May 9, 2008 - 2:37 pm - Posted by Eric Odom

Class is in session. The topic? Union tax grab 101.

Posted in Unions Revealed | No Comments »

Dept. of Labor Tightening Unions Financial Disclosure Rules

May 9, 2008 - 10:10 am - Posted by WTH

The Dept. of Labor (DOL) has announced that it is changing the requirements for internal financial disclosures of unions requiring more details on finances and spending, the AP report on the 8th.

Unions are required annually to submit forms to the DOL detailing their financial information, but Federal officials have decided that the current forms lack enough detail to assure that unions aren’t engaging in fraud. The DOL is also proposing that smaller unions can use the less detailed forms unless they fall under indictment or other legal troubles which then will find them required to fill out the more detailed forms.

The full info on the proposed changes will be released next week. But the AP detailed some of those changes.

Asking union officials and employees making more than $10,000 to itemize their benefits like life insurance, pensions and deferred compensation. The current form allows benefits to be combined and disclosed as one number, leaving the amount of individual benefits undisclosed.
Requiring disclosure of expenses when the money is not reimbursed directly to the union employee or official. Labor officials say indirect reimbursement, when payment for expenses goes to the vendor instead of to the employee or official, currently does not have to be disclosed on the forms.
Requiring unions to disclose who bought or sold any union asset worth more than $5,000. The current form only requires disclosure of the sale.
And requiring itemization of certain cash receipts of $5,000 or more.

These are the kinds of oversight actions against unions that will cease once Democrats get into a controlling majority in Congress, of course. These sorts of things will certainly be rolled back allowing unions, traditionally steeped in corruption and criminal action, to have far more leeway to go about their business unrestrained by government.

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Get Ready– Barack Obama Win Means the End of Democracy in Unions

May 8, 2008 - 1:21 am - Posted by WTH

There will be dark days ahead for American business and the economy if Barack Obama becomes the president. Especially if his coattails brings an avalanche of Democrats into Congress. All because the first order of business for the next Congress will be passage of the “card check” ideas that unions have been pushing for since 2003. Once Obama and his cadre of anti-business, anti-democracy associates get in place, the card check idea will be good as gold. And the safety of prospective union members everywhere will be endangered.

Deceivingly called the “Employee Free Choice Act,” it is an effort by unions to allow them to use intimidation to force new union voters to agree to union organization and representation. David Weigel of Reason Magazine has a short explanation in the current issue.

What’s the Employee Free Choice Act? If you aren’t a lobbyist in Washington, a union worker, or an employer nervously trying to prevent your staff from organizing, you might not have followed the twisty history of the latest attempt to increase private-sector unionization. “Card check,” as it is usually known, would allow employees at a company to bypass secret-ballot elections and declare their intent to unionize by simply signing cards.

In other words, the secret vote will be taken away from prospective union members. This means, if an employee votes against agreeing to unionize, his no vote will be instantly obvious to everyone with whom he works. This also means that union thugs will be able to know exactly who stands against them. This opens the employee up to harassment by union thugs who want to push through unions because they will know the identity of every single worker that voted against them.

Now, secret balloting, the security of a vote known only to the voter, is the single most important aspect of a free, democratic electoral system. And here we have unions proving that they don’t care a whit about democracy and want to be able to rely solely on coercion and thuggery to force their way into businesses that might very well be filled with workers who don’t want to be unionized.

But, with the card check system in place, workers could easily find themselves voting for a union they don’t want because of the pressure of their vote being openly known by everyone.

So, what we have here is a simple fact: unions hate democracy.

And if Obama becomes president, we will see LESS democracy in this country.

Posted in Chuck Muth | 4 Comments »

You mean the Unions DON’T want teachers to have more money?

May 7, 2008 - 12:55 pm - Posted by Eric Odom

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation is on this story like white on rice. According to the original EFF post, the teachers UNION refused a grant for 13.2 MILLION DOLLARS because the NMSI wanted to give the funds directly to the teachers.

Seattle schools were dealt a devastating blow today as a result of state-forced collective bargaining practices. A Dallas-based nonprofit, National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), was prepared to award a $13.2 million grant to assist Seattle schools with their Advanced Placement programs in math and science, allowing students to earn college credit while still in high school

A full 22% of that grant money was to be merit-based pay to teachers who participate in the specified Advanced Placement programs – that’s $2,640,000!

The problem? NMSI wanted to pay the money directly to participating teachers, but Washington state law mandating collective bargaining between the UNIONS and school districts would not allow for such a pay scheme. Negotiations to resolve the conflicts between the grant and the law failed.

The EFF provides the scoop in this short video.

Who is the EFF? See Evergreen Freedom Foundation at Ballotpedia.org

Posted in Unions Revealed | 1 Comment »

Obama Agrees to PROTECT Union Corruption, not Eliminate it

May 5, 2008 - 4:48 pm - Posted by WTH

So, Barack Obama claims he is a reformer. He claims he wants to clean up Washington D.C. He acts as if he just wants the truth told to the people. Well, here is some truth. According to the Wall Street JournalBarack has promised the Teamsters that if they give him their support he will kill the current Federal oversight agency that was created to root out union corruption in the workplace.

Yes, Barack Obama has said that he wishes to protect corruption, not eliminate it. Has he agreed to turn his back on fighting corruption merely so that he might be able to count the votes of union thugs in his column?

It has been revealed by inside sources that Obama secretly promised the Teamsters that he will end the strict oversight that the Federal government has through an independent oversight board that was set up in 1992 because of the mob influence rampant in the Teamsters. Obama has claimed that he favors “examining” the review board, but refuses to state publicly what that means.

However, the Wall Street Journal claims that they have found out that Obama means to scale back the board and this isn’t too hard to believe since the Democrat controlled Congress has also been slow to approve funding of the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) of late, paving the way to defund it and let it lie fallow. If Obama follows suit with the Democrats in Congress who are trying to give corrupt unions a free hand to indulge in more corruption with no government interference, it would seem to fit the Democrat agenda. This also shows that Obama is no “reformer” and not interested in changing anything in Washington but the party of the President.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama’s secret promises are a bit “unusual.”

It’s an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.

You bet it seems an “unusual stance” especially from the so-called candidate of “change.” After all, a secret deal to eliminate an agency that has been very effective at rooting out union crime and corruption does not ring true with a candidate who claims that he wants a “new day” of truth in Washington D.C.

Obama has said, though, that his promises to the Teamsters is not a “blanket commitment.”

But, what Obama is quoted as having said is just another example of his penchant of say nothing at all and using a whole lot of words to do it.

“I wouldn’t make any blanket commitments,” the Illinois senator told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“What I’ve said is that I would examine what is going on in terms of the federal oversight that’s been taking place but it’s been in place for many years.”

Obama said the Teamsters had done “a terrific job cleaning house” and suggested it could be time for the Teamsters “to get treated just like every other union.”

“That’s something that I’ll absolutely examine when I’m president of the United States,” he said.

This is all stuff and nonsense. Has he made a commitment to let the a corrupt, Mob infested union off the hook or not? No one can say because he talked out of both sides of his mouth once again.

It should be noted, too, that this oversight of the Teamsters is independent of politics and is a venue of the Justice Department. But, if Obama really does end up trying to eliminate a review board that has been successful in rooting out criminals in unions, how does this make him a “fresh voice” in Washington? It looks more like he is just another Democrat that panders to unions and turns his face from their criminal activities.

Not much “change” there.

Posted in Unions Revealed, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments »

Electrical Workers Union Chief Embezzles Dues

May 3, 2008 - 12:11 pm - Posted by WTH

Looks like the union chief of the electrical workers in Philadelphia has been getting “free” work by union members, big gifts, and sudden piles of cash from union coffers of late. It also looks like the authorities have taken notice, too.

In a new court filing, prosecutors investigating John J. Dougherty’s extensive home renovations disclose what they say is the labor leader’s explanation for how he paid for some of the work: His father-in-law provided $200,000.

That Gus Dougherty gave John Dougherty a $5,533 ladies’ Cartier watch that the union leader, in turn, gave to a “personal friend” as a birthday gift in 2004.

That Gus Dougherty improperly collected $900,000 from a special union fund even as he failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars into a separate union health and welfare account. Prosecutors say this is additional evidence that the contractor had a motive to do free work for John Dougherty.

In their new filing, prosecutors say Gus Dougherty’s firm, Dougherty Electric, got $892,000 between 2001 and 2005 from a special fund intended to subsidize contractors who hired union workers to help them compete against nonunion shops.

He withdrew most of this money as cash, and spent it on such items as a $40,000 entertainment system for his Shore home, prosecutors say in the documents.

Remember, unions are only there for the little guy. And, heck, if the union bosses happen to get a Cartier watch, or a $40,000 entertainment system once in a while, well, what’s the harm, eh?

Posted in Warner Todd Huston | 7 Comments »

Public-Sector Unions Must Disclose Financial Dealings, District Court Rules

May 2, 2008 - 6:40 pm - Posted by WTH

Here is a good piece by the Heartland Institute explaining the transparency and reporting laws that unions have been fighting in the US.

-By Scott Dilley, Heartland Institute

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled federal financial transparency laws apply to certain public-sector unions, traditionally exempt from such regulations.

If it stands, the decision will allow workers across the country to have increased access to records of their unions’ financial dealings.

The case, Alabama Education Association v. Chao, has worked its way up and down the court system for several years. The most recent decision, issued in late March, requires state-level public-sector unions to disclose their finances to the federal government if those unions are affiliated with a national union that must comply with the federal reporting laws.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Warner Todd Huston | No Comments »

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

May 1, 2008 - 5:25 pm - Posted by WTH

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 said 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.

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Paying Teachers NOT to Teach in NY

May 1, 2008 - 11:59 am - Posted by WTH

And for another perfect example of why teachers unions is antithetical to the welfare of the kids AND the budget of the state, we have a union that has forced the State of New York to spend $81 million dollars to pay teachers NOT to teach!

The New York Times gives us the wasteful tale of money paid for NO work.

The New Teacher Project, which estimates that the city has been paying $81 million over two years in salaries and benefits for teachers who have not been able to find permanent jobs.

Under the new free-market system, teachers who lose their jobs because of budget cuts, program curtailments or school closings are supposed to go into a reserve pool for a short time before they are hired elsewhere in the system. An overwhelming majority of more than 2,700 teachers sent into the pool in 2006 did just that.

So, these teachers are paid even if they don’t work?

This is the ultimate union job. Get paid a high salary, free health care, pension…. but not have to work AT ALL!

It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone that the solution is to fire teachers that you have no job for?

Apparently not.

Posted in Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments »

SEIU Prez Stern Strikes Back Against Rival

April 30, 2008 - 8:33 pm - Posted by WTH

Accusations are flying thick as bats in the night sky between the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and their affiliated union, the United HealthCare Workers-West (UHW-W-W), over claims made by the SEIU that the UHW-W misappropriated $6 million in member’s dues money. But, it’s hard to escape the feeling that the SEIU is really just trying to put a stake in the heart of the internal uprising that members of the UHW-W have implemented inside the SEIU by launching harassment lawsuits that seem to have little merit.

The UHW-W, as it happens, is captained by Sal Roselli, president Andy Stern’s chief rival for control of the SEIU. Supposedly the UHW-W used some of this $6 million to pay for a speech by that same Sal Roselli, the man that just so happens to be challenging SEIU president Andy Stern in the upcoming SEIU convention in Puerto Rico in the beginning of June. Roselli has been attacking Stern for his campaign of top down leadership and for his penchant for manufacturing the ouster of local leaders that don’t sign on to Stern’s policies. Many are claiming that this is just an underhanded effort by Stern to destroy his chief rival just before the SEIU convention.

In this case, some are also saying that Stern has launched this lawsuit as a first step to declaring the UHW-W’s leadership defective so that he can place his own appointed guys in power as trustees over the union while the “problems” are ironed out. In this way, Stern’s critics say, he can better assure that the UHW-W will acquiesce to his policies and another rebellious affiliate will be silenced before the convention.

The SEIU, however, maintains that the UHW-W segmented out millions of dollars without accounting for having done so to the union membership. If the SEIU is vindicated in this charge, it is an explosive one, indeed.

The SEIU press release about this actions says in part:

“The highest ranking UHW-W officers used millions of dollars in members’ dues money to run a shadow operation off the books and they intentionally deceived their own members and the federal government about how the money would be used,” said SEIU spokesperson Andrew McDonald. “It is unacceptable for a handful of people to control nearly 40 percent of a local union’s assets with no accountability to the members, no financial safeguards, no protections against fraud, and none of oversight required by law.”EIU local union United Healthcare Workers-West is advancing a program calling for increased union member democracy in other SEIU local unions and our national union.

The lawsuit also accuses the UHW-W of establishing a “well-financed entity with access to a ready source of funds beyond the reach of SEIU’s auditing, oversight and trustee powers.”

UHW-W representative, Noel Rabinowitz, says that Stern’s lawsuit is only an “act of retaliation designed to smear UHW leaders and squelch our dissent, without offering any new information.” Rabinowitz went on to say that, “the lawsuit is frivolous as the remedy it seeks is already set in motion.”

For his part, Sal Roselli replied with a press release of his own.

In recent months United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) and its allies inside SEIU have launched a campaign, in the face of constant threats and retaliation, to reform our International Union.

The most recent act of retaliation is their announcement today of plans to sue UHW leaders. UHW’s elected executive board members created the education fund in question in full compliance with the law, and appropriately released all of the details of its actions. Last week, the fund’s board decided to dissolve the fund and return its resources to UHW. UHW notified SEIU yesterday of this action.

Further reports seem to show that the largest amount of this $6 million was never spent and still resides in union coffers.

Some members of the UHW-W are claiming that this new lawsuit is just retaliation for the one filed by UHW-W members against the SEIU on April 4th. Roselli’s associates filed suit claiming that the SEIU interfered with delegate elections in violation of federal labor law when president Stern made an unannounced visit to local 1021 and arranged for things to go his way.

What ever has happened with these funds at the UHW-W, it is obvious that SEIU president Stern has unleashed the long knives and has engaged in a ruthless campaign to stifle dissent against him. With as much passion and hard feelings as have been fanned during this internal fight, it’s hard to assume that everything will even be solved at the SEIU convention in June.

(Some coverage with some interesting replies posted can be seen at Open Left.)

Posted in Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment »

Unions Kill Trade Agreement - Real Improvement Unrewarded

April 29, 2008 - 5:25 pm - Posted by WTH

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 Columbia. The main reason that unions twisted the arms of their Dem representatives is supposed to be because of Columbia’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.

Michael Fumento, though, effectively demolishes the unions stance by noting the startling improvement in Columbia under Columbia’s president Uribe.

Yes, Colombia has a high murder rate. With much of the country still in the control of vicious leftist narco-terrorists (supported by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez), you’d expect a high murder rate among any one group - from union members to midgets. That said, last year’s 17,198 homicides (among 45 million people) was a drop of 40 percent from the 28,837 in 2002.

Deaths among Colombia’s union members plummeted even farther - from a high of 275 in 1996 to only 39 last year. That’s a drop of 86 percent in a decade.

And that’s 39 killings (a figure the AFL-CIO itself cited last month) out of about 800,000 union workers - or about five murders per 100,000 union members. How does that constitute “a de facto death sentence” - when the murder rate for the population as a whole is about eight times higher?

Now, wait a minute. Isn’t it “improvement” and “success” and “effort” that leftists always claim to want to see to afford any rewards? How much better does Columbia have to do to show vast improvement than an 86% drop in the sort of murders that the unions here are complaining about?

In the end, it is all a lie by both the unions and their lapdogs in the Dem Party when they say that Columbia doesn’t deserve the free trade agreement because of how unionists are treated there. What American unions and the Democrats want to avoid is any success for the waning Bush Administration.

That is it.

They couldn’t care less about the lives of union members in Columbia. And by killing the trade agreement, the unions here are proving that they don’t care if Columbia’s union members get to keep their jobs, either!

Posted in Eric Odom, Unions Revealed, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments »

Unions Line Up Against Voice of the People in Illinois

April 27, 2008 - 8:26 pm - Posted by WTH

At last YOU can have a say in Illinois!

The Illinois Constitution has an interesting provision in Article 14. It’s a rule where every 20 years a Constitutional Convention can be called to consider alterations and amendments to the state Constitution. The Convention itself isn’t called automatically, though. Only the question of calling or not calling the convention can be on the ballot at first. This is the time for the voice of the people to be heard…. unless unions have their way by preventing it!

Illinois has developed the reputation as one of the most corrupt anti-democratic state in the union and now we have this one small chance to change that. This is one chance, but a fleeting one, to finally have a say in what our politicians do. Do you want a chance to actually have a voice in state politics at long last? Vote yes on the ConCon.

Illinois DESERVES Better!

Naturally, there are very powerful people lined up to deny the citizens of Illinois from having their say after decades of being ignored, trodden upon and stolen from. After seeing politician after politician go to jail for corruption and graft.

These powerful folks don’t want their sweetheart deals and back room power-brokering to be upset by we lowly and forgotten citizens… you know, we who pay ALL of their bills with our exorbitant taxes?

So, guess who opposes the right of the people to have their say?

Unions stand against the people.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers are against the ConCon. Why? Why else but because it will threaten their overly cushy jobs and their bloated and illicit pension and healthcare plans– the sort of plans that no one in the private sector is ever able to get.

The The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association are against the ConCon. Why? Well, how could they continue to so mis-educate our children so blatantly without ever being called to account for their failures if the people were ever called to have a say on their shoddy efforts at education?

A Constitutional Convention threatens the undeserved perks and high spending jobs they have. No wonder they are afraid of the people having their say.

So, once again what we end up with is unions that stand against democracy! It seems to be one of their most common traits, lately, showing how far away they’ve moved from their claimed days of wishing to listen to the voice of the people.

Posted in Unions Revealed, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments »

The Union Watch Blog Family

April 25, 2008 - 9:13 am - Posted by Eric Odom

Now that we’re finally getting around to fully upgrading the site and cleaning up the errors, it’s a good time to plug our friends in the union watch realm. Please welcome the following resources to our blog roll (located in the sidebar to the left), and add their RSS feeds if you get a chance.

Posted in Site News | No Comments »

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