Right to Work Blog

Saul Anuzi gives a short history lesson about the brutal history of big labor in Michigan:

The reason that the great American tradition of making cars in my home state has now gone belly up is due in large part to the irrational and unreasonable demands made by UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger, former UAW chief Frank Garrison, and the union leaders that came before them. And the rest of it lies with the management of the Big 3 who made promises they knew they couldn’t keep, and the politicians who continued to enable this to happen.

The left-wing website Indy Media notes that the SEIU has undertaken “violent shock and awe tactics.” The accusations of violence come from another union — the National Union of Healthcare Workers — who are seeking to divorce themselves from the SEIU.

Last week Minnesota radio talk show host and occasional guest host for the Rush Limbaugh Show, Jason Lewis discussed forced unionism and worker freedoms with National Right To Work President Mark Mix. The Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has the episode available on its site, link here.

The Hill reports Sen. Specter will feel “liberated” to support union boss demands on labor law changes that tilt the playing field in favor of the union bosses and Sen. Majority Leader Reid suggests a new iteration of the Card Check Forced Unionism bill will earn Specter’s key vote. 

Contact your Senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them there is no compromise on forced unionism: Vote NO on S.560

National Right to Work Foundation attorneys filed suit in United States District Court for an employee forced to pay unjustifiable fees by Teamsters officials at a Luzerne County government office.  See the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation’s release.

“Giving union officials free reign to deduct money from workers’ paychecks is an open invitation to abuse,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Enacting a Pennsylvania Right to Work law to make union dues fully voluntary is the only way to ensure employees are protected from avaricious union bosses.”

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.