Right to Work Blog

Rep. Jack Wells (R-Bozeman) and Sen. Greg Barkus (R-Kalispell) have introduced legislation in the Montana legislature to give workers in the state Right to Work protection. The bill would make it illegal to force someone to join a union as part of working at a union workplace. The bill has Big Labor activists up in arms, but it’s sad to see some Republicans join the opposition.

According to an Associated Press story in the Billings Gazette, Republican Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar opposes worker protection, saying “workers covered by unions are not required to join the union,” — right so far — but he goes on to say, in effect, that if workers don’t pay dues or fees then they should be fired. In other words, Molnar supports taxing workers who choose not to join a union. ‘“Why wouldn’t you pay for that?’ he told the House Business and Labor Committee.” Because it punishes workers who exercise basic constitutional rights, Mr. Molnar.

Montana workers need protection from this type of abuse, but with Big Labor backed Democrat Gov. Brian Schweitzer opposing the legislation, enactment of the law this year is an uphill battle. The silver lining is that a roll-call vote on the bills will give Montana citizens a right to exercise their rights in 2008. Stay tuned for the list of those who will stand for freedom and those who will protect coercion.

Statehouse Democrats in Iowa seem ready to move against the state’s Right to Work Law. According to an article by Chris Dorsey of IowaPolitics.com, “Assistant Senate Minority Leader Jeff Angelo, R-Creston, said Friday [January 26, 2007] at a meeting with community leaders in Osceola that such a bill could be introduced in the Senate Business and Labor Committee later next week.”

The proposal will likely include language, which would require non-union workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. No matter what the politicians call it –it is destroying Iowa’s Right to Work Law.

“‘We say we are a Right to Work state and that has brought jobs here,’ Angelo said. He added tinkering with a law that has been on the Iowa books since the 1940s is not a good policy.

“Assistant House Majority Leader Mike Reasoner, D-Creston, said he has heard talk of a proposed bill, but didn’t know any particulars of the language. With Democrats in control of the Legislature and governor’s office for the first time since 1964 there is a sense of enthusiasm among Democrats to take an active leadership role, Reasoner said.

“‘There are folks, labor unions, who think with Democrats in control that it is time to do something,’ Reasoner said. ‘There is no bill out there, but a bill could come down soon. Right now, I would be hard pressed to repeal the right to work law.’”

Contact your representatives immediately and tell them — Don’t Touch Iowa’s Right to Work Law!

(Since penning this article, Big Labor’s bill, S.S.B. 1120, to gut Iowa’s Right to Work Law was introduced in the Iowa General Assembly.)

In any election, the truth tends to get lost in the mud. But the truth behind the charge and countercharge in the contest for President of Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers needs to be cleaned off for a thorough examination.

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, a condition of working for Local 150 of “one of Illinois’ most politically powerful unions, was giving the boss $100 a month . . . .”

Reportedly, six members of Local 150 filed a lawsuit in federal court January 17, alleging that current President and Business Manager, William Dugan, ran a salary kickback scheme. The Tribune article continued, “The suit alleges that Dugan for 15 years has demanded that his more than 125 employees make $100 monthly payments” to a fund he “euphemistically referred to as contributions to his ‘Christmas Fund.’” It appears, “the alleged payments were kickbacks to Dugan . . . .”

Dugan denied any wrongdoing, and charged his opponent in the race for president, Local 150 Treasurer, Joe Ward, of “sabotage[ing] a union land-buy so he could secretly make his own profit and that he illegally gave local members’ names and numbers to a telemarketing company.”

If either charge is true, Local 150 is being run by at least one corrupt official.

Local 150 is “one of [Illinois’] top cash contributors and suppliers of foot soldiers for political campaigns . . .” and has “22,000 members — workers who operate heavy machinery at construction sites” in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

When Big Labor Bosses have the “sole power to hire, fire, and set salaries,” backed up by the federally granted power to have workers fired for failure to pay union dues or fees, the situation is ripe for abuse.

It will be interesting to find out who is telling the truth in this case. But with U.S. District Judge John Grady ruling the Dugan suit could not yet proceed because “federal law requires the union”, in this case Dugan or someone he hires, “get first shot at addressing such allegations,” the possibility looks more and more remote.

[UPDATE: According to a February 29, 2008 e-mail from Joe Ward, all charges against Mr. Ward were dropped on February 22, 2008.]

According to a Newsline article, a U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York judge, on December 20, “sentenced former Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 91 president Mark Congi to 15 years in federal prison for racketeering conspiracy.

“In August 2006, Congi and three other former Local 91 officials abruptly entered guilty pleas in the middle of their trial on racketeering and extortion charges. The trial followed a lengthy federal investigation of the 700-member union. A total of 20 Local 91 officers and members have been prosecuted as a result of the investigation. They were accused of using verbal and physical intimidation and property destruction to force contractors and owners to employ the union’s members.

“According to a Dec. 21 article in the Tonawanda News, Congi headed a ‘Goon Squad’ of Local 91 members who were ‘prepared to engage in acts of violence and property destruction against non-union contractors and even members of other unions.’

“The New York Times also reported last August that four Local 91 members — acting on the order of Congi — threw two bricks taped with explosives through the window of an apartment housing four non-union craftworkers. One craftworker suffered permanent hearing loss as a result of the attack.”

While this prosecution is welcome news, there is work left to be done in this area. Under a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, union officials are exempt from federal prosecution for “acts of violence used to achieve legitimate union objectives.”

Several members of Congress have tried over the years to correct this outrage with amendments to the Hobbs Act, but, Big Labor operatives in Washington have kept the special privilege alive and well.

The New York Times reported that the former manager of a pension fund for New York City’s main union of school bus drivers, who pleaded guilty last August to obstructing justice, was sentenced yesterday to five months in prison and five months of home confinement. Judge Kimba Wood of Federal District Court sentenced the former manager, Ann Chiarovano. The union, Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, has been placed in trusteeship, and Salvatore Battaglia, its president, is going on trial on charges of extortion, bribery and cooperating with the Genovese crime family.

This week, the National Right to Work Foundation attorneys are heading to court — the Supreme Court — to protect people like Gary Davenport and a group of 4000 teachers from Washington State who do not want to be forced to join a union or pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment.

At issue is whether the teacher union bosses must allow independent-minded teachers to say “yes” before union fees, collected as a condition of employment, can be used for political causes or whether teachers must specifically object to having a portion of the fees spent for that purpose. Independent observers say a ruling in the union’s favor could open the door to union officials’ efforts elsewhere to roll back limits on the use of dues.

The case and another being heard along with it are Gary Davenport v. Washington Education Association, 05-1589, and Washington v. Washington Education Association, 05-1657. Davenport said he is proud to be the lead plaintiff on the case because he wants to give other teachers a voice and a choice about how their money is spent.

“This has been going on and will continue to go on to those teachers who don’t have a voice,” said Davenport, 32. “They really don’t have an opportunity to defend themselves or protect their own money. They’ve kind of been bullied by the unions.”

Davenport and the four other named plaintiffs are receiving free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (www.nrtw.org).

According to the Associated Press, two “national maritime union bosses accused of spending organizational funds on personal luxuries, including a bachelor party, have been convicted of corruption charges.”

Michael and Robert McKay were found guilty Friday of racketeering conspiracy and several lesser charges stemming from their time as president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of American Maritime Officers.

“In addition to the racketeering charge, which carries a possible 20-year sentence, Michael McKay, 59, and Robert McKay, 56, were convicted of mail fraud and record-keeping offenses. Robert McKay . . . was also convicted of embezzlement.”

Reportedly, the brothers “used the union to pay for personal luxuries such as a bachelor party and repairs for a dive boat.”

Labor laws prohibit convicted felons from holding union office. Yet, during a trial so clear cut that the jury reached a verdict after only one day of deliberation, Michael McKay was narrowly re-elected president.

McClatchy Newspapers report that “President Bush’s hopes of securing a comprehensive immigration overhaul have brightened considerably in the new Democratic-controlled Congress, but resistance from organized labor - one of the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituencies - could complicate those efforts.”

As our readers know, the bosses of the AFL-CIO support amnesty for the 12 million illegal aliens currently in the United States and oppose a temporary guest worker program, a key element of Bush’s immigration plan.

The divisions within organized labor were evident during the contentious debate over immigration in the previous Congress. But they take on heightened significance as Democrats assume control of the 110th Congress and begin shaping the legislative agenda.

Recognizing the obvious, the story says “Organized labor is a bedrock of the Democratic coalition and helped drive Democrats’ takeover of Congress in November’s elections.”

Organized Labor political action committees contributed nearly 90 percent of their donations to Democratic candidates, a total of $42 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. But these are just the reported expenditures. The Center doesn’t count the unreported expenditures.

Union consultant Jon Tasini has admitted that union bosses’ mostly forced dues-funded unreported expenditures on “internal political mobilization” are “seven to 10 times” greater than “what they give candidates and parties.”

Needless to say, it is BIG money.

Translation: Amnesty is high up on the Democrat immigration agenda.

With the legislature convening next week, Iowans are preparing for a frontal assault on its worker protections afforded by the state’s Right to Work Law.

Governor-elect Chet Culver has vowed to sign into law any forced-unionism legislation that reaches his desk and Big Labor is pressing the Democrat House and Senate to give him an opportunity. As readers know, workers in states without Right to Work protections can be fired if they don’t pay union dues or fees.

Just the threat of changing the law is already having an impact on jobs in the state. House Minority Leader Christopher Rants said that efforts to repeal or modify Iowa’s Right to Work Law could drive away at least one prospective employer looking to expand in Sioux City.

According to the Sioux City Journal, “Rants said he has been asked not to divulge details about the company that local officials are courting. In a meeting with the Quad-City Times editorial board Tuesday, the Republican House leader described the company as a ‘hot prospect’ that ‘definitely would go away if Iowa no longer is a right-to-work state.’

“‘I have been told that it’s a company that is very interested in whether or not Iowa is a right-to-work state,’ Rants said in an interview later in the day with the Journal. ‘They’re not looking to expand in places that aren’t.’”