Right to Work Blog

Chicago’s Fran Eaton calls the effects of forced unionism as she sees it:

Just when that house begins to teeter is when the bullies really get mean and desperate. We’re seeing that now at the federal level. Unions want to strip away workers’ right to privacy when they vote on unionizing. The federal “Card Check” legislation will strip away secret balloting for workers.  

“OK, everyone who wants me to be in charge, raise your hands,” imagine the bully shouting on the playground with his trusted goons standing on either side.

Instead, union thugs hike demands and press taxpayers for more under the guise of better education for the kids and compassionate welfare for the state’s helpless. The Illinois Education Association and the Service Employees International Union then have the guts to use those confiscated tax dollars to run radio ads and demand more tax increases.

It gets worse.

In Illinois, only union workers can build bridges, schools or roads. While only 43 percent of Illinois construction workers are in unions, impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s Executive Order 13 made it impossible for non-union crews to bid on state-funded construction projects.

Recently, President Barack Obama signed a similar order for federally-funded plans.

It’s simply a choice between freedom and coercion, National Right to Work’s Mark Mix said Monday during a private meeting in Chicago. “We’re not against unions, we’re just for people being given the choice whether or not they want to belong,” Mix said. “Freedom always works best.”

Mix is an average-sized guy, and one who would surprise you for being gutsy enough to stir up the idea that union bullies should be challenged in Illinois. Mix is the type of guy you always admired for his backbone but who also made you feel a little ashamed you weren’t quite as brave.

Mix, though, has been part of several statewide victories over the past few years and thinks Illinois needs to challenge statewide union tyranny. Twenty-two states are now “Right to Work” states, including nearby Ohio and neighboring Iowa. Indiana is right on the verge of joining their ranks.

“When the cost of government is less, the cost of living is less, and companies find those states more desirable to build new businesses and bring in more jobs,” Mix said.

Another day, another SEIU (Service Employees International Union) scandal.

A high-ranking Midwest officer of the Service Employees International Union [SEIU], who had been serving as trustee of a financially troubled local, has resigned after being accused of billing the labor organization for $9,000 in personal expenses.

The Chicago-based Byron Hobbs, who also sat on the union’s national board, is the latest of several SEIU officials to lose their positions or otherwise come under scrutiny for alleged financial improprieties. Among them is Tyrone Freeman, former president of the union’s largest California local, who is the target of a federal criminal investigation.

None of these scandals have diminished the SEIU’s power in Washington, where their deep pockets trump their ethical lapses.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was preparing to issue an executive order prior to his arrest last week [December 9, 2008] that would have allowed union organizing of home-care workers that could have benefited a labor union with close ties to the governor.

The existence of this executive order, though never signed, illustrates the close ties between the embattled governor and the powerful Service Employees Internation union [SEIU], the nation’s fastest growing labor organization. Last week [December 2] , Gov. Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges, including that his office suggested a deal in which he would be given a job with an SEIU-affiliated group in exchange for naming a labor-friendly senator to fill the vacancy left by President-elect Barack Obama.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has released a new video. According to the Foundation’s release:

The Fox affiliate in Chicago investigated disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s corrupt relationship with the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU). We’ve got the video, which includes a clip from Foundation VP Stefan Gleason.

Click here to watch the entire report.

The website Pro Publica that offers “Journalism in the Public Interest” peeks behind the curtain and reveals a long co-dependent relationship between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

It’s not often the New York Times opens its eyes and gives its readers a headline like this — “Union Linked to Corruption Scandal.”

The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, has been arrested, and it’s no surprise that union activists appear to be involved in the scandal. On page 69 of the criminal complaint against the Governor, government pleadings mention discussions with an “SEIU [Service Employees International Union] Official” about appointments to the vacant Senate seat the governor is accused of attempting to sell to the highest bidder. Who was the union boss? Inquiring minds want to know.

On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke with SEIU Official, who was in Washington, D.C. Prior intercepted phone conversations indicate that approximately a week before this call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH met with SEIU Official to discuss the vacant Senate seat, and ROD BLAGOJEVICH understood that SEIU Official was an emissary to discuss Senate Candidate 1’s interest in the Senate seat. During the conversation with SEIU Official on November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH informed SEIU Official that he had heard the President-elect wanted persons other than Senate Candidate 1 to be considered for the Senate seat.

SEIU Official stated that he would find out if Senate Candidate 1 wanted SEIU Official to keep pushing her for Senator with ROD BLAGOJEVICH. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “one thing I’d be interested in” is a 501(c)(4) organization. ROD BLAGOJEVICH explained the 501(c)(4) idea to SEIU Official and said that the 501(c)(4) could help “our new Senator [Senate Candidate 1].” SEIU Official agreed to “put that flag up and see where it goes.”

110. On November 12, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with Advisor B. ROD BLAGOJEVICH told Advisor B that he told SEIU Official, “I said go back to [Senate Candidate 1], and, and say hey, look, if you still want to be a Senator don’t rule this out and then broach the idea of this 501(c)(4) with her.”

The controversial Card Check Scam Bill is causing a “quandary” for Barack Obama, according to his hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune.

Calling the bill one of the “thorniest issues his administration will face,” Obama is being squeezed between his union benefactors and the business community “which also contributed heavily to his campaign and his party and will be crucial to his efforts to fix the crippled economy and overhaul the health-care system.”

Frankly we are suspicious. There are no overt signs that Obama is backing away from the union bosses. Barry Broad, a Teamsters’ lobbyist, said: “Unions spoke with a nearly unanimous voice: This is their No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 priority in the next administration.” Obama and his Pro-Big Labor team know it.

Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman has found that the city’s unionized sanitation department is riddled with fraud and abuse of taxpayer monies.

The Sun Times reports:

Laborers and truck drivers whose movements were eyeballed and tracked by undercover investigators were found to be in bars and restaurants, relaxing at home, sitting in their cars or standing around drinking and, in one case, urinating on the street when they were supposed to be hard at work.

Of the 145 laborers whose daily movements were tracked, investigators “did not see a single laborer doing a full day’s work.” The worst ward had crews slacking off for an average of two hours, 28 minutes a day. In the best-performing ward, laborers were paid to do nothing for one hour, 38 minutes.”

Instead of expressing outrage over the abuse of taxpayer funds, Lou Phillips, an operative for the Laborers Union Local 1001 that represents the slacking workers complained about the report. Phillips puffed:

“Sounds a little bit like a witch hunt to me. They’re laying off 1,080 people. Over 300 are members of Local 1001. Read between the lines,” he said. . . .