The Union Label - April 22nd
Posted on April 22, 2006 at 3:18 pm by Chuck Muth
LABOR BOSSES, DEMOCRATS STICK IT TO LATINOS
“A deal was at hand [in the Senate] that would have offered legal status to some illegal immigrants. It would have made the GOP seem more Latino-friendly, but it would also have infuriated organized labor, which opposes something that was in the mix: guest workers.
“After the Senate Judiciary Committee put out a guest-worker bill, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney issued a statement saying: ‘Guest-workers programs are a bad idea and harm all workers.’ That did it. Senate Democrats sided with labor, and sold out Latinos…
“The moral: Marches and Mexican flags don’t equal power. Labor uses millions of dollars in political contributions to take care of Democrats, and so Democrats take care of labor.”
- San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Ruben Navarrette
ILLEGAL UNION STRIKE TURNS DEADLY
“Mexico’s government blamed striking miners on Friday for a clash with police at a steel plant that killed two workers. Hundreds of police stormed the Sicartsa complex in the western state of Michoacan on Thursday, shooting dead two workers as a running battle with stone-throwing strikers spilled out onto the streets…
“Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said violence at the plant, which had been shut for three weeks by a strike that was subsequently ruled to be illegal, was ‘regrettable.’ ‘It could have been avoided if the union had obeyed the law. The rule of law implies respect for the law,’ Aguilar told a news conference.”
- Reuters, 4/21/06
YOUR UNION DUES AT WORK
“The former bookkeeper of the Carpenters Union was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury for stealing $55,765.75. Kay Joy Andrews, 56, of Whittier, Calif., was charged April 19 in a one-count indictment for embezzling the funds from Carpenters Local 1780 in Las Vegas. Andrews is charged with taking cash and checks that were supposed to have been deposited to the union’s account between Sept. 9, 2002 and July 31, 2003.”
- Las Vegas Business Press, 4/20/06
LABOR BOSS + POLITICIAN = CORRUPTION
“The former top labor leader in Los Angeles County was sentenced to three years of probation Friday and temporarily barred from raising political money after pleading guilty to state charges of conspiracy and violating campaign laws. Martin Ludlow also was fined $15,000 but with court fees that figure will reach about $45,000, Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman said. State and federal prosecutors charged Ludlow with conspiring with a former union official to illegally divert more than $36,000 in union funds to help finance his successful 2003 City Council campaign.”
- Associated Press, 4/21/06
UNION CORRUPTION IN CANADA, EH?
“A powerful and politically connected Toronto-area construction union, the largest on the continent, lost its bid for independence yesterday and was ordered under the trusteeship of its international parent. In a scathing finding, Local 183 of the Labourers International Union of North America was accused of forging documents, inappropriate spending and failing to enforce the rights of some members.”
- Globe and Mail (Canada), 4/21/06
UNION BOSSES’ GOLDEN PARACHUTES
“Last week, the Center for Union Facts (http://unionfacts.com) reported on the golden parachutes paid to former Plumbers international union officials. According to the union’s 2005 financial filings with the Department of Labor, the Plumbers handed out golden parachutes to former General President Martin Maddaloni ($1.3 million in total compensation) and Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Patchell (almost $900,000 in total compensation).
“The two resigned in November 2004 after an apparently unsuccessful investment of members’ pension funds 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. But this week, CUF found something even stranger…”
Read the rest of the gory details here (http://theunionlabelblog.com/2006/04/20/cuf-union-members-pick-up-70000-tribute-tab)
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS AT IT AGAIN
“When it comes to intimidation tactics, the federal air traffic controllers’ union has always been a trailblazer. But even this bunch is reaching new heights (or lows) with its latest maneuvers to land one of the biggest government payouts ever.
“…Natca (National Air Traffic Controllers Association) is one of the few federal unions allowed to bargain over wages and benefits — a political gift bestowed by the Clinton Administration in 1996. The union has used that power for all it’s worth, negotiating a contract in 1998 that lifted air controller compensation by 75% — to an average of $166,000 and at a cost of nearly $2 billion. The FAA wants smaller raises from now on, while the union is asking for an astonishing $2.6 billion more.
“Standing in Natca’s way is a separate provision in the 1996 deal, which was meant to balance its new negotiating power. Specifically, should the FAA and the union ever reach an impasse, the two offers go to Congress to decide. And should Congress not act in 60 days, the FAA’s offer is binding.
“Natca’s response has been to shower taxpayer-funded union dues across Capitol Hill. President John Carr brags on his blog about the dinners, golfing, helicopter rides and ‘schmoozathons’ with Members. His efforts have already produced legislation in both the House and Senate — supported by Democrats and labor-friendly Republicans — that would eliminate the FAA’s power to impose a contract after 60 days. Both sides would instead go to endless mediation, which would suit Natca fine since its current rich contract would stay in force.”
- Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal, 4/17/06
ENDING THE CHECK-OFF
“Last December, (New York City’s) Metropolitan Transit Authority stood up to an illegal strike threat to force some concessions in unsustainable union benefits. The Transit Workers Union struck for three days in violation of the law, and the outcome of contract talks is still unclear. But this week the union was ordered to pay a price of a different sort.
“Justice Theodore T. Jones of the State Supreme Court levied a $2.5 million fine for the illegal walkout, but the real hammer was his ruling that the union’s right to the automatic deduction of dues from workers’ paychecks should be suspended for 90 days, and possibly longer.
“The transit union collects about $20 million a year in member dues. And automatic checkoff is the key to its riches and thus to its political clout. The last time the union lost its dues-checkoff privileges, after a strike in 1980, it had a terrible time collecting those dues voluntarily, despite a state law requiring union members to pay them.
“…We wonder why the TWU should have its dues-checkoff privileges restored at all. Let it raise its money the old-fashioned way — by providing a service that its members are willing to pay for.”
- Wall Street Journal, 4/21/06
UNION WILDING
“Labor unions these days aren’t going on strike very much. They don’t have to. They’ve discovered a far more potent weapon. It’s called the ‘corporate campaign.’
“You’ve never heard of the term? Ask Coca-Cola, Nestle, Federated Stores, Food Lion, Nike, Kmart, Mattel, Walt Disney, Del Monte, Caterpillar and AT&T - they have. Each in some way has felt the wrath of a tight network of far-left union, civil-rights, religious, environmental and ‘peace’ activists bent on disrupting company operations in the hopes of inducing surrender on one or more issues.
“A corporate campaign employs at least a few, and often all, of the following methods: strikes, lawsuits, blackmail, boycotts, shareholder resolutions, negative newspaper ads, pressure on outside investors and complaints of violations (real or imagined) to regulatory agencies.
“While this hit-’em-from-all-sides strategy originated during the 1970s, it’s been catching on rapidly since the advent of the Internet. Media-savvy coordination is of the essence; blackening the reputation of a prominent corporation isn’t a job for amateurs who act alone.
“Organized labor usually can be found at the center of this activism. Indeed, corporate campaigns can be seen as an escalated version of ‘salting,’ a practice by which organizers from a construction-related union try to entrap an open-shop contractor into giving the appearance of engaging in an unfair labor practice. If a campaign feels like a bee attack or a Central Park wilding, that’s the general idea.
“AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka puts it this way: ‘Corporate campaigns swarm the target employer from every angle, great and small, with an eye toward inflicting upon the employer the death of a thousand cuts rather than a single blow.’”
- Carl F. Horowitz of the Organized Labor Accountability Project
