Big Labor Ethics

Michelle Malkin: Obama’s Big Labor ethics loophole

On August 18, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Michelle Malkin highlights the non-existent ethical standards applied to Obama Big Labor politcal appointees like SEIU/AFL-CIO lawyer Craig Becker who Obama appointed to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):

Everything you need to know about President Obama’s fraudulent ethics pledge can be summed up in four words: SEIU lawyer Craig Becker.

It’s no surprise that Becker now refuses to hold himself accountable for the ethics pledge he himself signed in April. As the past two years have taught us, Team Obama’s operational slogan is: Rules are for fools. The contractual ethics commitment states: “I will not for a period of two years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.” Yet, Becker has participated in numerous NLRB cases involving the SEIU and its affiliates — and is parsing the definition of “former employer” by arguing that local SEIU chapters are “separate and distinct legal entities” that don’t fall under the ethics rules.

The National Right to Work Foundation, which has fought both national and local SEIU officials in court on behalf of rank-and-file workers’ rights, eviscerates Becker’s lawyerly blather. SEIU’s own constitution considers local affiliates “constituent subordinate bodies” of the national union, the foundation notes. “Moreover, in 2009 over 85 percent of the SEIU’s receipts came from a per capita tax on the locals’ membership dues and fees. The national union even has the power to assume control over its locals if they do not conform to International policies.” (more…)

Washington Post: State Worker Bailout Motivated by Politics

On August 10, 2010, By NRTWC Staff

The Washington Post argues that Washington bailouts for state union workers reinforces dependency on the feds and is a political handout to their Big Labor constituency. It’s not often we agree with the Post but in this case they are right:

TO GOVERN is to choose, and nothing lays bare a government’s true priorities like the choices it makes about spending taxpayers’ money. In that regard, the Senate’s decision to spend $10 billion on education jobs this week is revealing — and deeply discouraging.

The crusade for an education jobs bill, led by the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress, has always struck us as more of an election-year favor for teachers unions than an optimal use of public resources. Billed as an effort to stimulate the economy, it’s not clearly more effective than alternative uses of the cash. Yes, school budgets are tight across the country, but the teacher layoff “crisis” is exaggerated. In fact, as happens each year, many teachers who got pink slips in the spring have been notified that they’ll be hired after all. Many layoffs could have been — and indeed have been — avoided by modest union concessions.

As of last school year, the money for 5.5 percent of the 6 million K-12 jobs nationwide came from Washington through the 2009 stimulus; the new money reinforces this dangerous dependency. (more…)

Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, Big Labor Payback, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employees

Dangers of Project Labor Agreements

On August 10, 2010, By NRTWC Staff

A political appointee of Ohio governor Ted Strickland (D-OH) has strong-armed local school boards in “arm-twisting sessions” to give contracts to big labor unions. Ohio School Facilities Commission chief Richard Murray pushed Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s) which would result in $37 million in payments to a union he belongs to. Strickland changed state rules to impose PLA’s on local school boards, something his opponent John Kasich promises to repeal. The Murray scandal should be exhibit one on why Project Labor Agreements are a bad idea.

Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, Ohio, PLA

AFL-CIO Boss Trumka’s Lame Duck Threat

On August 9, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Remember the words: lame duck session.

If Republicans win the House or Senate, big labor will call in their final chit and demand passage of the Card Check Forced Unionism bill and Boss Trumka isn’t denying it:

On the C-SPAN “Newsmakers” show he was asked whether the Employee Free Choice Act will be considered in Congress this year.Trumka said: “I think you’ll see the Employee Free Choice Act come up again. I think you’ll see it probably before the end of the year. Before the elections or in a lameduck session? Trumka: “Either one.”

Tagged with: C-Span • Card Check • EFCA • Lame Duck Session • Trumka
Posted in: AFL-CIO, Big Labor Ethics, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Legislation

Coincidence? Billion $$$ Bailout – Revved Up Political Activity

On August 9, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

Some dare call it a coincidence.

The same day that House Democrats return to Washington to hand state and teacher union bosses a $26 billion bailout, teacher’s union announces a “plan to rev up recess action to protect Democrats’ majority.” See what $26 billion dollars can buy you?

A coincidence — surely not.

Don’t forget that out of the estimated 3.3 million public school teachers nationwide, teachers unions were expecting about 160,000 layoffs this year — just 4.8 percent of all teachers. 38.1 percent of those layoffs are centered in just three states: 9,000 in New Jersey, 16,000 in New York and 36,000 in California. About 57 percent of those 160,000 teachers are unionized as noted by the Heritage Foundation, with contributions to state and local unions averaging $300 per teacher. Add another $162 per teacher to the National Education Association and $190 per teacher to the American Federation of Teachers, as reported by Education Next, and the Senate easily has voted to give a minimum $40 million to the public teachers unions’ political coffers. That money will be mobilized into campaign ads, direct mail, phone banks, you name it, all to help elect Democrats.

Tagged with: AFT • bailout • NEA
Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, Economic Impact of Unionization, Economics, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Legislation, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employees

Obama: In the tank for Big Labor

On July 23, 2010, By NRTWC Staff

Without fear of stating the obvious, the Weekly Standard looks at how the Obama Administration have given labor union bosses the keys to the White House.

Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, Big Labor Payback, Obama Administration

Sleeping on the Job: A Story of Big Labor’s Monopoly Power

On July 15, 2010, By NRTWC Staff

This is almost too much to believe but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true:

Last week the NY Post ran a story about two late-shift, unionized public employees sleeping on the job. According to the Post, “(S)leeping workers are a familiar nighttime sight along the streets of NoHo and SoHo around the Angelika theater, which is next to the transit crew entrance.” And what do these arrogant deadbeats get paid for shirking their responsibilities? $33-an-hour.

I’d like to tell you that this story is a new development — but it’s not. Two years ago a supervisor and a mechanic were caught sleeping in a locked office at the same facility by the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Inspector General’s Office, which conducted a surprise raid. The same supervisor was discovered to have been moonlighting as an electrician for 20 years — and ordering a subordinate to falsify his hours. A clear-cut firing offense? The MTA reportedly tried, but union work rules required an arbitration process.

The man received a 30-day suspension as his “punishment.”

Outrageous? Here’s the most damnable part of the story: when the NY Post looked in workers’ cars parked near the facility, “several” of them “had pillows and blankets on the back seats.”

Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, New York, Union Work Rules, Union boss power

Teacher’s Union Bailout Stuffed Into Troop Spending Bill

On July 15, 2010, By NRTWC Staff

After unsuccessfully trying to spend $23 billion for a teacher’s union bailout, Nancy Pelosi and her big labor allies in Congress have attached a smaller bailout – $10 billion – to a war spending bill to pay for our troops in Afghanistan Putting pork barrel bailout money in a war spending bill is an insult to our troops.

Tagged with: Teacher Unions
Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Union boss power

Union Lawyer Admits Forced Unionism is the Goal

On July 14, 2010, By NRTWC Staff

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation was in court this week in Michigan defending home-based day care workers from the threat of forced unionism. During the course of discussion with the judge, a lawyer for big labor admitted the effort was a “slippery slope” for forcing people into unions. Under the union lawyer’s theory, anyone who takes a subsidy from the state, including Medicare or perhaps even Social Security, could be unionized. It’s an amazing admission and likely a peek into the future of Big Labor’s union organizing strategy. As union bosses help drive jobs overseas, they will have to be looking for other areas to coerce people into monopolyt unions.

Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, Forced Dues, Forced-Unionism Abuses Exposed, Michigan, NRTWLDF

Big Labor White House Insider Flouts Financial Disclosure Rules

On July 14, 2010, By NRTW Committee Staff

BigGovernment.com reports that Big Labor White House insider Patrick Gaspard (SEIU-ACORN) has failed to accurately report his financials on at least two occasions. Administration officials continue to mock President Obama’s proclaimed high ethical standards:

Has Congressman Darrell Issa’s request that White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard explain his failure to report a $37,000 payment from his previous employer SEIU Local 1199 evolved into a cover-up? It’s beginning to smell like it!

Rep. Issa’s request refers to the same Patrick Gaspard who while working for a Soros-SEIU political committee employed convicted felons to go door-to-door. In fact, that same Soros-SEIU committee received one of the steepest fines in Federal Election Commission history ($750,000) because its leadership, in Machiavellian fashion, chose to ignore federal laws and take the risk of paying fines if caught. So, ignoring a few pesky public disclosure laws is not as unlikely as it may sound.

Questions:

How did Gaspard work six days in January for SEIU 1199 ^h while simultaneously working for the “office of the President-Elect” during “January 1-16” of 2009?

How did Gaspard earn, in those six days of work for SEIU 1199, “$17,238.56 [of] carried over leave & vacation,” in particular, after apparently having already been paid 2.5 to 4 months vacation pay in 2008?

How did Gaspard earn a 9 week severance payout from an employer (SEIU 1199)? According to available SEIU 1199 financial reports (2000-2009), Gaspard was not paid by SEIU 1199 in years 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004. For the year 2001, SEIU 1199 paid Gaspard only $3,723. It appears that in at least 5 of the 9 years Gaspard was not on the payroll or worked only a week or two.

An investigation by the House Oversight Committee is warranted. Unfortunately with (more…)

Tagged with: Patrick Gaspard
Posted in: ACORN, Big Labor Ethics, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Legislation, Obama Administration, Political Activity, Public Employees, SEIU