The Union Label - September 9, 2006
Posted on September 9, 2006 at 5:54 pm by Chuck Muth
TEAMING UP WITH THE TEAMSTERS
“Teamsters officials looking to unionize employees at the Santa Barbara News-Press organized a small group of dissident employees that ‘engaged in an intimidating and disruptive demonstration by proceeding en masse through the paper’s offices during business hours,’ according to a September 5 statement by the newspaper. As was the goal, the protest ‘intimidated, frightened and interfered with other workers.’
“The paper, noting the extreme tactics union officials will use to force unionization on a company (including filing dubious unfair labor practice charges, loud protests, etc.), directed those seeking more information on troubling new union organizing tactics to UnionFacts.com.
“Of course, before employees of the News-Press sign up with the Teamsters, they may wish to browse a headline from union activist David Denholm, who recently granted the labor organization the ‘Most Decertified Union Award.’ Over the past year, Denholm found, ‘[t]he Teamsters were involved in a total of 94 decertification elections of which they lost 73 percent.’ Those are elections in which employees kick out union leadership that has failed to represent members.”
- Center for Union Facts, 9/8/06
THE UNION MENTALITY
“I mentioned yesterday that I was going to take a few days of vacation next week. This prompted an email from someone named Craig. Do you want a good dose of the union mentality at work? Fine. Here you go. Here is what Craig had to say about my vacation: ‘Neal, its nice to see you take a well deserved holiday that was originated by the unions! Finally, you have come to see the wisdom of them! Welcome aboard!’
“Well — I did some research. And what do you know? Craig was right!
“Never in the history of man’s labors has any man or woman ever taken any time off from work with pay until unions brought the paid vacation into existence! What’s more, extensive psychological research has shown that if it hadn’t been for the mob mentality of unions, no individual worker would ever have come up with the idea of negotiating an employment contract that would provide for an annual salary with two, three, four or more weeks off!
“We owe it all to unions!
“…Well, Craig. I’ll let this one go now so you can run into the bedroom and put on your union t-shirt and head to work. Sometime during the day you might want to actually remember that you’re not working for a union, and the union isn’t paying your salary. But that might be a bit too much to ask from someone who would send an email like yours.”
- Atlanta talk-show host Neal Boortz
CORRUPT BY ANY DEFINITION
“[W]hen public employee unions get their candidates elected, we have government workers hiring their own bosses. When it’s time to negotiate, unions have seats on both sides of the table. It may be perfectly legal. But the system is corrupt by any reasonable definition of the word. And nobody represents taxpayers.
“…Nowhere is such corruption more apparent than in the sordid recent history of pay negotiations. Government workers now get better health care, better hours and higher pay than most private-sector equivalents. And, beyond San Diego’s notorious pension scam, state and city workers across California recently got an astonishing 50 percent increase in retirement benefits.”
- San Diego Union-Tribune editorial
UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE
On August 9, (Massachusetts) Attorney General Tom Reilly announced a combined 118 indictments against 20 individuals, almost all of whom are or have been affiliated with locals of the International Longshoremen’s Association. The probe, noted Reilly, uncovered “a system of fraud and corruption on Boston’s waterfront.
On August 30, U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell ruled that representatives of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, or UNITE, violated federal privacy laws by copying down license-plate and other information from motor vehicles parked on the lot of the Cintas Corp. plant in Emmaus, Pa. The union’s intent was to track down the residences of vehicle owners in the hopes of organizing them.
On August 16, Preston Nelson, formerly treasurer for National Postal Mail Handlers Local 305, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of embezzling union funds in the amount of $13,547.26.
On August 14, Lynn Lanphear, former president of Local 503M of the Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU), was sentenced to five years of supervised probation and 100 hours of community service for embezzlement of local funds.
On August 2, Lisa Webb, financial secretary for Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers Local 48, pled guilty in federal court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma to one count of embezzling nearly $25,000 in union funds.
On August 14, Derek Baldwin, formerly president of the Independent Workers Union, was charged in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Montgomery County Court with theft by deception, tampering with records, forgery, and receipt of stolen property for taking $12,700 from the union.
On August 4, Peggy Sue Carnes, former financial secretary-treasurer for Local 5-621 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to two years probation and three years home confinement, and ordered to pay $8,019.73 in restitution, the amount of union funds she had embezzled.
On August 10, Lorraine Payton, former president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, Veterans Administration Council, was indicted in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on two counts of making false reports.
On July 28, Mark A. Carroll, former treasurer for PACE Local 5-962, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to three years probation and eight months of home confinement and ordered to pay more than $3,500 in restitution. Carroll in March had pleaded guilty to embezzling $7,380.45 from the local.
On August 8, Lawrence McGown, former financial secretary of PACE Local 02-74, pled guilty in federal court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, to one count of embezzling nearly $5,500 worth of local funds.
On August 3, Nanette Peterson, formerly treasurer for Local 11, Chapter 2597 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio to one count of embezzling $6,309 in union funds.
- Source: National Legal & Policy Center
