Union+Corruption

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

Teamsters Dumps Old Union Boss Family

August 22, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

James Hoffa, Jr. is trying to make it look like he is reforming the Teamsters by forcing out Robert Hogan, former President of Teamsters Local 714, a member of a long time, corruption prone union family.

The IRB alleged that Hogan had acted against the best interests of union members by hiring Robert Riley as a business agent and organizing director, even though Riley had been barred from the union. The IRB also charged that the local union was failing to represent its membership, had corrupt relationships with companies where members worked, and was using favoritism and nepotism to secure jobs for associates of the Hogan family.

Hogan’s family have been union thugs since the Depression era, but he has at last signed an agreement with the Independent Review Board (IRB) of Teamsters National that he will leave all union activities behind and never again attempt to become involved with the Teamsters.

Naturally, Hogan claims he is a victim of Hoffa’s political triangulation and that he is totally innocent.

Local 714 has been under the control of the national union since June of this year, with Hoffa claiming he is making inroads into eliminating the corruption of this long-time, troubled local.

Time will tell, but it would be shocking if it turned out to be true instead of just a turn over from one group of corrupt officials for the newest set of corrupt union officials. Here’s the new boss, same as the old boss.

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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 - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Union Tries to Interfere in Petition Results, Fails

August 18, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Denver right-to-work balloters won a small victory last week when a judge accepted the legitimacy of the gathered signatures on their ballot effort by tossing out a nuisance lawsuit brought against them by unions.

The union representatives sought to have more than the legally required amount of petition signatures verified hoping to have Amendment 47 thrown out. But Judge Christina Habas said she had no authority to do so.

Judge Christina Habas ruled Wednesday that she doesn’t have the authority to review every signature submitted by the right-to-work group. State law limits the court’s jurisdiction to the random sample reviewed by the Colorado secretary of state’s office, she said.

The Judge determined that the Colorado Secretary of State followed the proper procedures to verify the signatures on the ballots and therefore Amendment 47, a move to ban forced paying of union dues, is legal and correct.

Amendment 47 spokesman Kelley Harp said Thursday the ruling shows that the allegations are “frivolous.”

It goes to show that unions will go to any lengths from intimidation, to threats, to any manner of nuisance lawsuits to thwart the ability of people to democratically vote and have their voices heard.

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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.

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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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