Right to Work Blog

We expect big labor bosses will seek a bailout for their underfunded pension funds, but the UAW is seeking another bailout of sorts. As owners of a lavish golf club in Michigan the UAW is asking the township where the course is located for a lower tax rate — taking money right from the schools in the district.  As the Detroit News has noted, the course is a money loser for the union and is kept afloat from loans from the union’s strike funds.  Seems like workers in the UAW wish they had a mulligan on this boondoggle.

According to AFL-CIO spokesman Marty Marks, a vote in the Senate on the Forced Unionism Card Check bill is “imminent.”  ”Everything has kind of been waiting on Al Franken being seated in Minnesota,” Marks said during a visit to Somerset, Massachusetts. “Once that happens things are going to move pretty quickly.”

Interestingly, Marks also said that Sen. Arlene Specter’s vote was being counted upon to get the requisite 60 votes.  “He’s part of our formula for 60 votes. We believe he’s going to come through,” Marks said of the Pennsylvania legislator.

A decision to force the seating of Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken to the US Senate is “a critical step toward passing” the Card Check Forced Unionism bill AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney said.

Every year economist Ronald Pollina studies the economic environment of all 50 states and culls the information into a list of the “Top 10 Pro-Business States.” Pollina has just completed his 2009 study and the winners are:

1. Virginia

2. Utah

3. North Carolina

4. Wyoming

5. South Carolina

6. South Dakota

7. Kansas

8. Georgia

9. Florida

10. Nebraska

Readers please note that all 10 states have a critical component in common — they all protect workers with Right to Work laws.

As big labor tries to grind out 60 votes on the Card Check Forced Unionism bill, it is critical to note that the two Democrat Senators from Montana have yet to stake out an official position.  If you live in the state, please let your Senators know of your opposition to forced unionism.  From the Missoulian:

Although Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester co-sponsored the 2007 bill, they are not tipping their hands on how they will vote on the 2009 version. 

“It would be very hard to support the bill in its current form, but that is why I’m working with my colleagues in the Senate to bring some common-sense modifications to the bill to make sure it balances workers’ interests with small-business interests,” Baucus said.

Baucus went on to say that any legislation that passes “must be good for both Montana workers and Montana small business owners.”

Forced Unionism is not good for workers or small business people Senator!

Tester also wouldn’t say what he how he intends to vote.

Lawyers representing the the big labor National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over financial ties between Bank of America and the Washington, D.C.-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that may be gross violations of federal labor laws. 

The charges allege that Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, whose 234,000 employees SEIU has taken steps to force into a union, offered SEIU at least $88 million in prohibited financial support in the form of loans. Federal law bars loans, gifts and other financial ties between employers and unions attempting to organize their employees. Unions that take money from the companies whose workers they seek to represent are considered “employer-dominated unions.”

Mark Silverman is the Editor of the Tennessean.  But in a previous career, he was a newspaper reporter in Michigan covering the Big Three, the UAW and their interaction with the politicians in Michigan.  Recently, GM demanded that states pay up to $200 million in taxpayer money to GM or they would close plants.  The Democrat governor of Tennessee is rightfully balking.  Decisions on plant closures should be made on questions of profitability and efficiency, not payoffs and subsidies.  But that is the they way they have done it in Michigan for decades — with the help of big labor.  In an insightful piece, Silverman notes the power the UAW has over Michigan elected officials and how that influence helped kill the American car industry.  You can read it here.

Sean Harrigan, a union boss with the United Food and Commercial Workers, is under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission, ProPublica reports.  

In a nutshell, it appears that financial firms showered nearly $1 million in political cash on the United Food and Commercial Workers union in California while Harrigan sat on the boards of big public pension funds in the state.  Harrigan’s union pulled about a third of the $3 million it raised from 2001 to 2006 from players in the financial industry. About $500,000 came from donors who had business dealings with CalPERS, then the nation’s biggest pension fund. Campaign contributions have figured in a wide-ranging investigation of pension fund kickbacks in New York, where Attorney General Andrew Cuomo issued an indictment naming several prominent investment firms that allegedly took part in a vast pay-to-play scheme.

Projo quote of the day:

“This was a big mistake by the Obama administration,” said Cochran. “In 77 years, never has not one federal official attended the mayors’ annual meeting.”