Archive for September, 2007
September 30, 2007 - 8:47 am - Posted by WTH
Of course, we all know that unions constantly pump themselves up as representatives of a real democracy because they claim to be men of the people. They pretend that they are elected fairly to office and that they have only the best interests of their people in mind. How often these claims are true is anyone’s guess as who really knows the hearts of men? But one thing can be known and that is that unions are not any more above deceit, theft and corruption prone to any men. But one other thing is also true, the entire concept of a union is far more prone to the faults of men than otherwise.
Well, that pontificating aside, there is one more aspect that a union is prone to — at least for one in Stark County, Ohio. And that is a hunger for power. It appears that these petulant would-be politicos in the AFL-CIO in Stark County have gotten mad at the Democrat Party there.
Why you ask? How could a union be mad at their patron party, the Democrats?
It seems the Union imagined that they somehow deserved an automatic seat on the four-member County election board upon the resignation of a previous member but the local Democrat Party put up one of their own folk, Samuel Ferruccio, Jr., for the seat instead of the handpicked shill the union offered.
So, what did the union do?
Effective immediately, the council and its unions - which represent 30,000 workers - won’t donate money, walk door-to-door or make phone calls in support of Democratic political candidates in Stark County.
Hilarious. The union took their black ball and went home!
Says unions rep Mike McElfresh, union shill in question:
“This is not about anything personally, but we’re not getting the respect that’s due,” said Mike McElfresh, second vice president of the Hall of Fame Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Not anything “personally.” Jeeze, what a lie that is!
So, the union put their shill up for the election, anyway.
He lost.
Maier said Ferruccio earned 51 votes and McElfresh only 14 from the executive committee.
“We had an election,” Maier said. “It was a very democratic process.”
A “democratic process” is NOT what a union is interested in, obviously!
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September 29, 2007 - 6:45 am - Posted by WTH
TTAC’s best and brightest were not slow off the mark on this one: GM’s plan to put $50b into the hands of the United Auto Workers for a union-controlled health care superfund could lead to epic fraud, leaving union members without adequate coverage. The Director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Organized Labor Accountability Project and editor of Union Corruption Update sounds the alarm. “Union-controlled health and benefit plans often shortchange union members and retirees,” Dr. Carl Horowitz warns. “Instead of getting the best deal for participants, these plans are often characterized by cozy, inside deals beneficial to the union bosses, and on occasion, organized crime. With the staggering size of this proposed health fund, the UAW bosses must be salivating.” In case you didn’t notice, Dr. Horowitz (who still has both legs intact) thinks Congress should hold hearings on the health care deal– or else. “Neither GM nor the UAW can be counted on to act in the best interests of workers. Putting the union in charge of this health fund creates a potentially huge conflict of interest for UAW leaders.”
Go here to hear the interview with Dr. Horowitz.
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September 26, 2007 - 7:04 am - Posted by WTH
Someone at the Waterbury Republican American newspaper is a bit perturbed with a new union ad campaign against the idea of privatizing public services. The new campaign seems to imagine that privatizing public services will result in “corruption” yet the unions seem blissfully ignorant of the corruption endemic in their own operations!
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Crooks infest Big Labor
At the height of the Rowland scandal, Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and a host of union locals chipped in for the “Privatization Equals Corruption” ad campaign highlighting “the pitfalls and perils of privatizing public services.”
Union officials, of course, are pure as the driven snow. Take Jorge Aponte-Figueroa, who until he was sentenced last month to five years in prison was president of the International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1740 in San Juan, P.R. His crime? He embezzled $1.9 million from the rank and file, falsified records and laundered money. And Council 4 was distressed about gutters, drywall and a hot tub?
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September 24, 2007 - 10:49 am - Posted by WTH
The fact that the UAW is pushing to strike against GM today says more about the stupidity that is unions than it does about any actual work conditions their members face.
After all, the US auto industry is already at the biggest disadvantage on the world market — heck even the domestic market — with the fact that it is expected to float hundreds of thousands of people who are retired with fat, unsupportable pensions and exorbitant health care plans. In fact, Detroit spends more on these two benefits alone than most other countries even spend on their entire auto industry!
But, no matter to the union that Detroit is doing so badly that it may have to shutter every plant. The union INSISTS on their industry destroying perks. No belt tightening for them, boy. No siree. Heck, they’d rather see NO ONE with a job than they give up an unearned and over-the-top perk!
…and they just may get their wish some day.
Ha! That’ll teach them eeeevil corporations, right?
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September 23, 2007 - 6:00 am - Posted by WTH
One of the most absurd things about unions is their penchant for rewarding criminal behavior. In the real world, most people would not agree to allow a convicted criminal or someone under a cloud of corruption to benefit from a big pension paid for by everyone else. But, not in union land. In union land even those convicted of crimes should be carried from the cradle to the grave by the work force.
Well, in New Haven, Connecticut lawmakers are trying to change this ridiculous union requirement by crafting a new law to deny the pensions of public employees and union members who have been convicted of a crime or those who are in the midst of being indicted for corruption.
This new initiative is fast on the tail of the story of Billy White and Justen Kasperzyk, two New Haven narcotics cops who were indicted as a result of an FBI corruption investigation, both of whom retired with large pensions — one of them at $91,000.
Sadly, if New Haven passes this new law, they will join only a tiny handful of states and cities that sensibly deny luxurious pensions for people who have violated the public trust.
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September 22, 2007 - 6:00 am - Posted by WTH
Looks like dues aren’t the only thing that union officials steal. This time, the Teamsters local 743 president is indicted for stealing a 2004 election by rigging votes to keep himself and his pals in power.
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Indictment: 4 Rigged Union Votes
By Jeff Coen Tribune staff reporter
The acting president and three former representatives of one of the largest Teamsters locals in the country allegedly conspired to rig closely contested union elections to ensure an incumbent slate of officers won, according to charges made public Friday.
The four defendants, all once affiliated with Teamsters Local 743, were accused of diverting hundreds of official ballots to friends, relatives and confidants in two elections in 2004 instead of mailing them to union members, the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago said Friday. The ballots were then cast for the Unity Slate to ensure its candidates were re-elected, the indictment alleged.
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September 21, 2007 - 3:23 am - Posted by WTH
Coincidentally, after my post on the 20th, I have found another report echoing the alarm over a seeming “epidemic” of embezzling of union funds by Union officials.
… remember, unions are only looking out for the little guy. (As long as that little guy happens to be a union official!)
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Union Fund Embezzlements ‘Epidemic,’ Analyst Says
By Pete Winn, CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
September 19, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - Eleven union officials were indicted and eight were convicted in August on charges of embezzling union pension funds, following probes launched by federal auditors and investigators at the U.S. Department of Labor.
According to a report released Monday by the department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), 84 indictments for corruption have been issued thus far in 2007, leading to the conviction of 108 union officials.
All told, nearly 800 convictions have been obtained since 2001, with court-ordered restitution exceeding $101 million, said Deputy Assistant Labor Secretary Don Todd, who announced the report’s release.
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September 20, 2007 - 6:00 am - Posted by WTH
Here are a few heart warming stories of union officials living large off the dues stolen from their membership.
… but remember, they are only looking out for the little guy!
Allied-Industrial Workers (PACE)
Claudia R. Thompson found guilty of embezzlement of union funds and falsifying records on August 15th.
United Auto Workers (UAW)
William Haynes pleads guilty on July 9th to falsifying records, $10,000 in dues money missing
Bakery and Tobacco Workers (BC&T)
Sharon Burt, convicted of embezzlement of $72,701 in union funds in March.
Boilermakers (IBB)
Jeffery Klope, pleaded guilty on June 13th to embezzlement of $25,794 from the union.
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September 18, 2007 - 11:56 am - Posted by WTH
This one is a head spinner, for sure. Seven labor unions have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to create a mandate that business owners should be FORCED to negotiate with a union even if less than a majority of their employees want a union or already belong to one. If this change is implemented, no longer will an employer be able to stand on democratic principles and say that a union has no place in their business if only a small portion of their workforce wants union meddling.
Worse, a business might be stuck negotiating with any number of different unions if their workforce has some few members choosing different ones to belong to because the negotiations will be mandated no matter how many employees belong.
Seven Unions Petition NLRB to Mandate Minority Bargaining
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September 14, 2007 - 9:30 am - Posted by WTH
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised when union representatives negotiate themselves bigger raises than they do for their own membership. But, it still rankles every time it happens… and it happens almost every time!
In this case it is the Broward County, Florida teacher’s union that has fenagled a higher raise for the top earners in the District than those at the lower end of the pay scale. It seems they have invented an absurdly complicated “steps” plan (there are 22 of these “steps”) where folks at the low end will forever get smaller raises than folks at the high end. Naturally, the union reps are all at the highest end of the scale.
Big surprise, eh?
Broward Teachers Union negotiates big raises for vets, little for newcomers
Broward County teachers today are voting on a contract that more generously rewards the top union officials who negotiated it than rank and file educators.
If it is approved, about two-thirds of Broward’s 17,000 public school teachers will receive raises of 5 percent or less. The most substantial increases, as high as 17 percent, will go to the most senior teachers — less than a third of Broward’s educators.
I thought that unions were all for the ‘little people”? What happened to that whole egalitarian concept that unions claim is their chief motivation?
I guess where it concerns getting raises for union bosses, the little guy will have to wait!
You know, they are only out to “help” you, dontcha?
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September 13, 2007 - 7:51 am - Posted by WTH
Few any longer deny that unions, no matter what union is under consideration, have any desire to consult their own membership on what causes, political candidates or Parties their dues money is spent upon. Several states are beginning, at long last, to address the unamerican, forced nature of such spending of dues against the member’s wishes by the organization to which they belong — or are forced to belong just to hold their job. But still this practice goes on despite the light shined upon the unconscionable practice employed by every union in the country. Apparently, teachers in Washington state have about had it with this practice, too, and their support of their own union organization is wearing thin.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation* has released the results of their latest poll of teachers from the great Pacific state, and they aren’t a happy lot.
Ten-year Trend: Democrat teachers want political independence from union
Washington’s teachers, Democrat and Republican alike, increasingly agree that they should not be forced to pay for the Washington Education Association’s politics. In a poll commissioned by EFF, teachers were asked if they agreed or disagreed that, “Teachers should not be forced to pay for someone else’s politics, including the WEA’s.”
73% agreed compared to 62% who agreed in a poll ten years ago when the same question was asked. Support for the statement increased sharply among both Republicans and Democrats.
Republicans : (1997) 81% (2007)92%
Independents : (1997) 67% (2007)66%
Democrats : (1997) 52% (2007)66%
Now think about WEA’s decade-long campaign to convince teachers that, when it comes to politics, it knows best. WEA’s message has not resonated with teachers, even those who side with it ideologically. Maybe for teachers, the First Amendment cannot be “untaught.”
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September 12, 2007 - 2:28 pm - Posted by WTH
Well, on the heels of our Sept. 5th report of Teamster posts being decertified all over the country and our August 18th report on the Nashville Police union troubles — the Teamsters again — we now have a report that combines the both of them.
It looks like the Nashville Police have voted overwhelmingly against the Teamsters continuing as their union representation. The union isn’t out yet, but things don’t look good for the ‘ol Teamsters.
Teamsters Decertification Means Major Changes For Metro Officers
There are some major changes ahead for the men and women who protect Nashville.
Just as the investigation of the local Teamsters takes on a new twist, Metro Police officers have given the Teamsters something else to think about.
In a vote late Friday, 671 members of the Metro Police force voted to decertify the Teamsters.
Just 122 voted to keep the union.
Final results are expected to be certified within five days.
The vote means the Fraternal Order of Police will win back its role as bargaining agent for nearly 1,200 Metro officers.
Local FOP President Danny Hale said, “The Teamsters proved they don’t understand our job just because of some of the thing that came up with- the criminal activity, come on give me a break we uphold the law we don’t break it.”
We’ll keep you abreast of the latest in Nashville.
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September 11, 2007 - 10:23 am - Posted by WTH
A letter to the Editor of the Pasadena Star News highlights the danger of outside forces like the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) coming into a community and disrupting the trust and bonds established by those living there as it cynically tries to implement its own agenda quite regardless of what folks in the community want.
Pasadena Sacred trust
I am in disbelief at the SEIU’s lack of concern, not only for Citrus Valley Health Partners (CVHP) employees but for the community at large in their endeavor to secure dues.
By criticizing the organization and saying that the health care is not good, they are causing a lack of faith that this community has in their health-care facilities.
We depend on these three facilities to take care of ourselves and our loved ones. A trust relationship forms, and it is very important to feel as if you have an adequate hospital to care for your family.
CVHP has earned that trust and it is a crime for the union to tear that down. My family has received the best at their facilities.
This is our community that the union is undermining, and I resent it very much. I am an employee at CVHP, but I am also a long-standing resident in this community.
I see the SEIU as a threat to my workplace and the community in which I live. I don’t know why anyone would want people/organizations who participate
Unions are a threat to everyone’s workplace, wouldn’t you say?
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