Right to Work Blog

The Arkansas News recognizes that the President’s nomination of Craig Becker is a “bad pick.”

The following U.S. Senators co-sponsored a cloture vote to end debate on Big Labor Lawyer:

Harry Reid, Roland W. Burris, Tom Harkin, Debbie Stabenow, Dianne Feinstein, Benjamin L. Cardin, Bill Nelson, Al Franken, Barbara Boxer, Amy Klobuchar, Mark Begich, Byron L. Dorgan, John D. Rockefeller IV, Edward E. Kaufman, Daniel K. Akaka, Sheldon Whitehouse, Sherrod Brown.

Please contact your Senators today and tell them to vote NO on cloture and NO on SEIU/AFL-CIO* union lawyer Craig Becker’s confirmation to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

*SEIU = Service Employees International Union AFL-CIO = American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations labor union

The Washington Examiner catches the Senate rushing pro-labor agenda items to the floor before Senator-Elect Scott Brown is sworn into the esteemed body:

… the Senate is again trying to perform as many favors for Big Labor as it can before newly elected Republican Senator Scott Brown is seated and Democrats lose their supermajority. Senate Democrats are now trying to rush through the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker would be the first union-employed lawyer to be confirmed by the Senate to the NLRB and is very cozy with and has received many paychecks from big politically active unions like the SEIU and AFL-CIO.

The National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) released its first Obama Personnel Alert of 2010 exposing the ongoing failure of President Obama’s ethics pledge and executive order as it relates to ethics and transparency in his administration.  According to NRTWC research, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and several other top-level political appointees at Department of Labor (DOL) made up their own rules ignoring the President’s ethics executive order.

Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary Michael Kerr, and Assistant Secretary Jane Oates are other known DOL appointees who gave themselves ethics waivers.  Without public disclosure of the ethics pledges, it is impossible to determine if this self-administering of ethics waivers is Department-wide or even Obama Administration-wide.

Big Labor DOL insiders gave themselves personal exemptions from President Obama’s January 21, 2009 ethics Executive Order 13490 two-year ban from activity on behalf of former

Obama has filled DOL with Big Labor operatives and former union officials, and these insiders have wasted little time rolling back financial disclosure for union bosses, handing out multimillion dollar grants and contracts to Big Labor, and turning DOL enforcement into an arm of Big Labor’s forced-unionism organizing machine.

Top DOL officials have at least made a mockery of and worst completely violated the President’s executive order by cutting in half Obama’s ordered two-year moratorium.  It appears that the President has already lost control of the union operatives inside his own Administration.  But what can Obama do when he owes so much to Big Labor Bosses and the forced union dues they anted up for his election?

Congress and the Justice Department ought to investigate the Office of Government Ethics failure to enforce the Ethics Executive Order 13490 documented violations.

With all that is disclosed in the NRTWC report, there should be increasing pressure for Congress to investigate the Obama Administration’s repeal of several financial disclosures that include the proposed repealing of conflict-of-interest disclosures for Big Labor officials.

It looks like the Labor Department is the tail wagging the Administration dog.

NRTWC OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PERSONNEL ALERT: U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Lucia Solis –

From the the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation:

Union Watchdog Files Second Disclosure Request to Investigate Obama Labor Department Stonewalling

Media report indicates Department of Labor officials are “in a tizzy and freaking out” over federal lawsuit

Washington, D.C. (December 2, 2009) – The National Right to Work Foundation has filed new disclosure demands on the heels of its lawsuit to compel the Department of Labor (DOL) to release information related to high-ranking officials’ connections to powerful union lobbying interests.

A media report indicates DOL officials have deliberately ignored disclosure laws, and Right to Work attorneys are seeking internal DOL records backing up the report.

National Right to Work originally lodged a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last April citing concerns about Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who previously held a key leadership position at the Big Labor-front group “American Rights at Work,” and Deborah Greenfield, who was a lawyer for the AFL-CIO involved in a lawsuit challenging DOL union disclosure regulations that she now oversees as an Administration appointee.

For the last seven months, the Obama Administration has stonewalled the Foundation’s FOIA request seeking disclosure of the high-ranking DOL officials’ contacts with union operatives. Late last month, Right to Work attorneys filed suit in federal court to force the Obama Administration to fulfill its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

Subsequent media coverage [Mark Hemingway in the Washington Examiner] has revealed DOL officials apparently decided to ignore the Foundation’s FOIA request, but facing the lawsuit and negative publicity is now reconsidering. Additionally, one media report cited a high-placed source stating that panicked DOL officials “are in a tizzy and freaking out” because of the Foundation’s lawsuit.

Today, Foundation attorneys filed another FOIA request this time for the DOL’s search plan and interoffice communications – including emails, meeting minutes, notes, and other interoffice correspondence – relating to the initial FOIA request.

“President Obama’s widely-touted promise of unparalleled transparency has been met with unparalleled secrecy,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The Department of Labor’s deliberate stonewalling is unsettling. It suggests the administration is hiding damaging information about whether Hilda Solis and Deborah Greenfield are coordinating their activities with pro-compulsory unionism extremists.”

“Giving Big Labor undue influence over the Department’s rule-making and administrative oversight is a slap in the face of America’s independent-minded workers. The public deserves to know about any collusion between this administration and Big Labor bosses.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, is assisting thousands of employees in over 200 cases nationwide. Its web address is http://www.nrtw.org/.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is trying to get a straight answer from Obama Administration appointee Errol Southers but so far Southers refuses to answer a simple question from the Senator.

 Southers has been appointed to head the Transportation Security Administration but DeMint refuses to allow him to take his appointment unless he tells the Senator whether he will reverse current policy and support efforts to put unionization rules ahead of security policy.

 The Washington Times reports that Southers is “ducking questions” about changes that could “Jeopordize national security by imposing union work rules that could hamstring the government’s ability to quickly adapt to evolving terrorist threats. 

“It’s very simple. Giving union bosses control over security at our nation’s airports is dangerous and will harm our ability to respond to serious threats,” Mr. DeMint said. “If President Obama’s nominee will not commit to putting homeland security above the whims of union bosses, it should give everyone serious concern.” 

Mr. Southers, assistant chief in charge of security and intelligence at the Los Angeles airport’s police department, pledged he would not support any policy that compromised security. But he has avoided giving the “yes or no” answer Mr. DeMint wanted on the union question.

It’s a simple question and DeMint deserves an answer.

The National Right To Work Committee’s own Greg Mourad appeared on Breitbart TV’s The B-Cast: GOP Readies for Face-Off Over Obama’s NLRB Nominee.  Greg explained how dangerous Big Labor lawyer Craig Becker can be for worker freedoms should he gain a seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  Becker believes the only choice workers need is the choice between which union gets to force workers to pay dues.  Breitbart TV included the Committee’s Becker Alert video.  Watch the entire interview below. (Click here to download The National Right To Work Committee’s Becker Alert including financials.)

The problems with the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board are laid out in the Washington Times. The former AFL-CIO and SEIU lawyer will be a push button advocate of forced unionism, and as his history shows, he will try to force non-union members to pay tribute to union bosses.  (NRTW Committee’s Becker Alert)

Big Labor supported Obama nominee for Solicitor of Labor, Patricia Smith, will have to wait before she is confirmed.  Based on her “lack of candor” and the results of the U.S. Senate committee’s investigation, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) intends to place a hold on Smith’s nomination.  Smith’s testimony conflicted with records from the Big Labor – NY State partnership that she created.  Her program called New York Wage Watch jointly targeted non-union employers, essentially deputizing union officials.  Sen. Enzi’s full release below:

 

Enzi Stands Firm in Opposition to Solicitor Nominee

HELP Ranking Member Will Hold Smith Nomination on Senate Floor

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee met today to consider four White House nominees, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the Committee’s Ranking Member, maintained his opposition to Patricia Smith, the Administration’s choice to serve as Solicitor at the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

“The nomination of Patricia Smith to be Solicitor of Labor brings me great concern,” said Enzi. “Her lack of candor during her hearing and responses to subsequent questions posed by the Committee has resulted in a lack of confidence regarding her ability to effectively run the Solicitor’s office. This breach of our trust cannot be brushed aside by claiming the questions involve a pilot program or that the responsibility rests solely with her Deputy.”

Enzi intends to place a hold on Smith’s nomination as it heads to the Senate floor following Committee passage and led the Republican members of the Committee in unanimously voicing concern over Smith’s nomination earlier this week.

Enzi supported White House Labor Department nominees Joseph Main and William Spriggs to be Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health and Assistant Secretary for Policy respectively and noted his support for all 32 prior White House nominees considered by the HELP Committee this year.

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U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee
COMMITTEE WEBSITE | SENATOR ENZI’S OFFICE

Despite claims of ignorance from the president about his knowledge of ACORN and their ethical problems, the White House’s own political affairs director has links to the SEIU and ACORN.  Patrick Gaspard was a registered lobbyist for the SEIU and was employed by ACORN.