August 31, 2007 - 1:22 pm - Posted by Chuck Muth
For all the Democrats’ professed shock at Republican spending abuses during the last Congress, frugality remains rare on Capitol Hill. Outlays are mostly going up, with a curious exception — the budget of the small Labor Department agency that oversees labor unions’ public disclosure and financial integrity.
Posted in Chuck Muth | No Comments »
August 31, 2007 - 6:22 am - Posted by WTH
We’ve mentioned the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) before, but the Heritage Foundation has posted an informative piece arguing against cutting funds to this Union watchdog office that is a good read.
——
Laboring Against Working Americans: Congress Should Not Cut the Office of Labor-Management Standards
by James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
On Labor Day, Americans traditionally celebrate organized labor’s role in fighting for better working conditions, but some labor leaders misuse their positions for personal benefit. Since 2001, government investigators have charged hundreds of senior union officials with embezzling their members’ dues, and now unions are using their influence in Congress to reduce the budget of the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), the department in charge of investigating union corruption. Congress should not cut funding to the OLMS. Instead, Congress should stand up for working Americans and protect them from union leaders who treat members’ dues as their personal property.
Organized Labor Has Lost Its Way
Union officials are using their political clout with the Democratic Congress to cut the funding of the one agency charged with holding them accountable to their members. The House of Representatives recently voted to cut the $48 million budget of the Office of Labor-Management Standards by $2 million, even as it increased funding for the rest of the Department of Labor by $900 million more than the President requested. The OLMS was singled out for budget cuts because its efforts to increase union accountability and fight corruption have rankled union leaders.
One hundred and twenty-five years after the first Labor Day parade in 1882, it is clear that some union leaders view themselves as champions of their own pocketbooks, not their members’ well-being.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment »
August 28, 2007 - 12:01 pm - Posted by WTH
It looks like Gary Rodrigues, the former leader of the powerful United Public Workers Union in Hawaii, is finally running out of appeals and court tricks to avoid serving his jail term for his conviction 5 years ago for embezzlement and kickbacks.
Maybe one of these guys is finally going to prison for their misdeeds?
Rodrigues Loses Appeal In Corruption Case
HONOLULU — Five years after being convicted on corruption charges, former union leader Gary Rodrigues is a step closer to prison after losing an appeal.
Rodrigues was the leader of the powerful United Public Workers Union until he was convicted for embezzlement and kickbacks. His daughter was also convicted.
Posted in Warner Todd Huston | No Comments »
August 27, 2007 - 5:10 am - Posted by WTH
How bad is the corruption in a Union Local when even the national Union itself finds itself investigating the Local? Of course, expecting the national to investigate a Local is asking the Fox to guard the hen house, but, it’s gotta be bad if even the national organization can’t turn the other way!
Naturally, Local 331 is in the land of “The Sopranos” in New Jersey. Of course, I’m sure everyone just wants to get to the bottom of things and make it all right.
Yeah… riiiight.
Teamsters will continue oversight of Local 331
PLEASANTVILLE - What Teamsters Local 331 members say they long anticipated is now official: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has decided to continue its trusteeship over the local in order to root out alleged financial malfeasance and corruption.
The international union’s decision follows an emergency temporary trusteeship imposed in June, based upon findings by its officials and a corporate fraud investigation company earlier this year. A private hearing July 19 that was to help determine whether the trusteeship would remain played out like a court trial, bringing to the stand ousted President Joseph Yeoman, a panel of IBT officials and members of the local.
Posted in Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment »
August 22, 2007 - 8:13 pm - Posted by Chuck Muth
If anyone wants to know why I have such disdain for today’s modern labor movement, here’s a prime example. As families, friends and co-workers continue to grieve over the loss of life in the Utah coal mine tragedy, John Sweeney - the heartless bastard running the AFL-CIO these days - saw an opportunity to use this sad event to further his political agenda. Read this sickening email he sent out today…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Chuck Muth | 1 Comment »
August 22, 2007 - 5:15 am - Posted by WTH
Why, don’t you know? The Unions only strong arm you because they love you. They only create oppressive workplace atmospheres because they want to heeeeelp you.
——
Protecting Workers: AG Abbot right to fight forced membership in labor unions
With Labor Day just a few weeks away, Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott has taken on a federal workers’ union that allegedly has been forcing Border Patrol detention guards to join as a condition of working for the agency.
Abbott has filed a lawsuit against the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of union and America Asset Protection and Security Services L.P. and of Corpus Christi, which provides security services to several federal facilities in the state, including the Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Bayview. The federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs the local facility.
The lawsuit accuses the union and the security company of violating the state’s right-to-work law. Texas is a right-to-work state, meaning that workers can’t be forced to be members of labor unions against their will.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment »
August 20, 2007 - 9:27 pm - Posted by Chuck Muth
Las Vegas has been the host of many a mega-fight over the years, but one coming up this November has gotten scarce attention by the general public. I’m talking about the challenge the Teamsters is mounting against the miserable failure otherwise known as the Clark County Education Association (CCEA).
Posted in Chuck Muth | No Comments »
August 19, 2007 - 8:06 am - Posted by WTH
Here are a few success stories against Union Corruption as prosecuted by the Office of Labor-Management Standards, the government office that is part of the Dept. of Labor. We better be happy with what we have because the Democrats are doing their best to neuter this corruption fighting office of the government.
U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards Reports Four Indictments, Six Convictions During July for Union Funds Embezzlement
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Warner Todd Huston | No Comments »
August 18, 2007 - 1:20 am - Posted by WTH
Well, this one takes the cake, for sure. According to Nashville TV station WKRN Nashville’s Police have gotten a union representative who was convicted in 1989 of conspiracy to commit murder!
The union rep is a member of the Teamsters who were selected by the city police union as their representatives. Convict Joe Bennett was put in place as the cop’s union rep by the Teamsters themselves without his past history revealed to the police ahead of time.
Convicted Felon Works For Teamsters’ Local Chapter
Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas said he had no idea a convicted felon is one of the union representatives for many of his officers.
Joe Bennett is the man at the center of the latest controversy involving the Teamsters.
Bennett was booked into jail over a decade ago and now works to represent Metro’s men and women in blue.
Posted in Warner Todd Huston | No Comments »
August 16, 2007 - 5:13 pm - Posted by Chuck Muth
Hoo-hah! Boy, oh boy, did we stir up a hornet’s nest over at the postal union by posting a column written by Charles Guy of the Lexington Institute on the sweetheart deal the union just struck with the government monopoly that delivers your first-class mail.
Posted in Chuck Muth | 1 Comment »
August 9, 2007 - 5:11 pm - Posted by Chuck Muth
By Charles Guy of the Lexington Institute
The U.S. Postal Service and one of its largest unions, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), just reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract. Union head William Young called the agreement a “win-win deal for the Postal Service and the nation’s city letter carriers.”
Posted in Chuck Muth | 33 Comments »
