Warrant Issued for SEIU Organizers

From Media Trackers:

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf issued a search warrant for Florida SEIU organizer Clarence Haynes declaring there is “probable cause that Mr. H [Clarence Haynes] voted without the proper qualifications as an elector when he cast a ballot on April 5, 2011.”

Documents exclusively obtained by Media Trackers revealed that Clarence Haynes, along with two other out-of-state SEIU organizers, voted using the address of a Residence Inn in Glendale in the April 5, 2011 spring election. Media Trackers first uncovered these individuals on October 26, 2011, prompting Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf to investigate the matter.

The gentlemen all share a common affiliation with the Service Employee International Union. Media Trackers first uncovered from SEIU documents that Haynes was listed as a “Senior Organizer in Training” and was previously registered as an SEIU employee in Florida. Haynes’ phone number on his Wisconsin election day registration form listed a Tampa area code.

Mercure also explained that in a conversation with ADA Landgraf, Landgraf explained there was “probable cause” that a crime had been committed and a decision on whether charges would be pressed may come in the next couple weeks.

Forced-dues continue to fill the coffers of unions, as well as, union presidents’  and politicians’ pockets according to this recent study by the Commonwealth Foundation:

Government Unions and Forced Dues

  • Almost half of government workers in Pennsylvania are union members, compared to 9.3 percent in the private sector.
    • Pennsylvania is a forced union state, meaning that workers can be forced to join a union or pay a [so-called] “fair share fee” just to keep their job.  Most government units in Pennsylvania are “agency shops,” with a specified union to which workers must pay a fee.
    • When state and local governments automatically deduct dues and fair share fees from government workers’ paychecks—as is the practice in Pennsylvania—employees have little or no say in how their money is used.

Union Bosses

  • Union bosses collect hefty salaries derived from member dues and fair share fees. In most cases, the salaries are several times the average union member’s annual pay.
    • While acknowledging that budgets were tight, AFSCME Council 13 President David Fillman got a 6 percent raise in 2010, making his salary higher than Gov. Tom Corbett’s.
  • Dues and fees often go towards expensive conferences, outings and junkets.  For example, in 2009-10 the Pennsylvania State Education Association—the state’s largest public sector union—spent:
    • More than $250,000 on a board of directors retreat in Gettysburg.
    • More than $89,000 for a “political institution meeting” at the Radisson Penn Harris in Camp Hill, Pa.
    • $20,000 for advertising in the Pittsburgh Steelers Yearbook.
    • Almost $5,900 at Kimberton Golf Club and more than $5,100 at Concord Country Club in Chadd’s Ford.

Political Activity and Lobbying (more…)

Did Out-of-State SEIU Organizers Vote Illegally in Wisconsin

Media Trackers has uncovered evidence that out-of-state Service Employees International Union (SEIU) activists registered to vote from their hotel in Wisconsin to vote in the state’s recall election:

SEIU organizer Todd E. Stoner from Freehold, New Jersey, used same-day registration to cast a ballot in the April 5, 2011 spring election in Wisconsin. Stoner, like Thompson, still has an active voter registration in New Jersey. According to Stoner’s Wisconsin voter registration form, he simply listed “Residence Inn Marriott and N.J. ID” as his proof of residence. Stoner used another state’s ID as part of his proof of residence to vote in Wisconsin.

Clarence Haynes also registered to vote using the Residence Inn in Glendale. According to 2010 SEIUdocuments, Haynes was a “Senior Organizer in Training” in 2010. The area code on his cell phone is from the Tampa area and Haynes was previously registered as an SEIU officer in Palm Beach County. Haynes broke GAB protocol on his voter registration form by not listing a previous address and his proof of residence was a “military ID and Residence Inn paperwork.”

Austin Lee Thompson, Todd Stoner, and Clarence Haynes all travelled from different states to take part in the Madison protests and subsequent campaigns in Wisconsin. It is no coincidence that all three registered to vote at the same Residence Inn in Glendale, begging the question who was paying for the hotel rooms?

Circumstantial evidence points to the SEIU, to which all three have a connection. Stoner and Haynes are SEIU organizers and Thompson was employed by Wisconsin Jobs Now!, an organization created by the SEIU and Citizen Action Wisconsin.

How long have left-wing organizations and labor unions taken advantage of Wisconsin’s lax voting laws by registering out-of-state political activists at hotel addresses? The Milwaukee Police Department’s investigationof the 2004 General Election warned of a “new class of Wisconsin voter, the ’10-day resident,’” based on the 10 day residency requirement for voting.

Pursuing election integrity crimes must be a priority for Wisconsin law enforcement not just in word, but in deed. It is time for law enforcement, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to step up and investigate whether there is a pervasive use of hotel addresses for voter registration. How many professional activists used hotels around the state to register to vote in the Supreme Court race? or the Summer Recalls? How many will use these methods for the Walker recall?

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Posted in: Political Activity, SEIU, Wisconsin

How SEIU acquires money for politics.

From the BNA:

The court also will consider whether a state government can, consistent with the First and 14th Amendments, condition employment on payment of a special union assessment intended for political expenditures without the union notifying affected state employees about the assessment and giving them an opportunity to object (Knox v. Service Employees International Union Local 1000, U.S., No.10-1121).

The case was brought by California state workers represented by [The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation.  Even though these state employees are not SEIU members, they are  forced to pay]  Service Employees International Union Local 1000 an annual [tribute] as a condition of employment.

In June 2005, the union issued its required annual notice regarding the agency fee for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2005. But in August 2005, Local 1000 approved a special assessment chargeable to members and nonmembers alike that the union said would be used for “a broad range of political purposes” related to California special ballot measures that Local 1000 deemed anti-union.

Dianne Knox and other nonmembers sued, alleging that the special assessment violated their constitutional rights under the First and 14th Amendments. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted partial summary judgment to the nonmembers, holding they were improperly deprived of notice and an opportunity to object to the special assessment (Knox v. Westly, 183 LRRM 3232 (E.D. Cal. 2008); 63 DLR A-12, 4/2/08).

In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed … The Supreme Court granted Knox’s petition to review the Ninth Circuit decision, which asked the justices to consider whether the union was required to issue a new Hudson notice regarding the special assessment and whether a state may condition continued public employment on payment of union agency fees that finance political expenditures (123 DLR AA-2, 6/27/11).

Buying ObamaCare

Over at the BigGovernment.com blog, contributor LibertyChic has done an amazing job tracking how the SEIU helped buy health care reform.  We warned that ObamaCare would benefit big labor as they would one day seek to unionize hundreds of thousands of new government employees and it appears they agreed with us. Using hundreds of millions of dollars in forced union dues contributions, the union bosses of the SEIU set out to buy the process.  Looks like they were successful.

The Inescapable SEIU-NLRB Connection

John Ranson, writing for TownHall.com, points out how the SEIU and their cronies have a heavy hand in the role that the NLRB’s effort to punish companies for moving to Right to Work states:

In just another example of the Obama administration making law by fiat, the National Labor Relations Board head Craig Becker is proposing new rules that would shotgun the formation of new union shops in as quick as ten days.

After the defeat of card check at the legislative ballot box, the former SEIU goon [Becker] is acting creatively in order to implement portions of card check unilaterally.

What would one expect from a guy appointed to his position despite his nomination being rejected by the Senate?

Obama then made a recess appointment of Becker to the NLRB, the presidential equivalent of Enron accounting for political appointees.

NLRB and Becker have been in the news lately because they’ve attacked Boeing for opening a plant in [Right to Work] South Carolina, a state that is less accommodating to union employment but more accommodating to workers and management with project deadlines to keep.

But the attack on Boeing is nothing compared to the attack that Becker and organized labor are going to launch against the rest of us starting today. (more…)

Protests Nationwide Coming Soon

Coming off their less than successful protests in Wisconsin, the top minds at the SEIU have decided to spend millions in mandatory union dues money for more protests.

 “The new plan, revealed in a planning document reviewed by POLITICO and in the subsequent interview with Henry, reflects the widening recognition by labor leaders that the shrinking national ranks of union members no longer carry the political heft they once did. The draft plan, titled “Fight for a Fair Economy” in what Henry said was a preliminary planning document, would reach outside union ranks to focus on “mobilizing underpaid, underemployed and unemployed workers” and “channeling anger about jobs into action for positive change.”