Archive for February, 2008
February 29, 2008 - 6:43 pm - Posted by WTH
The New York Times just unleashed an interesting piece detailing certain troubles being had the by current head of the SEIU, Andy Stern.
Andy Stern has been hailed in some quarters as the nation’s top labor leader largely because his union, the Service Employees International Union, has added members faster than any other, 800,000 over the last decade.
But the president of one of the union’s biggest locals has begun a public war with Mr. Stern, accusing him of having a “growth at any cost” mentality that has shortchanged union members.
By “growth at any cost,” the insurgent union chief facing Stern is claiming that Stern has made too many concessions to new union members who would otherwise vote against the union formation process. In other words, the charge is that Stern has made it easier on the concerns that new union members have just to get new membership. The unions ended up with less power than they’d prefer according to Sal Rosselli, Stern’s opponent.
But, here is the real question… so what? It would seem to me to be a smart move by Stern. Give up some power now because soon enough the union could leverage all they want from a quaking and weakened government (government workers is the focus here) that will bend over backwards for them later.
That is why this anti-democratic, anti-good government Stern is so dangerous. Stern’s internal opponent is short sighted and foolish to worry about the power of their union lessening. After all, the governments that these unions will accost will fold like a house of cards when the union finally pushes their full agenda. Neither the governments nor the unions are acting in the public interest when all is said and done.
That is why we need to warn anyone reading about Stern’s troubles and imagining that his downfall is imminent or that this imbroglio will harm the union. Neither is the case. This union is more dangerous to the best interests of the people of this country than any merely corrupt, mob infested union that we are used to dealing with. This is because this union is attacking, weakening, corrupting and destroying our civil service and governments the nation over.
Don’t be fooled by seeming troubles in the SEIU. This union must be opposed at all costs.
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February 27, 2008 - 3:28 pm - Posted by WTH
OK, you guys out there, have you ever been dumped by a girl? Once she told you in no uncertain terms that it was over, did you still walk around claiming you two were an item? How about this, when was the last time a politician lost his election yet stayed in Congress anyway? Was there ever a president who lost his election but stayed in the White House?
I ask this because we have seen unions that are voted out of their position as representatives of a given group of workers yet these same unions still stomp around on picket lines and still harangue business owners and management claiming they still represent the very same worker who have told them to take a hike.
Well, it’s happened again. The packaging workers at the San Diego Union-Tribune decertified the union by a majority vote. Yet, the Teamsters is still accosting the management of the paper with demands for “their” workers… the very same employees who voted the union OUT of their hair.
Here is the Union-Tribune’s report:
Packaging workers at The San Diego Union-Tribune who have been trying to negotiate a union contract for the last two and a half years protested Tuesday outside the newspaper’s Mission Valley offices and demanded that management return to the bargaining table.
However, Pat Marrinan, the paper’s manager of labor relations, said contract issues are moot because the company withdrew its recognition of the union Monday after receiving a decertification petition signed by a majority of workers in the department.
Union officials said they plan to challenge the petition by filing an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
So, now put yourself in that mythical girlfriend’s shoes. Have you ever told a girlfriend it’s over yet she still hangs around you, turning up on every corner whether you want her or not?
The police would call that stalking.
Unions call it “representation.”
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February 24, 2008 - 6:25 pm - Posted by WTH
The New York Post gives us a reminder of the sort of shady characters that supports the Hillary Clinton campaign for president. Last week the New York carpenters union announced their support of Hillary Clinton and it should be pointed out that their head, Michael Forde, has been linked to mob corruption in his role as union head.
Forde and union business agent Martin Devereaux are set for trial Nov. 26 on charges they took bribes from contractors to allow nonunion, off-the-books labor on job sites.
Forde was originally indicted in a massive 2000 probe of mob influence in the construction industry. Among the 38 people charged was alleged Luchese crime family acting boss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea, who pleaded guilty to price fixing, labor racketeering, bid rigging and constraint of trade.
Forde and Devereaux were convicted in 2004 - facing up to 25 years in prison - but got their cases tossed after a judge ruled jurors improperly discussed the case before deliberating.
But there is another interesting thing with this endorsement. Unions claim that they are the ones more interested in “democracy” and are always looking out for “the little guy,” right? Well, it is interesting that the NY carpenters union with Forde in the lead held a secret, closed door meeting during which this endorsement was decided.
The meeting was an “eyebrow-raising, closed-door endorsement,” that “broke ranks with the national union,” as the Post put it. If unions are so much for “democracy” and all that, why the secret, closed door meeting?
Who can doubt that it is because the myth that unions are interested in democracy is and always has been a sham.
In any case, it is instructive to be reminded of what sort of character the Clintons surround themselves with.
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February 22, 2008 - 3:05 pm - Posted by WTH
As an adjunct to the story yesterday about union corruption in the construction trade in New York City, it was reported by the Courant newspaper in Hartford, Conn., that subpoenas were handed down to a Norwalk, Conn. based EMCOR Group, inc.
Norwalk-based EMCOR Group Inc., the construction and building systems company, said its F&G Mechanical Corp. unit received subpoenas from a New Jersey grand jury probing corruption.
F&G was served subpoenas in December and January by a grand jury empaneled by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The probe is “investigating allegations of union corruption,” the company said in the filing. F&G, a mechanical contracting firm based in Secaucus, N.J., has produced documents in response to the court orders and is cooperating with investigators, the filing said.
So, New Jersey, the land of the “Sopranos,” is no slouch in construction trade corruption, either.
I’m just saying…
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February 21, 2008 - 11:03 pm - Posted by WTH
Steven Malanga of the City Journal in New York has a great piece talking about how all the government oversight, police investigations and Federal indictments hasn’t dimmed the mob’s influence over New York City’s construction trade and, for the most part, the labor laws and unions are to blame for the mob’s ease of infesting that troubled trade.
The construction industry operates like few other businesses today, especially in New York, because of outdated labor practices. In most unionized industries, a firm hires workers who then join the union; in construction, by contrast, labor law permits contracts between builders and unions in which unions effectively have power over hiring. They enlist workers in their organizations first and then send them out on jobs.
So, since the union actually controls who works, who gets hired and where they work, this absurd practice leaves them ripe for mob infiltration.
Now, if the construction companies could do the hiring and the union just oversee contracts, like most union relationships, the mob could not have the same level of iron fisted control over the construction business in NYC.
And what is the big reason why this is all such a mess? It’s because there is no capitalist competition.
New York State’s laws and policies add to the industry’s problems by snuffing out competition. The state decrees that on all public construction projects—representing a huge chunk of the industry’s revenue pie—government must pay even nonunionized workers a “prevailing” wage that in most cases is equal to the highest union worker’s wage. The law sharply reduces the ability of non-union contractors to get government work, since they lose any pricing advantage that lower wages would give them. Thus, many don’t even bother to bid on government contracts, which the construction unions inevitable win. That’s the kind of monopoly that mobsters love. One of the rare circumstances when the “prevailing wage” doesn’t prevail on public jobs in New York State is when mobbed-up unions solicit bribes from contractors so that they can use nonunion workers. The mob, in other words, plays both sides of the fence.
The socialists in the city love the fact that there is no capitalist process in the city and the mob loves it too.
Go on over to the City Journal and read all of Malanga’s piece, Construction Corruption. It’s worth the read.
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February 19, 2008 - 3:23 pm - Posted by WTH
Howard Blume of the L.A.Times penned an interesting account of the “band of left-wing, dissident back-benchers that took over the city teachers union” and how the cadre are up for an election contest. After a three year reign of power, the left-wingers are facing their first election contest that can either affirm their handling of the union or send them packing.
Interestingly, the L.A.Times seems to be weighing in against these left-wing dissidents.
The union’s record over three tumultuous years will give members much to ponder. It includes lost elections, protracted contract struggles, an explosion of mostly non-union charter schools, the response to a botched payroll system and a still-evolving power equation involving Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Much of the spotlight will fall on 64-year-old A.J. Duffy, the passionate, volatile union president who is seeking a second three-year term. But an entire leadership slate faces a rank-and-file referendum. On bread-and-butter issues, Duffy points to a cumulative 8.5% salary raise and to achieving slightly smaller class sizes while maintaining health benefits. More broadly, his team has championed the idea of individual schools governing themselves — with teachers in a leading role. The concept plays to mixed reviews among school reform experts.
This Duffy character is definitely a lightning rod. Telling the Times “I am notorious,” and saying “I drive people crazy. I want it done yesterday,” it is obvious that his presidency is mostly about him and not the job. Naturally, his wild, leftward tilt is helping drive “education” to the last place on the list of interests in L.A.
One of the ideas he helped push was health care benefits for part time cafeteria workers, a complete waste of money in a cash strapped system.
Lets hope that the members of the teachers union see some sense and oust this extremist and his junta of far left ideologues.
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February 18, 2008 - 1:05 pm - Posted by Chuck Muth
From the Department of the Pot Calling the Kettle Black comes this Chicago Tribune story about troubles in paradise over at the SEIU…
“Sal Rosselli doesn’t think his union, the Service Employees International Union, is all that democratic, and he is making a fuss about it. But he is not your average union-card carrier. As leader of a 150,000-member local in California, and until recently head of the more than 600,000-member SEIU California State Council, Rosselli has wielded quite a bit of union clout. He also belonged to SEIU’s executive committee until last weekend, when he resigned in a blistering letter to union President Andy Stern, accusing him of expanding his powers at members’ expense.”
Over recent years, SEIU has become perhaps the most aggressive and obnoxious band of union agitators in the entire nation. That one union boss is accusing a fellow union boss of thuggery is indeed sauce for the goose.
Wouldn’t it be a shame if these two union bosses divided their own union the way SEIU divided the union movement in general by bolting the AFL-CIO a couple years ago? We can only hope.
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February 16, 2008 - 5:49 am - Posted by WTH
Today, we get a little good news for a change. A teacher in the Vancouver Public School district in Vancouver, Washington has won the right in court to distribute her union dues to a charity instead of wasting them by being forced to pay them to the union.
Wiggs, a teacher at Jason Lee Middle School, has been embroiled in a two-year dispute with the teachers union about where to direct her dues. Two years ago, Wiggs withdrew from the union as a religious objector.
“They were taking political stands that I cannot support, considering my faith,” Wiggs, a Christian, said in March. “They were coming out in favor of abortion and homosexual rights. I didn’t want to support them with my dues.”
So, the law in Washington State says that a union objector may submit their dues to a charity. So, what the heck is she in court for? Well here is where the typically ignorant, meddlesome, non-democratic unions indulged in their typical nonsense.
State law requires that religious objectors continue to carve out money from their paychecks to put toward a charity. But Wiggs and the union have disagreed on which one.
Wiggs’ chosen nonprofit is the Vancouver-based Shared Hope International, which targets international sex trafficking. The organization isn’t religious and was founded by former U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, a Republican from Vancouver.
The union would prefer that Wiggs choose the YWCA or the Vancouver School District Foundation.
Yes, you read that right. These union thugs were even trying to force the teacher to chose the charity THEY wanted her dues given to!
What incredible gall!
In any case, the teacher won. Naturally, the union thugs are going to appeal. Still, this is a win for th good guys.
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February 15, 2008 - 4:26 pm - Posted by WTH
DEAR CONGRESSMAN SHEDEGG:
WE WANT YOU ON THAT WALL,
WE NEED YOU ON THAT WALL
There aren’t enough conservatives in the United States House of Representatives, let alone enough conservative leaders. Rep. John Shadegg is one of the few…and he announced this week that he would not be seeking re-election this year.
Rep. Shadegg represents Arizona’s Third Congressional District and has established a reputation in Congress as a leading advocate for reduced government spending, federal tax relief, and the re-establishment of state and individual rights.
He is a former chairman of the House Republican Policy committee (fifth-ranking position in the House leadership), is a former chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, and a former chairman of the campaign training organization GOPAC.
Congresspedia notes that Rep. Shadegg “is also the son of Steve Shadegg of Arizona, 1964 campaign manager for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater,” and was a founding director of the Goldwater Institute for Public Policy.
A true limited-government conservative from the West with leadership experience who understands the importance of nuts-and-bolts training for grassroots activism. He is also friendly to many of our union concerns.
An unprecedented letter signed by 130 of Rep. Shadegg’s colleagues in the House today urges Rep. Shadegg to reconsider his decision not to seek re-election this year. Please add your name, as a grassroots activist, to the letter by signing this online petition at ChuckMuth.com.
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February 14, 2008 - 10:28 pm - Posted by WTH
David Denholm dropped a note by today and I thought you would find it interesting…
-By David Denholm
On January 25 the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its annual report on union membership in America - “Union Members 2007.”
This is particular interest because it shows a slight uptick in union density, which is within the margin of error for the survey, but it was the first such increase since modern record keeping began in 1983.
Total union density increased by 0.1 percent. On private payrolls the increase was 0.1 percent, from 7.4 in 2006 to 7.5 in 2006 while in the public sector it fell by 0.5 percent from 36.2 in 2006 to 35.9 in 2007.
The key to understanding the 2007 figures is that 43 percent of all new jobs were in public employment. In 2007, government employment grew 3.2 percent while employment on private payrolls grew by just 0.8 percent. In recent years the average annual increase in public employment has been about 1.7 percent compared to 1.6 percent in the private sector.
Of the 311,000 new union members, 179,000 (63 percent) were public employees and only 132,000 were on private payrolls.
Despite the decline in union density in the public sector and the fact that only one in six jobs is with government, the extent to which the entire union movement is comprised of public employees increased again from 48.0 percent in 2006 to 48.2 percent in 2007. In 2007, government employee union members comprised the majority of all union members in 25 states.
Since the apparent increase of 0.1 percent is within the margin of error for the survey, I applied a five year moving average to the data for the last ten years and found that the downward trend continues in all sectors.
Interestingly, the annual data shows that union density in the public sector has declined for two years but the five year average, which I believe is a bit more accurate in showing trends, shows that this decline in public sector density has been going on for five years. I have a table showing this which I’d be happy to share with you if you are interested.
I would be pleased to provide additional information about my research on this report if you are interested.
Also, unionstats.com has updated its site with the detailed figure on employment, union membership and union density - total, private, public, manufacturing and construction - for 2007.
We are in the process of updating our tables and charts for each state using this data to show the trends. These include employment, union membership and union density - total, private, public, manufacturing and construction - as well as charts comparing the actual number of union members in the private and public sectors and showing the total number of public employees and union members.
The entire set of ten tables and charts for a state and/or for the nation is available on request. Since updating more than 500 tables and charts takes awhile, requests will be handled on a first come first served basis.
——
It is simply absurd that government workers have unions to speak for them. Unions are the enemy to business and what “business” are government workers in? OUR business! Who can doubt that unions are antithetical to good government because unions interest is NOT the people’s business? A union’s interests are the government workers, not the work they do for the voters!
As far as I am concerned a union for a government worker should be illegal!
Thanks David for the info.
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February 12, 2008 - 1:41 pm - Posted by WTH
Rhode Island resident Bill Felkner is wondering why Pat Crowley, “the $84,000 per year Assistant Executive Director of the RI affiliate of the National Education Association and the Lincoln Democrat Party chairman,” feels it necessary to give his opponents “the finger” as he protests in public to enlarge union power? At a recent Tiverton teacher contract negotiation protest, Crowley is pictured giving his … um…. civil reply to those who stand against the union.
This fits in nicely with the incivility and general ignorance that so typifies union thuggery, but this particular incident is all the more sad because this ignorant behavior is on behalf of a Teachers union. You know, teachers? The ones to whom we entrust the care and education of our children?
On his blog, Felkner wonders aloud about the propriety and practicality of the current union goals.
Crowley and the NEA published in the Westerly Sun recently, trying to tell us that RI’s welfare system is just fine and we should continue business as usual. First you may ask why is an organization that represents public school employees lobbying for the welfare industry. For that answer you should know that the SIEU (another union) is very hard at work trying to unionize welfare workers, including day care providers. And who could forget the connection between the NEA and the AFL-CIO. Frank Montanaro is the President of the AFL-CIO and also the Chairman of the Board for Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS). Could that be the reason that most teacher contracts in RI are REQUIRED to only provide BCBS insurance for teachers? Chariho even gives a bonus to employees if they use that carrier.
Felkner has also written a fine letter detailing the good reasons to resist the union thuggery in Rhode Island. Go on over and read the whole thing at the Chariho School Parents’ Forum.
I’d say that with the low character of the teachers union representatives in RI, the state may earn its Revolutionary War nickname back. In those early days of the Republic, Rhode Island was filled with so many crooks and troublemakers that the entire place was called “Rogue’s Island” by the rest of the colonies.
Pat Crowley is certainly living up to that epithet!
(By the way, look up the name Aleister Crowley and wonder if he and ol’ Pat are related!?)
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February 10, 2008 - 4:19 pm - Posted by WTH
On Feb. 10th, the New York Times had an article pointing out that union corruption in the Big Apple grows faster than Federal officials can keep up with prosecuting it. To we in the anti-union thug movement this is not news. It does, however, conform to our own mantra that unionism means corruption by its very nature.
For more than a decade, federal officials and court-appointed monitors have strained to clean up two New York-area unions, representing cement truck drivers and construction laborers, that prosecutors say were long under Mafia control.
Indeed, prosecutors once described the cement truck drivers’ union, Local 282 of the Teamsters, as a “candy store” for the mob that they say funneled $1.2 million a year to John Gotti, the longtime Gambino crime family boss who died in prison in 2002.
Well, more indictments have been handed down on the truck drivers union and business owners. This time over the embezzling of large sums of money from the union’s health care and pension finds by a trucking company owner, and another involving the business manager of local 325 who took bribes for favors.
As former prosecutor Robert Luskin said to the Times:
“For as long as we’re around, we’re going to have to fight a ground war in New York and New Jersey,” Mr. Luskin said. “It’s like World War I. We take some ground and then we have to fight to take it back again.”
Well, a really, really good solution might be to get rid of the unions, wouldn’t it?
In any case, unionism brings a constant stream of corruption, theft, graft and criminality and we will continue to monitor it for you here.
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February 7, 2008 - 11:47 pm - Posted by WTH
Proving once again that there is nothing democratic or open about unions, the Seattle Teachers union has successfully convinced Judge Julie Spector, a pliant activist judge, that no one should be allowed to view emails sent over government servers. Even worse, like most Democrat shills for unions, a Seattle Public School attorney rolled over and didn’t even fight for the public’s right to open records.
The dispute arose when an undisclosed, private citizen filed to see these emails created on government computers (Seattle Public Schools) and sent through government servers but was denied when the SEA went to court to stop the release of these public records, claiming that union business was none of yours — despite that the unions were using government equipment to send and create them.
Even though this pliant judge sided with the union, it is far from clear that these emails should be buttoned up, out of sight of the public.
Despite the union’s protests–and a King County Superior Court judge’s temporary ruling sealing the e-mails–the e-mails may not be so private. According to Kristin Alexander, spokeswoman for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, “E-mails sent over public computers are public,” although Alexander notes that “there are certain exemptions.”
This action and the weak response from the city attorney will only embolden those who want secrecy in government and freeze out open and transparent government.
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