One more Big Labor Payback Before Senator-Elect Brown becomes Senator Brown

On February 4, 2010, By Post

Racing against the clock, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushed through another Obama Big Labor nominee, Patricia Smith, before Senator-Elect Scott Brown becomes a Senator. Reid won this race, see the Senate votes here.

In addition, Reid is prepared to add radical SEIU & AFL-CIO lawyer, Craig Becker to the list of Obama nominees approved before Senator Brown arrives.

As the new U.S. Solicitor of Labor, President Obama’s nominee M. Patricia Smith will control the largest civilian pool of government lawyers after the Justice Department.

Then New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed Smith Commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor (NYDOL). Having spent her entire working life as a government employee, Smith brings only bureaucratic experience to the table.

As NYDOL Commissioner, Smith used her position and federal funds to override a state hiring freeze to hire a politically connected union organizer as a state employee. (more…)

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Posted in: ACORN, Arbitration, Big Labor Ethics, Card Check, Court Cases, DOL, Economics, Exclusive Representation, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Intimidation Tactics, Labor Organizations, Legislation, Monopoly Bargaining, Obama Administration, Organizing, PLA, Pension Funds, Picketing, Police/Fire Monopoly Bargaining, Political Activity, Prevailing Wage, Public Employee Monopoly Bargaining, Public Employees, SEIU, Section 14-B Taft-Hartley, So-called "Fair Share", So-called \"Agency Shop\", Strike, U.S. Congress, Union boss power
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Secretary Solis and Other Top-Level Obama Appointees Gave Themselves Waivers from Obama’s Executive Order on Ethics

On January 7, 2010, By Post

The National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) released its first Obama Personnel Alert of 2010 exposing the ongoing failure of President Obama’s ethics pledge and executive order as it relates to ethics and transparency in his administration.  According to NRTWC research, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and several other top-level political appointees at Department of Labor (DOL) made up their own rules ignoring the President’s ethics executive order.

Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary Michael Kerr, and Assistant Secretary Jane Oates are other known DOL appointees who gave themselves ethics waivers.  Without public disclosure of the ethics pledges, it is impossible to determine if this self-administering of ethics waivers is Department-wide or even Obama Administration-wide.

Big Labor DOL insiders gave themselves personal exemptions from President Obama’s January 21, 2009 ethics Executive Order 13490 two-year ban from activity on behalf of former

Obama has filled DOL with Big Labor operatives and former union officials, and these insiders have wasted little time rolling back financial disclosure for union bosses, handing out multimillion dollar grants and contracts to Big Labor, and turning DOL enforcement into an arm of Big Labor’s forced-unionism organizing machine.

Top DOL officials have at least made a mockery of and worst completely violated the President’s executive order by cutting in half Obama’s ordered two-year moratorium.  It appears that the President has already lost control of the union operatives inside his own Administration.  But what can Obama do when he owes so much to Big Labor Bosses and the forced union dues they anted up for his election?

Congress and the Justice Department ought to investigate the Office of Government Ethics failure to enforce the Ethics Executive Order 13490 documented violations.

With all that is disclosed in the NRTWC report, there should be increasing pressure for Congress to investigate the Obama Administration’s repeal of several financial disclosures that include the proposed repealing of conflict-of-interest disclosures for Big Labor officials.

It looks like the Labor Department is the tail wagging the Administration dog.


NRTWC OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PERSONNEL ALERT: U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Lucia Solis –

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Posted in: California, DOL, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Government Grants to Unions, Legislation, Monopoly Bargaining, Obama Administration, Organizing, Pension Funds, Personnel Alert, Public Employees, U.S. Congress, Union boss power
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What Transparency?

On January 5, 2010, By Post

Right to Work’s Mark Mix: President Obama swept into office promising a new era of openness and transparency. But he forgot to mention his union loophole.

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Posted in: Big Labor Ethics, DOL, Labor Organizations, Obama Administration
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Obama Gives Big Labor Another Gift in Final Days of 2009

On December 31, 2009, By Post

As 2009 fades away, President Obama has decided to let disclosure of hundreds of millions of dollars in forced-union-dues disclosure fade away too. Under current law and regulations valid until December 30th, union bosses were supposed to carefully document the billions of dollars they extract from workers as a condition of employment that they in turn pour into front groups and other “funds” each year.

A large part of the billions were about to be made public and reported on a Department of Labor disclosure form known as the Form T-1 Annual Report. But, that won’t happen now!

According to Bureau of National Affairs, Inc, “The Labor Department is issuing a final rule that extends for one year the deadlines for unions to file Form T-1 Trust Annual Report Reports.”

After allowing only 11 days of comments from the public, the Obama Administration postponed requiring reports for another year. During 2010, the Obama Administration states that it intends to completely eliminate the financial disclosure.

Again, the Obama Administration is blatantly paying back union bosses at the expense of rank-and-file workers.

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Posted in: DOL, Exclusive Representation, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Labor Organizations, Monopoly Bargaining, Obama Administration, Organizing, Pension Funds, Public Employees, So-called "Fair Share", Working for America Institute
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Obama’s Labor Department Gives Big Labor and Its Front Groups Another Gift

On December 3, 2009, By Post

With less than a month left in 2009, President Obama gave Big Labor Bosses, ACORN, American Rights At Work, and other Big Labor-front groups another gift.  This time Labor Secretary Solis’ Department will not require Big Labor to complete labor union trust disclosure documents. 

Big Labor has fought the disclosure of information for thousands of “slush” funds and front groups since 2003.  By 2008, courts grew weary of Big Labor’s excuses for wanting to continue to hide billions in forced union dues that it transferred to groups like ACORN and the AFL-CIO’s American Rights At Work. 

Today, the Department published its intent to rescind these disclosures and to allow union bosses to ignore reporting until the Obama Administration disclosure rescission is final. 

Why did Big Labor want to stop these disclosures, referred to as Form T-1 Trust disclosures?  Because, these reports disclose the finances of every significant union controlled trust or Big Labor-front group.  In essence, this information provides the schematic of Big Labor-forced dues funded political operations.

These reports, if filed, will lead to more disclosures of ACORN financing and reveal more about the Big Labor-Front Group American Rights at Work, a political and lobbying operation, where Obama’s Labor Secretary served as Treasurer while a member of Congress..

Today’s Obama Administration’s notice reads in part:

The Department now seeks comments on a proposal to delay the filing due date of the initial Form T–1 reports, pending the outcome of the Department’s proposal to withdraw the October 2, 2008 rule.

The comment period on this proposal will close on December 14, 2009. [Eleven Days of Comments] Time is running out, to share your comments with the Department of Labor follow this link or click here to comment.

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Posted in: ACORN, DOL, Forced Dues, Forced-Dues for Politics, Labor Organizations, Obama Administration, Organizing, Outsourcing
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DOL Insiders Expose Obama's Labor Department

On December 2, 2009, By Post

From the the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation:

Union Watchdog Files Second Disclosure Request to Investigate Obama Labor Department Stonewalling

Media report indicates Department of Labor officials are “in a tizzy and freaking out” over federal lawsuit

Washington, D.C. (December 2, 2009) – The National Right to Work Foundation has filed new disclosure demands on the heels of its lawsuit to compel the Department of Labor (DOL) to release information related to high-ranking officials’ connections to powerful union lobbying interests.

A media report indicates DOL officials have deliberately ignored disclosure laws, and Right to Work attorneys are seeking internal DOL records backing up the report.

National Right to Work originally lodged a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last April citing concerns about Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who previously held a key leadership position at the Big Labor-front group “American Rights at Work,” and Deborah Greenfield, who was a lawyer for the AFL-CIO involved in a lawsuit challenging DOL union disclosure regulations that she now oversees as an Administration appointee.

For the last seven months, the Obama Administration has stonewalled the Foundation’s FOIA request seeking disclosure of the high-ranking DOL officials’ contacts with union operatives. Late last month, Right to Work attorneys filed suit in federal court to force the Obama Administration to fulfill its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

Subsequent media coverage [Mark Hemingway in the Washington Examiner] has revealed DOL officials apparently decided to ignore the Foundation’s FOIA request, but facing the lawsuit and negative publicity is now reconsidering. Additionally, one media report cited a high-placed source stating that panicked DOL officials “are in a tizzy and freaking out” because of the Foundation’s lawsuit.

Today, Foundation attorneys filed another FOIA request this time for the DOL’s search plan and interoffice communications – including emails, meeting minutes, notes, and other interoffice correspondence – relating to the initial FOIA request.

“President Obama’s widely-touted promise of unparalleled transparency has been met with unparalleled secrecy,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The Department of Labor’s deliberate stonewalling is unsettling. It suggests the administration is hiding damaging information about whether Hilda Solis and Deborah Greenfield are coordinating their activities with pro-compulsory unionism extremists.”

“Giving Big Labor undue influence over the Department’s rule-making and administrative oversight is a slap in the face of America’s independent-minded workers. The public deserves to know about any collusion between this administration and Big Labor bosses.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, is assisting thousands of employees in over 200 cases nationwide. Its web address is http://www.nrtw.org/.
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Posted in: DOL, Labor Organizations, NRTWLDF, Obama Administration, Personnel Alert, Public Employees, Union boss power
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Some Transparency

On November 23, 2009, By Post

The Obama Administration promised unparalleled transparency in government but is giving the American people unparalleled secrecy. The Department of Labor continues to ignore a Freedom of Information Request from the National Right to Work Legal Foundation.

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Posted in: Court Cases, DOL, Obama Administration
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Transparency Should Apply to Union Bosses Too — But There is More

On October 19, 2009, By Post

President Obama’s U.S. Labor Department continues to rollout gifts for Big Labor Bosses according to House Republican Leader’s blog post:

Transparency Should Apply to Union Bosses Too

In a memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies earlier this year, President Obama declared, “My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.”  A noble sentiment – but it apparently doesn’t apply to the Department of Labor or the union bosses it’s charged with overseeing.

As the House Education and Labor Committee Republicans noted today, the U.S. Department of Labor has formally rescinded a series of reporting changes designed to enhance union disclosure.

The aim of these rule changes is to weaken union oversight requirements – a trend this Administration started with its FY 2010 budget, which cut $4.4 million from the Office of Labor Management Standards, more than a 10 percent reduction in its overall budget.  Judging by the profligate spending this Administration has applied to nearly every other department – giving the federal budget a nearly 10 percent boost in spending, cutting union oversight seems an odd place to “save money” – unless reducing transparency, and not saving money, were their aims. 

Part of the transparency roll back for union bosses includes the following items that the Labor Department will no longer require of unions:

  • Disclose the total value of benefits received by union officers and employees;
  • Disclose the names of parties buying and selling union assets; or
  • Itemize union receipts

This isn’t the transparency the American people were promised.

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is walking back on its promises of “openness” and “transparency” – and it’s rank-and-file union members who’ll pay the price.

And while the Republican Leader is right, he, as he has done in the past, either forgets, ignores, or leaves out the fact that 80% of these rank-and-file workers labor under contracts that force them to pay these dues and fees as a condition of employment.  While Chairman of the Education and Welfare Committee, the now Republican Leader failed to engage on the issue of forced unionism under federal law.  One wonders what he would do now – if he gets the chance.

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Obama Administration: No Transparency Required

On September 4, 2009, By Post

The Administration of “Hope and Change” has millions of Americans hoping for no more change as their efforts to placate the union bosses knows no end.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis has abandoned the idea that union members should be able to see how their forced union dues money is being spent.  Gone is the union financial disclosure requirements set forth from the Bush Administration.  

Kevin Mooney has the story:

Never mind about those revised union financial disclosure requirements President Obama inherited from his predecessor. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis now says she won’t make union officials comply. Unions officials complained for eight years that regulations issued by Elaine Chao, President George W. Bush’s Labor Secretary, were more rigorous than required by the Labor Management and Reporting Disclosure Act (LMRDA), which calls for modestly detailed annual financial reports by unions with receipts of $250,000 or more.

The Bush-Chao regulations require union officials to disclose financial information that could aid union members’ seeking information on how their union leaders are spending dues money, and to help expose “no show jobs” that put paychecks for ghost employees into union coffers.

Before Bush took office, the reports were mostly ignored by the Labor Department. Now, it’s back to business-as-usual. A notice appeared this week on the department’s web site saying the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), whose main job is enforcing LMRDA requirements, won’t be doing its job under Solis:

“Accordingly, OLMS will refrain from initiating enforcement actions against union officers and union employees based solely on the failure to file the report required by section 202 of the Labor-Management and Reporting Disclosure Act (LMRDA), 29 U.S.C. § 432, using the 2007 form, as long as individuals meet their statutorily-required filing obligation in some manner. OLMS will accept either the old Form LM-30 or the new one for purposes of this non-enforcement policy.”  Now that Obama-Solis are giving union officials a choice between the old and new forms, can you guess which one they will choose?

The union bosses are smiling because when it comes to the Obama Administration, you get what you pay for.

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Posted in: Forced-Dues for Politics, Labor Organizations, Obama Administration
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Cooking the Books

On July 20, 2009, By Post

It will be easier for union bosses to cook the books thanks to the Obama Administration who are one-by-one eliminating transparency rules established to allow union workers to see how their dues money is spent.  

The Examiner newspaper rightfully objects:

President Barack Obama has often talked of the importance of transparency and accountability in government, and he has chalked up some landmark achievements in this area. As a senator, he co-sponsored, with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 that established the USASpending.gov Web site to enable citizen tracking of federal expenditures. As president, he launched the Recovery.govWeb site to do the same with stimulus spending. 

Both sites have had and will have hiccups, but they are precedent-setters for which Obama deserves great credit. Unfortunately, transparency and accountability go out the window when they conflict with the demands of organized labor and environmentalists, two special-interest groups that are key supporters and contributors to Obama’s political campaigns. 

At the U.S. Department of Labor, Secretary Hilda Solis is moving rapidly to rescind Bush administration reforms that greatly strengthened reporting requirements that enable union members to see, via annual LM-2 reports, how their leaders are spending membership dues. In a recent Federal Register notice, Solis agreed with the preposterous assertion of Big Labor leaders that there was no proof members would benefit by knowing this financial information, and that compiling the report was too costly and time-consuming. 

Former Bush labor officials have also expressed concern about the Obama-Solis approach toward another union disclosure form, the LM-30, which requires shop stewards to report information needed to expose “no-show jobs” that funnel paychecks into union coffers instead of an actual employee’s bank account. Solis is reassuring the Big Labor bosses that she will not enforce the LM-30 reporting requirements.

Then there’s the case of Alan Carlin, the Environmental Protection Agency economist whose critical statistical analysis of a proposal for that agency to assume a leading role in regulating greenhouse gases was blatantly suppressed. Obama’s EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, and other senior agency officials made it clear to Carlin that his study was not supportive of the Obama administration’s policy and so would be buried in the bowels of bureaucracy. He was also instructed not to talk to the media. 

Carlin is a 38-year EPA veteran and a respected economist. His study pointed out the many flaws in the data used to support the U.N.’s case for human causes of global warming, notably with regard to the use of carbon-based fuels like oil and natural gas. Carlin was muzzled by representatives of the same president who repeatedly bashed President George W. Bush for allegedly “politicizing science.”

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Posted in: DOL, Obama Administration
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