The Union Label - April 12th
Posted on April 12, 2006 at 6:48 pm by Chuck Muth
THE BROTHERHOOD OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
“Unions were heavily involved in yesterday’s demonstrations. They’re looking for something that will bring them more members. Members = power. Jamie Contreras is a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union. Contreras said: ‘The immigrant sleeping giant is now wide awake. People are paying very close attention to the attacks that are happening, both in the Senate and in the House. We’re fed up. We’re tired. We’re here to show our strength in numbers.’
“Now…did you hear that ‘people are paying close attention to the attacks that are happening…’ line? What’s he talking about? He’s talking about people, both in our Congress and in the general population who are asking that our laws be enforced and our borders controlled. These words, according to Contreras, are ‘attacks.’”
- Talk show host Neal Boortz
LIVING IN THE LAP OF LUXURY
The Center for Union Facts (www.unionfacts.com) recently completed an analysis of new reporting documents filed by various labor unions. Take a look at some of the eye-popping expenditures CUF discovered which were made with dues money from “working stiffs.”
* Nearly $1.5 million in union members’ dues money was spent on golf.
* The Ironworkers AFL-CIO Local Union 40 spent $52,879 on a new Cadillac for a retiring president. $7.9 million of employee dues money went to resort expenditures.
* Between six AFL-CIO-affiliated locals, over $50,000 of employee dues money was spent at a single Washington, D.C. steakhouse.
YOUR UNION DUES AT WORK
Not only are union bosses living high of the hog at workers’ expense when it comes to entertainment, they pull down some pretty juicy salaries off the backs of “working stiffs,” as well, as the Center for Union Facts (www.unionfacts.com) uncovered and revealed last week.
* The Plumbers handed out golden parachutes, paying 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.
* AFSCME President Gerald McEntee reported 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 from teacher members’ dues.
* 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 another $900,000 from his AFL-CIO affiliated union as a union representative.
Well, it must be tough on McNabb trying to make a living off what they pay football superstars these days. Glad to see the union pitching in to help him make ends meet.
JUST DOING HER UNION JOB
“By now I’m sure you’ve heard this story. A 911 operator in Detroit takes a call from a 5-year-old child. The child says that his momma has passed out. The operator refuses to send the police. She wants to talk to an adult or to the child’s mother. In frustration, and in fear of getting in trouble, the child hangs up. He calls again later seeking help from 911. As luck would have it, he gets the same operator again. This time she tells him to stop playing on the phone or she will send the police and he will be in trouble. He hangs up again. Finally, hours later, the police arrive. The mother is dead.
“And just who would come to the defense of the 911 operator? The unions, of course. Who else? The operator is, of course, a member of a government employee’s union, and the president of the union says that the operator was just doing her job. Yup. You got it! In union-speak, sitting there as a 911 operator browbeating a 5-year-old child and threatening him with the police when he calls to tell you that his mommy has passed out is “doing your job.” Only in the wonderful world of unions would anyone believe that.”
- Atlanta talk-show host Neal Boortz, 4/10/06
YOU JUST CAN’T FIRE A UNION EMPLOYEE
You’re gonna just LOVE this one…
According to the Houston Chronicle, the U.S. Customs bureau “suspended (Customs Inspector Lizandro) Martinez for 30 days in August 1993 for allegedly threatening to cut off the penis of a man he suspected of having an affair with his wife. That punishment was reduced to 14 days after union arbitration.” Martinez is represented by the National Treasury Employees Union.
Then in May of 1997, “Customs fired Martinez after internal affairs officers investigated allegations that he had been spotted at a party attended by Mexican drug traffickers, made threatening calls to the home where his ex-wife lived and used a government vehicle to run personal errands. But the union got Martinez reinstated, with back pay, in April 1998.”
But Mr. Martinez just couldn’t keep his nose clean. “Customs later tried firing Martinez again, accusing the inspector of being absent without leave, improperly copying Customs entry documents and allegedly forcing a teenage girl to partially disrobe even though female inspectors were available, a violation of search guidelines. But after union arbitration, his proposed dismissal was reduced to a 30-day suspension in March 2001.”
Surely this servant of the people straightened up and flew right after that, right? Wrong.
As the Center for Union Facts noted last week, Martinez is now suspected of taking “more than $1 million in bribes while waving through more than 50 tons of drugs. Records show that the man has pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and conspiracy to import more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana.”
Thank goodness for unions, huh?
UNION POLITICS
“Unions have three months to file their LM-2 form after the close of the fiscal year. The AFL-CIO was among the first scheduled, with its revised form due last September 30. . . . While details are hardly conclusive, initial data suggest a disturbing pattern of funds steered toward partisan politics.
“The AFL-CIO’s LM-2 form reveals, for example, that it paid a Washington, D.C. political consultant nearly $3 million to produce flyers and mailings in support of John Kerry’s presidential bid in 2004 and various election issues. The federation also paid a telecommunications vendor $143,340 for election-related phone calls, and $30,264 for a satellite hookup for a pro-Kerry rally in Ohio.
“In all, the AFL-CIO in its most recent completed 12-month budget cycle spent $49.3 million on political activities and lobbying, $28.6 million on general overhead and administration, and $29.9 million on representational activities. The National Education Association, meanwhile, spent $24 million on political activities in 2005.”
- Source: National Legal & Policy Center
GROCERY UNION DECEIVES TEEN
“With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Giant Food worker Kevin Nguyen has filed federal unfair labor practice charges against United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Local 400 officials for deceiving employees into paying union dues. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charge details how a UFCW union official misled Nguyen to believe that joining the union and paying dues was a condition of his employment and how union officials have been deducting union dues from his paycheck despite his requests that they stop.
“Shortly after Giant hired him, Nguyen - a teenager who works part-time at an Annandale (Va.) Giant store as an after-school job - was approached by a UFCW union official who said that he was ‘from Giant’ and had additional paperwork ‘from Giant’ that Nguyen needed to sign. In doing so the union obtained Nguyen’s signature on a union dues deduction card authorizing the automatic seizure of a significant amount in union dues from his small paycheck. Federal law states that private sector employees cannot be required to sign payroll dues deduction cards as a condition of employment.”
- Source: National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, 4/7/06
(Editor’s Note: My teenage nephew experienced the exact same situation last year…only in Maryland. And since Maryland is NOT a right-to-work state, my nephew was told he’s pretty much screwed. Welcome to the real world, Zach!)
