The Union Label - September 3, 2007
Posted on September 3, 2007 at 5:57 pm by Chuck Muth
HAPPY NON-UNION LABOR DAY: As we fire up the grill and crack open a cold one (or two) to celebrate this year’s Labor Day, let us not lose sight of the fact that without employers, entrepreneurs and business owners willing to take risks in a free-market economy, there would be no jobs. Let us also not forget that labor unions don’t create jobs. In fact, quite often they kill them. So happy non-union Labor Day everyone! And don’t forget to thank your boss tomorrow.
DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST
“This year, though, the annual Labor Day Parade has been cancelled. The parade has been a tradition in New York since 1882. . . . According to this marvelous quote from the New York City Central Labor Council, the rally is being cancelled ‘to remain focused on our organizational priorities and review the various observances of our Labor Day events as we consider how to march forward in the best way possible for workers.’ . . . But perhaps there are other reasons why the parade has been cancelled. Could it be, horror of horrors, that nobody wants to go?”
- Times Online (UK), 9/2/07
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS
“The task of the unions is to organize Wal-Mart.”
- Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein
UAW’S GROWING IRRELEVANCE
“This year’s contract talks, under way between the United Auto Workers and the Detroit’s Big Three automakers, may decide the fate of the domestic auto industry. But economists and labor historians agree that UAW contract talks no longer set the nationwide agenda for the broader American work force as they once did.
“…Fifty years ago, when the UAW helped set the agenda for the broader American work force, about one-third of U.S. workers labored in manufacturing, and roughly a third of all nonagricultural workers were unionized. Today, not one in 10 workers toils in a factory, and fewer than 10 percent of workers outside government belong to unions.”
- Salt Lake Tribune, 9/1/07
BLAME ED FAILURE ON FEAR OF UNION BOSSES
“How did we get to a point where the institution of public schooling could possibly come before the actual education of our kids? Short answer: We have given up our roles as customers. Oh, sure, we pay the bills. But we don’t direct any of the money. That responsibility landed in the laps of self-interested politicians.
“Worse yet, politicians have themselves passed the buck, allowing the school biz to be monopolized by the hired hands. The teachers and school workers unions are organized and politically powerful. Parents are not. So the decisions that govern and drive the schools are made by politicians scared of union bosses, not parents.”
- Paul Jacob of the Sam Adams Alliance
MUSCLE FLEXING
“Unions are trying to flex their muscle politically. They dumped millions into helping Democrats reclaim control of the House of Representatives last year, even though some union members resent that dues go to back candidates they might not support…
“Fortunately, the Senate rejected (a) measure on that agenda - the so-called ‘Employee Free Choice Act.’ The legislation would eliminate secret-ballot elections now used to unionize workers. The potential for harassment and intimidation without secret ballots would leave the process and choices anything but free.”
- Janesville Gazette, 9/1/07
UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE
* Early this month, the international (longshoreman’s) union seized control of Local 1235, which represents dock workers at the ports of Newark and Elizabeth, N.J. For years the local functioned as a virtual subsidiary of the Genovese crime family. Two years ago, then-President Albert Cernadas resigned, part of his guilty plea to charges that he’d conspired with the mob to skim funds from a union benefit plan.
* There’s nothing wrong with hiring a family member for a job, provided the job actually exists and all payments are voluntary. International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825 apparently doesn’t think much of that principle. Two men affiliated with the Springfield, New Jersey union were charged in late July with putting the daughter of a union member on the payroll for no-show work on an unnamed office tower in Jersey City.
* Paul Hernandez, formerly president of Carpenters Local 1005, received a prison sentence of more than three years, while Kenneth Castaldi, head of a union job training center, got two and a half years for their respective roles in embezzling $143,000 over five years from a $203,000 State of Indiana training grant.
* William Kendrick wasn’t treasurer of American Postal Workers Union Local 238 for very long. But he made the most of his opportunity – until he was caught. Kendrick, a resident of Grandview, Missouri, was sentenced in federal court on August 17 to five years’ probation and six months home detention for embezzling $26,235.94 from the Kansas City, Kan.-based union.
* On July 27, William J. Pagano, former secretary-treasurer of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 78, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio for embezzling funds from the Columbus-based union in the amount of $66,759.18 during 2000-06.
* On August 1, Lorraine Payton, former president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, Veterans Administration Council, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to one count of mail fraud.
* On July 30, Brenda Sue Myers, also known as Brenda Sue Barnett, former president of Local 2282 of the American Federation of Government Employees, pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma to one count of making a false statement. She had been charged earlier in the month with falsely reporting that the local had disbursed funds for business purposes in that amount, knowing she had diverted the money for her own personal use.
* On August 9, Brad Harper, former treasurer of AFGE Local 1629, pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan to one count of making materially false statements on the union’s annual financial reporting form.
- Source: National Legal & Policy Center
