June 30, 2008 - 10:59 am - Posted by WTH
From our pals over at http://www.unionfacts.com/
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Use of Dues for Politics
Union members who don’t want their dues used for a political cause with which they disagree or consider offensive should learn more about their Rights or lack of Rights.
Every day, millions of union members have money taken from their paychecks to support some union presidents’ political agenda. In 1996, Rutgers economics professor Leo Troy estimated that union political expenditures totaled about $500 million in each election cycle. More recently, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research estimated that total union political expenditures reached $925 million in the 2004 cycle. Over time, this has added up: According to The Center for Responsive Politics, eight of the top ten all-time political contributors are labor unions.
Labor leaders have made the use of employee money for political causes a popular practice — but it’s far less popular among the public and the members themselves.
Use of Member Money for Politics is Unpopular and Misunderstood
Use of members’ money for political goals was second only to corruption as the reasons Americans disapproved of unions, according to a 2004 Zogby poll.
That poll also found that 63 percent of all employees, and 61 percent of unionized employees, agreed that union members shouldn’t be forced to contribute.
A McLaughlin & Associates poll indicated that 67 percent of workers were unaware of their right to withhold mandatory dues for politics.
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June 29, 2008 - 11:51 am - Posted by WTH
Pretending they are interested in “clean air,” the kindly union bought folks in the Mayor’s office in Los Angeles signed a new law that makes independent trucking basically illegal in the ports of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the law on the 26th that requires independent truckers to join trucking companies, and, therefore, the unions.
The law requires independent truck drivers servicing the port to become employees of trucking companies, and bans independent contractors. Both Villaraigosa and port authorities argue that independent, low-income drivers will not be able to afford the new $100,000 trucks that meet the port’s strict low-emissions requirements.
And, of course, this makes sure every trucker is forced to join a union just to have a job, since their privately owner business have just been made illegal.
That requirement was backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which believes the provision will make it easier to organize truckers. But it’s opposed by the American Trucking Assn., which has vowed to file a lawsuit to block that part of the plan.
“This isn’t about clean air,’’ Curtis Whalen of the trucking association said of the pending legal action. “It’s about control of a deregulated industry and LA’s a pro-Teamster point of view.’’
Exactly right. We have arrived at a day when the fake worries about global warming and the environment can be used to destroy businesses and force them into becoming vassals of the state and the minions of corrupt union thugs.
We are witnessing the death of the private sector, slow but sure.
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June 28, 2008 - 11:23 am - Posted by WTH
We’ve reported on this story several times in the past and we have a conclusion for at least one of the mobbed-up participants in this case. The former president of the union representing 15,000 New York school bus drivers, Salvatore Battaglia, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in Federal prison after he leaded guilty to extortion and receiving bribes from mobsters under the control of Matthew Ianniello, the former acting boss of the Genovese crime family.
Mr. Battaglia was the president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union from 2002 to 2006, when he lost the job because of his indictment in the case. In that indictment, he was accused of being a member of the Genovese family.
Two other union officials have pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Julius Bernstein, an employee and officer of Local 1181 for more than 30 years, pleaded guilty in August 2006 to working with the Genovese family since the 1950s and admitted crimes including labor racketeering, extortion, bribery, gambling and obstruction of justice. Ann Chiarovano, an employee of the union for more than 40 years, also pleaded guilty in August 2006 to charges of obstruction of justice.
Despite constant claims to the contrary by union supporters, the Mob has never been very far away from any union. At least these mob controlled union thugs were apprehended and kudos to the investigators for doing so.
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June 26, 2008 - 5:30 pm - Posted by WTH
What happened when the Evergreen Freedom Foundation decided to request the public government records of the negotiations between unions and government in Washington State? All hell broke loose, that’s what.
The bloated public employee unions banded together to stop the public from finding out what went on between the government and the unions during the negotiations of state contracts — that is contracts FUNDED by tax money, by the way — for employee benefits and rules. They filed suit saying that the public had no right to know how their own tax money was to be spent.
One union official even said that if he thought his words would become public record he would “not be comfortable speaking” until he had “fully thought through” what he had to say. Of course, this forces one to wonder why he would open his yap without thinking about what he is saying whether his yammering would be public knowledge or not?
Yes, the Unions fought the EFF tooth and nail to keep their negotiations secret from the very public that is paying their bills.
Check out the whole outrageous story at Capital Research Center’s “When unions negotiate with governments” and download the PDF report. Its a great read and a cautionary tale that supports our contention here on the Union Label Blog that unions are antithetical to good government.
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June 24, 2008 - 9:19 pm - Posted by WTH
Democrat Governor Christine Gregoire won the governorship of Washington State in 2004 under a cloud of suspicion and possible voter fraud. The election was very close and after a recount Gregoire’s Republican rival still had the win. But, the Democrats weren’t happy with the recount. They wanted a second and calls went out for giant donations to get it done.
To steal the governorship Gregoire’s biggest donors were unions. Teachers unions and labor unions donated big money. Once the miraculous second recount suddenly showed that the Democrats had won (by 129 votes), Gregoire settled into office.
And then the payback began with unions making out like fat cats.
As the Seattle Times reports…
Despite entering the job under a legal cloud, Gregoire got off to a fast start as governor. In her first year, she stuck by a campaign promise to restore funding for two voter-approved initiatives that give teachers annual cost-of-living raises and put money toward reducing class sizes.
She has since approved additional raises for teachers, created a new state Department of Early Learning and increased overall spending on education by more than $3 billion.
Another big donor, the SEIU, had some major setbacks in the Legislature this year, but the union has benefited from the Democrats’ efforts to increase human-services spending.
Gregoire and the Legislature raised reimbursement rates for nursing homes, money that helped SEIU win new contracts with 20 homes and add 2,000 new members. And they passed legislation that enabled the union to organize more than 10,000 child-care providers.
The Washington State Labor Council, which also donated $50,000 for the recount, won a major victory when Gregoire helped broker a compromise with business that undid a 2003 unemployment-insurance overhaul that had taken a big bite out of benefits for laid-off construction workers, farm laborers and other seasonal employees.
Of course, Gregoire thinks everyone she talks to is an idiot because she insists that there was no payback and that she was just doing her job.
Yeah, riiiight.
It wasn’t just the unions that are getting payback, of course. Trial lawyers and many other special interest groups with deep donor pockets have found that they’ve benefitted quite well under Gregoire as Governor. Go on over and see the Seattle Time’s report if you want to see graft at its most blatant.
But remember… there was no “litmus test” and no quid pro quo.
…again I say, yeah, riiiiight.
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June 23, 2008 - 10:07 pm - Posted by WTH
It sure seems as if a union head has basically proposed that the government take over grocery and drug stores in New York. John R. Durso, president of Local 338 of the Retail Worker Department Store/United Food and Commercial Workers union, wrote in a recent public statement that the people cannot expect stores to serve the public and that government should step in with more legislation.
A recent report by the New York state’s attorney threatened a lawsuit against the drug store chains Rite Aid and CVS after an investigation found that expired goods were being sold at stores in New York. This prompted the union chief to say that the investigation “proves that we shouldn’t rely on drug stores to provide necessary food items to the community.”
Durso’s union supports a program of incentives and tax breaks to encourage development of supermarkets, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. But, what his statement said could easily be taken to further ends than mere tax breaks. If we cannot expect businesses to serve the public, what is left if not a take over of supermarkets and drug stores by government?
Imagine the big government aspect of this sort of idea? Big brother responsible for feeding us? What would follow, of course, would be price fixing and rationing once price fixing began to negatively affect the market. Ah, but the union thugs would have life easy if this all happened. After all, one apparently cannot be fired from a government job!
Once again the lesson is that unions are antithetical to the public weal, wholly detrimental to good government.
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June 22, 2008 - 11:18 pm - Posted by WTH
-By David Denholm
Central Labor Bodies: Organized Labor’s Political Money Black Hole
In 1959, in response to hearing revealing widespread labor union corruption and racketeering, Congress enacted the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, which, among other things, requires labor unions to file financial reports with the U.S. Department of Labor.
The idea, at least in theory, was that if union members had access to information about their union’s finances they could identify and fight corruption. There were two problems with this. First, even though the unions filed the reports they were for all practical purposes inaccessible to union members. Secondly, the information on the reports was too general to allow anyone to identify corruption. It wasn’t uncommon for unions to lump millions, sometimes tens of millions, of dollars into a single category of “other expenses” with no further explanation.
This situation existed for more than forty years until, to her great credit, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao began posting the financial disclosure forms on the Internet making them readily available to union members and anyone else who was interested. She then took the additional step of reforming the regulations for these filing to require meaningful information. The new regulations are not everything that everyone wanted but they are a huge improvement over the previous ones and, naturally, were resisted every step of the way by union officials. Those reforms are now in place and within the next few months reports will become available that will give union member much more detailed information about what their unions are doing with their dues. Is it any wonder organized labor hates the Bush Administration?
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June 20, 2008 - 11:54 am - Posted by WTH
Looks like the union thugs in Colorado are getting a bit worried that the Center for Union Facts TV ads are making people aware of the sham the unions are trying to perpetrate on Coloradans with their opposition to Amendment 47.
Even though TV 9 News’ report leans in favor of the unions, the story does give TCUF a little space to layout some of their issues.
The ads running on stations around Denver, including 9NEWS, are paid for by the Center for Union Facts. It’s an organization founded more than two years ago because “labor bosses were going unchallenged,” said spokesman Tim Miller. “The commercials are our way to educate the public about the mismanagement of union dues.”
Amendment 47 is a hot button issue for Colorado and if passed would prevent unions from collecting mandatory dues from people that don’t want to join the union.
The Governor and Senator Salazar are pretending to sound “moderate” on the issue by telling both sides to back down.
Political leaders like Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado), Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colorado) have asked both sides to back down, to respect Colorado’s current “Labor Peace Act,” which was passed by state lawmakers in 1943. It requires a special employee vote before a workplace can become unionized.
But, here is why they are not really telling the truth to the people of Colorado by pretending to sound like they want both side to “back down.”
The “special votes” the two Democrat pols are saying is already assured by law would be taken over by card-check voting as far as these two are concerned. And card-check voting is anti-democratic and pro-union in the extreme.
With card-check voting, employees would no longer have the ages old practice of the secret ballot that is the standard voter protection in all true democratic elections. With the card-check system these two Democratic Party hacks want, the employee would have to publicly announce to all his fellows what his vote is for it to count. The voter would not be protected by anonymity so that he can feel safe to vote his conscience. Therefore, the employee would be open to pressure from union thugs to vote THEIR way instead of his way. There is nothing whatever democratic about the card-check voting system and THAT is what these two party hacks want to institute. And that is why their claim to be telling both side to back down is a lie. They only want the anti-union side to be shut down.
Let’s hope Amendment 47 passes in Colorado.
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June 19, 2008 - 6:12 pm - Posted by WTH
Here is a victory for the good guys.
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Supreme Court Rejects California Union Law
(CNSNews.com) - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a state may not prohibit employers from using state money to deter union organizing drives.
Federal labor law bars California from regulating union-related activities, the justices decided by a vote of 7-2. The court ruled on the state’s first-in-the-nation law that bars employers from using state money to influence employees’ views on unions in their workplace.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, backed by the Bush administration, said the state was trying to silence employers from weighing in on organizing efforts. Federal labor law allows employers to be involved as long as they don’t threaten reprisals.
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June 18, 2008 - 5:52 pm - Posted by WTH
One would assume that everyone wants to see that our kids get the best education possible. I mean, who could possibly be against kids getting the best opportunities? Well, apparently the one entity that you’d expect to really care about kids is the one standing in the way of their education: teachers. Sadly, it is obvious that teachers as a group don’t care a whit about kids, at least as far as their union is concerned.
take the Republican led policy called the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It is a program that provides worthy minority student in the Washington D.C. school system with $7,500 a year for tuition and fees at private schools. We all know that government schools are nearly universally substandard and this program helps minority kids find their way to better schools so that they might get a better education.
Naturally, the Teachers union opposes it.
Fortunately, Republicans seem to care about kids more and have been able to sustain this project for several years. But, now that the union lapdogs in the Democrat Party have become the emerging force in Washington, this great opportunity for minority kids is about to be eliminated.
The Washington Post reports that the Democrat led subcommittee on financial services and general government, the committee that funds this project, said that the good times are over.
A House Appropriations subcommittee voted yesterday to fund for another year the federal voucher program that allows about 2,000 low-income D.C. children to attend private schools. But the panel’s chairman said that this was probably the last time that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program would receive full financial support from the government.
Of course this is because he is the slave to the anti-intellectuals in the teachers unions for it is they who oppose this program.
Once again, this sort of anti-kid, anti-education effort from a union proves that unions should never be allowed for jobs that are supposed to serve the public interest. Unions are entirely antithetical to the public weal and this is just one more example of that truth.
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June 16, 2008 - 6:58 pm - Posted by WTH
In an historic decision that I hope is duplicated in other states, Connecticut has finally passed the “bad boy clause,” a law that would find public employees (like elected politicians and state workers) who are convicted of criminal behavior having their pensions denied them as a result of that criminal behavior.
Of course, unions are against this law. They claim it would be a breach of their union contracts, but really all they want is to shield their criminal members from the consequences of their criminality. Why is it no surprise that unions want to reward criminal behavior by allowing those who steal from the public and break the public trust by allowing them to continue stealing from the public treasury in the form of unearned and undeserved pensions?
This is just another example of why unions are not in the public’s interest and should never be allowed for state workers. Unions are not interested in the public good. They are only interested it what they can get for their members.
the idea of a union is antithetical to good government at every level.
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June 11, 2008 - 6:17 pm - Posted by WTH
Steve Peoples of the Providence Journal (Rhode Island) gives us a great reminder that the voice of the labor movement has far more power than it does public support. He details all the politicians, lobbyists and union reps intertwined in government in the State House and how, even if the people of the state aren’t realizing it, those union voices are every day scheming to get the union agenda passed at every level of State government.
While union membership is at its lowest level in 50 years, labor leaders’ daily contact with lawmakers is as strong as ever.
Most days on Smith Hill, union lobbyists far outnumber those from other interest groups.
“In fairness to labor, they’re up here every single day, talking to people,” says Senate Finance Committee Chairman Stephen D. Alves. “You don’t see the Chamber [of Commerce] people here every single day. Do [unions] have more access? I suppose they do — only because they’re here. They catch you in the corridor. If business people were up here and want to talk to us, they’re more than welcome to.”
This is the insidious method. While the people are unawares, the labor movement worms its way into every aspect of our lives. Union member or not, we pay the ultimate price for unionism in higher prices, lost jobs, and high taxes, regulation, etc.
And it’s because unions slither their way into every crack of our governments.
People’s does a great job of detailing the undue influence unions have at least in Rhode Island. But, writ larger, it is the same in every state as well as the Federal government.
Voter beware.
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June 10, 2008 - 12:01 am - Posted by WTH
A fellow named Will Franklin over at Willisms.com has done some number crunching and he has discovered that states that support a right to work policy grow at a much higher rate than states that are awash in forced unionization.
From 2004-2007, no Right To Work state grew less than 5.1%, while fifteen Forced Unionization state grew below that level.
Meanwhile, while America’s GDP growth from 2004-2007 by 8.4%, Right To Work states grew by 10% on average, while Forced Unionization states grew by only 6.2% on average. The median Right To Work growth rate was 9.2%, compared to the median Forced Unionization rate of 4.9% (the national median for all states was 7.3%).
As expected, it appears that unionism is an albatross, a mill stone around the necks of the workers limiting the success and growth of a state.
Of course, this will not sit well with the “two Americas” types on the left in this country. As Will points out, the side that they are on is the side of failure and a stifled economy. So, good luck with that concept, there.
(H/T Richard Disney)
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