Obama Administration | The National Right to Work Committee®

“The Stockton Syndrome” Underfunded Pensions

On March 23, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

California laws granting immense union monopoly power to union officials is creating cracks, fissures, and collapse across the state. One manifestation of the growing problem is a pension crisis coming to a head as the city of Stockton faces pending bankruptcy. The Investor Business Daily notes:

As one California city slogs toward bankruptcy, others may soon try to avoid the same fate by passing pension reforms — that is, if a pro-union state government will let them.

The financial problems plaguing many of the nation’s [Big Labor Boss-run] cities are taking a particularly heavy toll on Stockton, Calif., a blue-collar port city that struggles even in good times.

Stockton is also a cautionary tale on how not to run a city. It seems to have committed just about every fiscal sin known to local government.In those infrequent years when things were good, it spent (and promised) like there was no tomorrow. Now tomorrow has come, and the city is broke. Its spiffy sports arena and its new $35 million high-rise city hall won’t help it pay its debt.

That debt includes, but is not limited to, a $400 million liability for its retirees’ health care. It also has had to cut its police force by almost a third. (more…)

Presidential Power Abused at Big Labor’s Behest

On March 19, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Right to Work Fights Back Against ‘Illegal’ NLRB Appointments

(source: National Right To Work Committee February 2012 Newsletter)

Under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the President has the power to appoint “officers of the United States,” but only “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.”

The Constitution makes it clear that only in cases when “vacancies . . . happen during recesses of the Senate” may the President make temporary “recess” appointments to offices that normally require confirmation by Congress’s upper chamber.

Unfortunately, in his eagerness to please union officials Inside the D.C. Beltway, a tiny but crucial constituency for his re-election bid this year, Democratic President Barack Obama is now seeking to render the Constitution’s “advice and consent” requirement for executive appointments effectively meaningless.

Early this January, the Senate was not in recess. For several weeks starting last December 20, the Senate was instead in a “pro forma” session during which it did not meet every day, but did periodically conduct business under “unanimous consent” agreements.

No one can reasonably argue that this “pro forma” session was tantamount to a recess. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution states that neither the House nor the Senate may over the course of a Congress “adjourn for more than three days” without “the consent of the other.”

A La Humpty Dumpty, Mr. Obama Insists ‘Recess’ Means Whatever He Says It Means

As syndicated columnist Michael Barone has explained: “The House did not consent to the adjournment of the Senate this year, so there is no recess, and hence no constitutional authority to make recess appointments.” (more…)

Tagged with: Article II • Mark Mix • Mark Pearce • Michael Barone • National Labor Relations Board • Richard Griffin • Richard Trumka
Posted in: Big Labor Payback, Court Cases, Economics, Government Grants to Unions, NLRB, NRTWC Newsletter, Obama Administration, Personnel Alert

Big Labor ‘Medicine’ Making Illinois Sicker

On March 18, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Union-label Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has run up his state's public spending and debt to Greece-like levels. Credit: www.chicagonow.com

Compulsory-Unionism Stronghold State Drowning in Taxes and Debt

(source: National Right To Work Committee February 2012 Newsletter)

In early 2012, as the national economy continues struggling to recover from the severe 2008-2009 national recession, many states are in financial dire straits. But Big Labor-dominated Illinois is very arguably the worst fiscal basket case of all.

Early last month, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Illinois debt to A2, finding its creditworthiness to be the worst of any of the 50 states, including even government union-controlled California. In its report, Moody’s specifically berated Illinois’s “weak management practices.”

On January 22, a Chicago Tribune editorial observed: “Deadbeat Illinois owes some $8.5 billion in old bills, tax refunds, employee health insurance and interfund borrowing debts. That’s roughly one-fourth the state’s spending this year from its general funds.” Over and above that, Illinois has “nearly $200 billion in debts and unfunded obligations.”

Burdened by labor policies authorizing union monopoly bargaining and forced union dues and fees in both the private and public sectors and a tax and regulatory climate that are hostile to private-sector job and income growth, the Prairie State has been in trouble for a long time.

Big Labor ‘Cure-All’ For Rapidly Rising Government Debt: Massive Tax Hikes

But Illinois’s outlook grew even bleaker after union-label Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and like-minded legislators acted in January 2011 to put the state, in the governor’s words, “back on sound fiscal footing.” (more…)

Tagged with: Chicago Tribune • debt • Matthew Leen • Moody's Investors Service • Pat Quinn
Posted in: Bailouts to Unions, Big Labor Payback, Economic Impact of Unionization, Government Grants to Unions, Illinois, Legislation, NRTWC Newsletter, Pension Funds, PLA, Political Activity, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employees, Teacher Unions

Big Labor — Obama’s Shock Troops

On March 7, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Nolan Finley of the Detroit News argues that “Now we know how United Auto Workers President Bob King will repay Barack Obama for holding the union harmless from the Detroit automakers’ bankruptcy: He’ll provide the ground troops for the president’s class war.” SEIU , Van Jones, and MoveOn.org are also involved in this program.

Finley continues:

The Daily Caller blog says it found evidence that King and the UAW are behind the “99 Percent Spring,” which aims to train and deploy 100,000 Americans for “non-violent direct action” in the months leading up to November’s presidential election. The Daily Caller says files on the group’s website, which have since disappeared, indicate the UAW is providing the organizational support for protests designed to support the president’s narrative that America is divided into two camps — the wealthy 1 percent and the struggling 99 percent.

“99 Percent Spring” will replace the Democrat’s previous grassroots charade, the tainted Occupy movement, with its filthy camps and allegations of violence and rapes that gave it no chance of resonating with mainstream voters.

This new movement will perpetuate the myth that Obama bears no responsibility for the economic suffering that has marked his tenure. It will foist the blame instead on wealthy individuals and big corporations, and mask the failure of the president’s wealth transfer schemes, oppressive regulations and job-killing tax plans.

It’s a perfect way for King to pay back Obama for tossing aside established bankruptcy law and moving the UAW to the top of the pecking order when Chrysler and General Motors filed for Chapter 11. (more…)

Tagged with: 99 Percent Spring • Bob King • Daily Caller • Mytheos Holt • Nolan Finley • Occupy America • President Barack Obama
Posted in: Bailouts to Unions, Big Labor Payback, Economics, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Labor Organizations, Outsourcing, Political Activity

Union Dues Fuel New Union Front Groups; Obama DOL Eliminated Public Disclosure

On March 6, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Within hours of the Obama’s swearing-in as POTUS, his Big Labor appointees at the U.S. Department rescinded union financial disclosure that would have shed light on the SEIU front groups in the following Daily Caller report.

Using forced union dues money taken from workers often without their consent is being used to build a network of at least eight community-organizing groups, some of which function alongside the Occupy Wall Street movement, a Daily Caller investigation shows. Incorporated by the SEIU as local non-profits, the groups are waging concerted local political campaigns to publicly attack conservative political figures, banks, energy companies and other corporations.

Each local group has portrayed itself as an independent community organization not tied to any special interest. But they were founded, incorporated, and led by SEIU personnel.

The individual activist groups use benign-sounding names including This Is Our DC; Good Jobs, Great Houston; Good Jobs, Better Baltimore; Good Jobs Now in Detroit; Fight for Philly; One Pittsburgh; Good Jobs LA; and Minnesotans for a Fair Economy.

In reality, they are creations of the wealthy and influential labor union, amounting to a secret network of new SEIU front groups.

Tagged with: Barack Obama • Daily Caller • Fight for Philly • Form LM-2 • Good Jobs Better Baltimore • Good Jobs Great Houston • Good Jobs LA • Good Jobs Now in Detroit • Minnesotans for a Fair Economy • One Pittsburgh • Richard Pollock • This Is Our DC
Posted in: DOL, Forced-Dues for Politics, Intimidation Tactics, Labor Organizations, Obama Administration, Organizing, Political Activity, SEIU

Breitbart Exclusive: SEIU Aim to Destroy Free Market

On March 6, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

Working with the Occupy Wall Street radicals, the SEIU union bosses have created an alliance designed to destroy capitalism.

Breitbart.com has received exclusive tape of an Occupy Strategy Session at New York University, billed as a group talk on “The Abolition of Capitalism.” One of the headline speakers at this session was Stephen Lerner, former leader and International Board Member of the SEIU and frequent Obama White House visitor. Lerner argued in favor of people not paying their mortgages and “occupying” their homes; he spoke in favor of invading annual shareholders meetings to shut them down. But his big goal was to get workers to shut down their workplaces. That’s where the SEIU agenda and the Occupy agenda truly meet: once workers begin to occupy.

Here are the relevant portions of the transcript:

Let me just throw out a couple ideas here. One, I think a theme here that’s really important is Occupy Homes as a key part of the stew in multiple spheres. There’s eviction defense, there’s folks who are moving back into homes that they were evicted from that have been sitting empty, there’s community organizing, there’s a fight with Fannie and Freddie, but this notion that millions of people are losing their homes and we can physically help them save it, very important … This second question, this question of moving money, which has mainly been an individual act so far, you know, move your account out of a bank, getting institutions, schools, universities, school boards, to move money out of banks as a way to put them into either credit unions or things that do economic development, it captures both what is wrong with finance capital, but then it’s something everybody can do … In fact, it’s infused by the energy of somebody that just got thrown in jail for trying to keep their home …

But here’s the real crux of the matter:

How do we give workers the confidence? … How do we create a mood in the nation where we’re occupying our workplaces, where we’re shutting down our workplaces? … Where workers are sitting in, where workers are shutting down their places of work, and when the police come, when the injunctions come, we’re all there with them, so we can really deal with part of the reason that the economy’s so screwed up … which is a few people have got all the power. Think stew, think hope, death to the Stockholm Syndrome! (more…)

Tagged with: Breitbart.com • Occupy America • Occupy Wall Street • Stephen Lerner • Steve Max • White House • Yotam Marom
Posted in: Do Union Bosses Speak, Economics, Education, Elections, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Labor Organizations, Obama Administration, Organizing, SEIU

AFSCME & SEIU Bosses Spend Big Against Romney

On March 4, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

The Hill is reporting that big union bosses dipped into their forced-union dues treasuries to try to damage Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney:

Unions including The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are making ad buys to hit the Republican presidential contender.

AFSCME, the country’s largest public sector union, spent $500,000 on Internet, television and radio ads to air in Ohio that target Romney before the state’s GOP presidential primary this coming Tuesday, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. Last month, the union also spent $1 million on Internet and television ads opposing Romney in Florida before that state’s GOP presidential primary.

Larry Scanlon, AFSCME’s political director, told The Hill that while Romney has yet to officially sow up [sic] the nomination, the general election season has begun.

“Our position is: We are in a general election now. We want voters to hear our message,” Scanlon said. “We have endorsed Obama, and we’re going to do what we can to get him reelected.”

Scanlon also said that unlike other GOP candidates, the ex-Massachusetts governor has concentrated on issues key to labor.

“Romney has been talking about our issues, workers’ issues, and he’s on the wrong side of those issues. So that’s why we’re going after him,” Scanlon said. (more…)

Tagged with: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees • Larry Scanlon • Mitt Romney • Service Employees International Union • The Hill
Posted in: AFSCME, Big Labor Payback, Elections, Florida, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Labor Organizations, Nevada, Obama Administration, Ohio, Political Activity, Public Employees, SEIU

Big Labor to Hide More Politcal Spending on Obama’s New Union Financial Reports

On February 29, 2012, By NRTW Committee Staff

The Obama Administration eliminated significant amounts of union financial disclosure and accountability. Now, Big Labor plans to conceal most of its 2012 political spending in its new Obama Department of Labor disclosure reports. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the union bosses are “rejiggering” their political spending toward more undisclosed and non-reportable expenditures further leaving union workers in the dark about how their union dues are being spent.

Mike Podhorzer, the political director for labor federation AFL-CIO, which represents 57 unions, agreed that the AFL-CIO and some affiliates are donating less money to candidates and political parties this election. But he said that is because the AFL-CIO has decided to put “significantly more” resources “into independent advocacy rather than just writing checks to candidates,” the Journal noted.

Tagged with: Barack Obama • Mike Podhorzer • U.S. Department of Labor • Wall Street Journal
Posted in: Big Labor Payback, DOL, Elections, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Obama Administration, Political Activity

“The Stockton Syndrome” Underfunded Pensions

Big Labor — Obama’s Shock Troops

Union Dues Fuel New Union Front Groups; Obama DOL Eliminated Public Disclosure

Breitbart Exclusive: SEIU Aim to Destroy Free Market

AFSCME & SEIU Bosses Spend Big Against Romney

Big Labor to Hide More Politcal Spending on Obama’s New Union Financial Reports

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