfluously.

Meanwhile, Rocky reporter Daniel Chacon has discovered that Nevitt and two other council members seemingly functioned as informal negotiators on the union’s behalf during a recent meeting with labor leaders and Standard Parking executives. One company official told Chacon he was “a little taken aback” by the pre-meeting hugs between council members and union representatives.

And speaking of overkill, it’s been less than a month since the council approved a proclamation honoring Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation. (Nevitt once ran a nonprofit think tank founded by the federation.) After three irritated council members made a point of vacating the chamber during the vote, Lopez offered this curious assessment, according to The Denver Post: “I respect their opinion. But there should be no controversy about the need for a living wage or access to health care or affordable housing.”

But of course there is controversy over the definition of “affordable housing” and how to provide it, the definition of a “living wage” and whether government should guarantee it, and the best way to cover the medically uninsured.

But I suppose you’d have to search beyond the confines of the labor federation to locate such differing views.

Amazing how in the hip pocket of the unions the city council is in Denver, eh? A shame, too.

Continue reading “Denver City Hall Totally Sold Out to Unions”

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

Warning: Unions Having Success Invading Healthcare Industry

April 2, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This month a warning was noted on how successful unions have been in cajoling the healthcare industry in falling to union organizers.

Unions won 72 percent of representation (RC) elections held in healthcare in 2007 – versus a union win-rate of 62 percent in non-healthcare industries. The success rates for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and various state nurses associations were even higher at 79, 80 and 83 percent, respectively. The SEIU accounted for 47 percent of all representation petitions filed in the healthcare industry in 2007.

A report has been issued by IRI Consultants detailing the danger that this unionizing incursion into the Healthcare industry can be.

The report raises concerns about potential impacts of corporate campaigns being conducted by SEIU and UNITE-HERE against vendors that support healthcare providers, including Aramark, Cintas and ServiceMaster.

Corporate campaigns are designed to damage an organization’s reputation and image by inflicting significant external pressure on an organization in hopes of gaining leverage. Union-sponsored campaigns often aim for negotiating strength or to force employers to accept “neutrality,” “free access” or “card check recognition” that make organizing workers far easier by side-stepping traditional secret-ballot elections overseen by the NLRB.

For more information call Sharon Allen at 312.422.3722.

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

Battle Royal Between CA Nurse Union and Services Employee Union

March 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, folks, grab the popcorn and settle in for this hilarious tale of union against union. It’s an epic battle of lies, underhandedness, brute force, and sweetheart deals that pits the California Nurses Association (CNA) against the Services Employees International Union (SEIU). The two unions are at each other’s throats for the prize of representing employees in the Catholic hospitals of the state of Ohio.

Here’s the Beginning of Our Story

Three years ago the SEIU cruised into the state of Ohio to organize the workers in the Catholic hospitals there, cozied up to management promising to make the burden on employers as light as possible, and set out to organize the employees.

By cozying up to management the SEIU hoped to smooth any ruffled feathers that management might have over agreeing that their employees join the union. The plumb SEIU president Andy Stern hoped to pull out of Ohio’s pie was the 8,300 workers in the Catholic hospitals in Ohio, a number that Stern was salivating to add to his burgeoning union’s numbers.

As it happens, the SEIU had worked out a deal with the hospital administrators to the effect that neither the union nor the administrators would assault the employees with all-out efforts against each other. And with that deal in place, the SEIU took the next three years to negotiate the deal.

Success was close at hand with an employee vote on joining the union set to come off this very week.

But the hopes for harmony and love for all was soon to be demolished with the entrance into the story of the California Nurses Association — a group that even The New York Times called “an unusually militant union.”

The Plot Thickens

Just as the SEIU thought everything was going swimmingly, the CNA arrived in town ready to destroy the “rigged scam” of a deal that the SEIU had worked out with the Catholic hospitals administrators.

Continue reading “Battle Royal Between CA Nurse Union and Services Employee Union”

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

Overstepping Union Attacks US Foreign Policy

March 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the military there is phrase for something that gets larger than it started; mission creep. This phrase is a really good one to describe how things often get out of hand. It also describes why unions always go awry. In this case, mission creep describes what happens when a union goes from being concerned with the interests of employees and union members to imagining it has the power or even the place to try to guide American foreign policy.

The Atlantic Free Press brings us the ridiculous tale of the arrogance of the ILWU that has decided it has the right to shut down all west cost ports of entry so that the union can announce its disagreement with the war in Iraq — a war that we are winning at last, by the way.

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, “One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.”

If anyone can show me where a union has the place to take such an action… well, I’m all ears.

But here they are with the arrogance of those who imagine that they smarter and better equipped than those whom we actually ELECT to lead this country!

Continue reading “Overstepping Union Attacks US Foreign Policy”

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

Union Labor Better? Not by a Long Shot

March 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, let’s see. There’s the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, elves… oh, and the myth of that says union labor is superior in quality to private labor.

That last one is probably the more pernicious myth because many are convinced that union myth is actually true. People grow out of belief in the Tooth Fairy, but unfortunately too many refuse to shed the absurdity of the superiority of union labor.

But, some people are coming out of their self induced stupor in Connecticut over the shoddy work that their tax dollars paid for on so many public projects.

On Feb. 27, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced he has sued 13 contractors who worked on the $50 million expansion of the York Correctional Institution in Niantic, the state’s only prison for women.

Whaaaat? But, aren’t state contracts handed out exclusively to union contractors?

Yes, Virginia, there is an indictment.
Continue reading “Union Labor Better? Not by a Long Shot”

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

Chief of SEIU Finds Critics at Home

March 7, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Times just unleashed an interesting piece detailing certain troubles being had the by current head of the SEIU, Andy Stern.

Andy Stern has been hailed in some quarters as the nation’s top labor leader largely because his union, the Service Employees International Union, has added members faster than any other, 800,000 over the last decade.

But the president of one of the union’s biggest locals has begun a public war with Mr. Stern, accusing him of having a “growth at any cost” mentality that has shortchanged union members.

By “growth at any cost,” the insurgent union chief facing Stern is claiming that Stern has made too many concessions to new union members who would otherwise vote against the union formation process. In other words, the charge is that Stern has made it easier on the concerns that new union members have just to get new membership. The unions ended up with less power than they’d prefer according to Sal Rosselli, Stern’s opponent.

But, here is the real question… so what? It would seem to me to be a smart move by Stern. Give up some power now because soon enough the union could leverage all they want from a quaking and weakened government (government workers is the focus here) that will bend over backwards for them later.
Continue reading “Chief of SEIU Finds Critics at Home”

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

Employees Reject Union…. Union Still Claims Representation

March 5, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, you guys out there, have you ever been dumped by a girl? Once she told you in no uncertain terms that it was over, did you still walk around claiming you two were an item? How about this, when was the last time a politician lost his election yet stayed in Congress anyway? Was there ever a president who lost his election but stayed in the White House?

I ask this because we have seen unions that are voted out of their position as representatives of a given group of workers yet these same unions still stomp around on picket lines and still harangue business owners and management claiming they still represent the very same worker who have told them to take a hike.

Well, it’s happened again. The packaging workers at the San Diego Union-Tribune decertified the union by a majority vote. Yet, the Teamsters is still accosting the management of the paper with demands for “their” workers… the very same employees who voted the union OUT of their hair.
Continue reading “Employees Reject Union…. Union Still Claims Representation”

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

Education Revolt in Watts

March 4, 2008 by

Here is an inspiring video from Drew Carey and the folks at Reason.tv. (Did the teachers union help? Here’s a hint…Um, no!)

Vikki Reyes has had it with Locke High, the school her daughters attend in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. She walked in on class one day and recalls “the place was just like a zoo!” Students had taken control, while the teacher sat quietly with a book.

Frank Wells has also had it with Locke High. When he became principal he says gangs ruled the campus. He tried to turn things around but ran into a “brick wall” of resistance from the school district and teachers union.

Locke seemed destined to languish in high crime and low test scores until Wells, Reyes, and many reform-minded teachers joined with a maverick named Steve Barr in an attempt to break free from the status quo. Their battle is just one example of the charter school education revolt that’s erupting across the nation.

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

Corruption Embroiled Union Gives Hillary Their Endorsement

February 29, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Post gives us a reminder of the sort of shady characters that supports the Hillary Clinton campaign for president. Last week the New York carpenters union announced their support of Hillary Clinton and it should be pointed out that their head, Michael Forde, has been linked to mob corruption in his role as union head.

Forde and union business agent Martin Devereaux are set for trial Nov. 26 on charges they took bribes from contractors to allow nonunion, off-the-books labor on job sites.

Forde was originally indicted in a massive 2000 probe of mob influence in the construction industry. Among the 38 people charged was alleged Luchese crime family acting boss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea, who pleaded guilty to price fixing, labor racketeering, bid rigging and constraint of trade.

Forde and Devereaux were convicted in 2004 – facing up to 25 years in prison – but got their cases tossed after a judge ruled jurors improperly discussed the case before deliberating.

But there is another interesting thing with this endorsement. Unions claim that they are the ones more interested in “democracy” and are always looking out for “the little guy,” right? Well, it is interesting that the NY carpenters union with Forde in the lead held a secret, closed door meeting during which this endorsement was decided.

The meeting was an “eyebrow-raising, closed-door endorsement,” that “broke ranks with the national union,” as the Post put it. If unions are so much for “democracy” and all that, why the secret, closed door meeting?

Who can doubt that it is because the myth that unions are interested in democracy is and always has been a sham.

In any case, it is instructive to be reminded of what sort of character the Clintons surround themselves with.
Continue reading “Corruption Embroiled Union Gives Hillary Their Endorsement”

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

New Jersey Construction Company Union Corruption

February 28, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As an adjunct to the story we did not long ago about union corruption in the construction trade in New York City, it was reported by the Courant newspaper in Hartford, Conn., that subpoenas were handed down to a Norwalk, Conn. based EMCOR Group, inc.

Norwalk-based EMCOR Group Inc., the construction and building systems company, said its F&G Mechanical Corp. unit received subpoenas from a New Jersey grand jury probing corruption.

F&G was served subpoenas in December and January by a grand jury empaneled by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The probe is “investigating allegations of union corruption,” the company said in the filing. F&G, a mechanical contracting firm based in Secaucus, N.J., has produced documents in response to the court orders and is cooperating with investigators, the filing said.

So, New Jersey, the land of the “Sopranos,” is no slouch in construction trade corruption, either.

I’m just saying…

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - News - Unions

Band of ‘Left-Wing’ Union Members Sees ‘Judgment Day’

February 25, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Howard Blume of the L.A.Times penned an interesting account of the “band of left-wing, dissident back-benchers that took over the city teachers union” and how the cadre are up for an election contest. After a three year reign of power, the left-wingers are facing their first election contest that can either affirm their handling of the union or send them packing.

Interestingly, the L.A.Times seems to be weighing in against these left-wing dissidents.

The union’s record over three tumultuous years will give members much to ponder. It includes lost elections, protracted contract struggles, an explosion of mostly non-union charter schools, the response to a botched payroll system and a still-evolving power equation involving Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Much of the spotlight will fall on 64-year-old A.J. Duffy, the passionate, volatile union president who is seeking a second three-year term. But an entire leadership slate faces a rank-and-file referendum. On bread-and-butter issues, Duffy points to a cumulative 8.5% salary raise and to achieving slightly smaller class sizes while maintaining health benefits. More broadly, his team has championed the idea of individual schools governing themselves — with teachers in a leading role. The concept plays to mixed reviews among school reform experts.

This Duffy character is definitely a lightning rod. Telling the Times “I am notorious,” and saying “I drive people crazy. I want it done yesterday,” it is obvious that his presidency is mostly about him and not the job. Naturally, his wild, leftward tilt is helping drive “education” to the last place on the list of interests in L.A.

One of the ideas he helped push was health care benefits for part time cafeteria workers, a complete waste of money in a cash strapped system.

Lets hope that the members of the teachers union see some sense and oust this extremist and his junta of far left ideologues.

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

One Win for Freedom of Choice

February 21, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today, we get a little good news for a change. A teacher in the Vancouver Public School district in Vancouver, Washington has won the right in court to distribute her union dues to a charity instead of wasting them by being forced to pay them to the union.

Wiggs, a teacher at Jason Lee Middle School, has been embroiled in a two-year dispute with the teachers union about where to direct her dues. Two years ago, Wiggs withdrew from the union as a religious objector.

“They were taking political stands that I cannot support, considering my faith,” Wiggs, a Christian, said in March. “They were coming out in favor of abortion and homosexual rights. I didn’t want to support them with my dues.”

So, the law in Washington State says that a union objector may submit their dues to a charity. So, what the heck is she in court for? Well here is where the typically ignorant, meddlesome, non-democratic unions indulged in their typical nonsense.

State law requires that religious objectors continue to carve out money from their paychecks to put toward a charity. But Wiggs and the union have disagreed on which one.

Wiggs’ chosen nonprofit is the Vancouver-based Shared Hope International, which targets international sex trafficking. The organization isn’t religious and was founded by former U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, a Republican from Vancouver.

The union would prefer that Wiggs choose the YWCA or the Vancouver School District Foundation.

Yes, you read that right. These union thugs were even trying to force the teacher to chose the charity THEY wanted her dues given to!

What incredible gall!

In any case, the teacher won. Naturally, the union thugs are going to appeal. Still, this is a win for th good guys.

Continue reading “One Win for Freedom of Choice”

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

Incivility, Thy Name is Union

February 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rhode Island resident Bill Felkner is wondering why Pat Crowley, “the $84,000 per year Assistant Executive Director of the RI affiliate of the National Education Association and the Lincoln Democrat Party chairman,” feels it necessary to give his opponents “the finger” as he protests in public to enlarge union power? At a recent Tiverton teacher contract negotiation protest, Crowley is pictured giving his … um…. civil reply to those who stand against the union.

This fits in nicely with the incivility and general ignorance that so typifies union thuggery, but this particular incident is all the more sad because this ignorant behavior is on behalf of a Teachers union. You know, teachers? The ones to whom we entrust the care and education of our children?

On his blog, Felkner wonders aloud about the propriety and practicality of the current union goals.

Continue reading “Incivility, Thy Name is Union”