Right to Work Blog

Thanks to John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, many people across the country are for the first time learning about how her state’s law authorizing union “exclusive” bargaining over public-safety and other government employees works in practice.

And it’s not a pretty picture.

So says Stan Greer, senior research associate for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, in an article published by The [DC] Examiner. Go here to read what he had to say.

According to the San Francisco Weekly:

[I]n the 1990s some $76 million was siphoned from union worker benefit funds under the influence of San Francisco labor boss Larry Mazzola. More than $50 million of that money was used to prop up Konocti Harbor Resort, a Lake County concert venue abutting and near more than 100 acres privately owned by Mazzola and his family.

Last year, Mazzola cut a deal with a real estate investment firm owned by Democratic Party lobbyist Darius Anderson in hopes of pulling political strings that might turn the resort into a much more valuable Indian gambling casino complex. While Mazzola, business manager of Plumbers union Local 38, and his agents were pursuing the gambling deal, Mazzola’s personal attorney attempted to re-zone Mazzola’s own land near the resort so that the entire area might become a condominium, housing, and commercial development with a gambling mecca at its core. Local opposition stalled the re-zoning and gambling plans. But had they succeeded, the escalation in property values could have personally enriched Mazzola by millions of dollars. And these schemes wouldn’t have even been conceivable had Konocti Harbor Resort not been kept afloat with vast amounts of money that was docked from workers’ pay.

By docking workers’ hourly pay to finance an ambiguously named “convalescent trust fund,” then causing $50 million to disappear into the worthless investment that was Konocti Harbor Resort, Mazzola and union officials under his control deprived workers of benefits money they paid for out of their own union dues. By attempting to leverage that “investment” in a way that would increase his own net worth, he was engaging in the sort of apparent attempted sweetheart dealing that gives union bosses a bad name.

Indeed! That’s $50 million in workers’ retirement funds that Mazzola is treating as his own personal candy store. And, since California doesn’t have a Right to Work law, these are workers that are also forced to pay dues and fees to Mazzola as a prerequisite for getting or keeping their jobs.

The Weekly continues:

Yet, appallingly, regulators will not punish Mazzola in any meaningful way. Despite years of federal investigations and lawsuits pertaining to the funds diversion, Mazzola is poised to get off without so much as a slap on the wrist. . . .

According to a new settlement agreement between Mazzola and the Labor Department described in court proceedings earlier this month, Mazzola emerges from a three-year legal ordeal stemming from the funds diversion allegations unscathed.

Mazzola won’t be removed from his union leadership role. And he will continue to help overseeing some union benefit money. As a concession Mazzola will be required to step down as a member of a board of trustees overseeing worker benefit funds, perhaps by the end of the year. Mazzola will be allowed to remain for two years on a board overseeing a worker training fund. And Mazzola’s son, Larry Jr., will be allowed to sit on the board of trustees overseeing the union local’s various pension and other benefit funds.

As part of the settlement, Larry Mazzola Jr. will be required to take a course on the concept of fiduciary duty.

WOW! Even understanding that the Department of Labor’s budget is now controlled by a Democratic majority beholden to Big Labor’s largess, the distinct odor coming from this decision is too obvious to ignore.

Union bosses will fight to the death to oppose giving workers the right to decide for themselves whether or not to join or pay dues to a union. After watching the Big Labor front group “American Rights at Work” trying to raise voluntary contributions, it’s no wonder.

American Rights at Work is a union funded front group that promotes Big Labor’s agenda. But it appears that their efforts to supplement union largess is falling on deaf ears. In an email to supporters, the group pleads for contributions to hit their $15,000 goal. In fact, response appears to be so slow that the deadline for contributions was “extended.” As of the last call for cash, the group only raised $13,905.

It’s no wonder the union bosses won’t relinquish their right to coerce workers into paying dues. It’s a lot easier than asking for it.

Dennis Seid of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal has a laugh at the expense of United Auto Workers (UAW) Boss Ron Gettelfinger’s recent offer to unionize Toyota’s employees:

. . . to help the world’s No. 2 automaker “continue to be a success.”

Uh, oh! It’s no wonder that Toyota isn’t exactly jumping for joy at the prospects. They’ve done just fine without the UAW, and probably don’t need the UAW to come to its “rescue.”

Consider what has befallen General Motors, Ford and Chrysler the past few years. The UAW has certainly helped them continue to be successful, hasn’t it?

The UAW, using their compulsory unionism power, has endangered the livelihoods of the very workers they claim to represent.

Seid sums it up, “Face it: The UAW has helped turn the domestic automakers into inefficient, bloated companies. It’s why they’re shedding plants, workers and brands.”

Connecticut state law bans public unions from organizing strikes or similar work stoppages that could interrupt normal functioning.

But when two Stamford police union officials were questioned about a statistically improbable absentee pattern over a nine day period during ongoing contract negotiations, one denied “orchestrating a sickout” while the other, union secretary Jessica Bloomberg, “took the Fifth on almost every question . . . ”

“Those questions included whether she or any other union officer had any role in organizing the sickout, and whether she mapped out which officers would call in sick or instructed officers when to skip work.”

The “alleged ‘blue flu’ started Nov. 28, when half the 26 patrol officers scheduled to work called in sick. Absences spiked over the next three days, with an average of 23 officers calling [in] sick, according to department records and statistics released by the city.”

Public employees are supposed to answer to the people and their duly elected public officials. Union officials represent a special interest group, and should not be allowed to hold the public hostage to their demands.

“Millions of people living in countries that belong to the United Nations work in abysmal, unsafe and inhumane conditions that most Americans can’t imagine and wouldn’t tolerate. Yet rather than focusing on these problems, the U.N.’s International Labor Office last week turned its attention to the hardships and deprivations suffered by one group of American workers – the beleaguered airport baggage screener,” writes the Orange County (California) Register.

Pointing out that the “American Federation of Government Employees – a union whose clout and membership grows as government grows” petitioned the U.N. – the U.N. ruled that 56,000 Transportation Security Administration baggage screeners should be forced into union collectives.

This probably surprised members of Congress, who prohibited the monopoly unionization of TSA workers when they passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, which federalized airport security for several reasons, most notably – national security.

“The U.N. edict is unenforceable, thankfully, as are most handed down by the world body. At least for the time being, Americans still make U.S. labor law. But it’s typical of the U.N. to point an accusing finger at the United States for our alleged rights violations, while situations far worse prevail in most U.N.-member countries.

The U.N. evidently hopes the sheer weight of its ‘moral authority’ . . . will give a lift to AFGE’s relentless push to forcibly unionize TSA workers. But most Americans understand that handing over federal airport screeners to big labor bosses would be a disaster, for fiscal and security reasons. ‘Given the critical national security mission of our security officers, collective bargaining is not appropriate,’ said TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser.”

Let’s see whether the new Congress puts U.S. national security before U.N. dictates and Union demands when this issue is addressed. Mark us down as pessimistic.

The effort to defend and restore worker’s rights is often won incrementally in state legislatures and courthouses across America. The National Right to Work Committee and its sister organization, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, fight to protect workers from the injustice of forced unionism wherever and whenever workers need protection. Workers in Phoenix, Arizona won’t be coerced to pay union dues, thanks in part to the effort of the National Right to Work Foundation.

Determined to undermine AZ’s Right to Work statue, local 2384 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the AFL-CIO argued that the city should deduct a percentage of dues, perhaps up to 80%, from the paychecks of non-union members “since the union was working for all the employees in the “bargaining unit,” regardless of membership. The city of Phoenix, to its credit, refused to insert this outrageous demand into its contract with the union.

The matter ended up in court where a judge ruled in the city’s favor. Refusing to take “no” for an answer, the local Bosses appealed the decision, and the State Court of Appeals concluded just last week that the proposals were “impermissible under Arizona’s constitution and right to work statues.”

Judge Lawrence Winthrop, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, said the concept, known as so-called “fair share,” better called forced fees, would violate the constitution. He said the “clear intent” of voters in approving the Right to Work amendment “was to ensure the freedom of workers to choose whether to join and participate in a union.”

“Allowing the proposed ‘fair share’ fee would be contrary to the intent voiced by Arizona citizens because it would essentially render meaningless the distinction between union membership and non-membership,” Winthrop explained. “Nonmembers would be forced to contribute to, and thus support, the union.”

Union officials crying over the loss could fix the problem in a “New York Minute” – by only representing those workers who voluntarily ask for help. When presented with this option, it is the union elite who slam the table and threaten political death to politicians who might help. They know the secret to their monopoly power is very simple: force workers under their monopoly control and then complain about the burden and ask for relief (forced payment of union dues or fees as a condition of employment).

Not this time and not in Arizona.

Chalk one up for the good guys.

Time magazine this week features a glowing profile of Congressman Harold Ford (D-TN) and his quest to replace Bill Frist (R), who is not running for reelection, in the United States Senate. Tennessee AFL-CIO Labor Council Boss Jerry Lee is quoted in the story as saying, “Harold Ford, Jr. is the most exciting candidate I’ve seen since John F. Kennedy.”

Ford is exciting to the union bosses for obvious reasons — he would be a rubber stamp for their congressional agenda, and the thought of Ford supporting more forced unionism in the Senate is enough to make their hearts race at a pace that even heart doctor Frist could not slow.

Tennessee has a proud tradition of honoring its working men and women by passing and protecting its state Right to Work law, but Jerry Lee and Harold Ford have their hearts set on changing that.

Not only does Ford oppose Right to Work, he is a cosponsor of H.R. 1696, Big Labor’s “Card Check” scheme.

H.R. 1696 empowers union bosses to force employees to accept a union as their exclusive bargaining agent solely through the acquisition of signed authorization cards from employees in a particular bargaining unit.

Workers lose all their privacy rights under the scheme as they will be forced to sign the cards under the watchful eyes of union organizers. No more secret ballot. No more workplace democracy. That suits Big Labor and Harold Ford just fine.

By the way, it was JFK who, back in 1962, signed Executive Order 10988 granting government union bosses the privilege of monopoly representation over public employees. Since then, union officials have used the privilege, once thought “unconscionable” by President Franklin Roosevelt and then AFL-CIO boss George Meany, to grab control over almost 40% of public employees across the country.