The New York Post is reporting that the New York Mets shelled out nearly $52 million for construction of their new baseball stadium to contractors with ties to the Mafia and labor corruption. Of course, the work was part of a city-imposed “Project Labor Agreement” that forces contractors to submit to union-only monopoly bargaining agreements to get work.
On January 5, 2010, By NRTWC Staff
Flushing Money Down the Deeds Drain: Plumber Bosses' Last Hour Rush to Join other Labor Union Bosses
On November 4, 2009, By Post
The Virginia Public Access Project reported that United Association labor union, formerly known as the Plumbers Union, bosses chose to flush ten of thousands of dollars down the Deeds for Virginia Governor drain. Other reports declared that Big Labor Bosses were already Creigh Deeds biggest supporters.
About the time the Plumbers union bosses decided to join other union bosses in their rush flush, Deeds was 18-points behind according to a Virginia Commonwealth University poll. Based on the election results, the Plumbers union money did little to help Deeds.
According to the Virginia Public Access Project, “Organized Labor” made roughly $5.36 million in reported contributions to statewide and legislative candidates and committees in Virginia in 2009. Democrat gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds received approximately $2.5 million from Big Labor including public employee unions.
Probably the most well-known of the Plumbers union’s upper echelon is disgraced boss Martin Maddaloni who approved a pension fund scandal that drained over $300 million of rank-and-file pension funds into a Florida hotel.
Earlier this month, the AFL-CIO awarded Senator Creigh Deeds “Legislator of the Year” for his support of forced unionism. In his thank you speech, Deeds gushed, “Before I first ran for office, I believed in the power of organized labor; during my 17 years in the legislature … And, when I’m Governor, you won’t just have a friend in Richmond-you’ll have a partner.” Well, Big Labor will still have Deeds as a partner in the Virginia Legislature.
2009 Drudge Report Post-Election VA by 18 NJ by 6
On October 8, 2009, By Post
Obama’s Big Labor Department announced a $35 million construction project that forces all workers on the project to pay forced union dues or fees and then forces them (through their employer) to contribute to underfunded union administered pension programs. Because construction projects typically have short durations, non-union workers will likely never have an ownership interest (vested) in the plan. Therefore, non-union workers will lose ever penny that their employer contributed on their behalf and allow Big Labor to prop up wobbly pension programs. The Washington Times’ S.A. Miller reports:
Delivering on President Obama’s promise to boost the labor movement, the administration has announced a $35 million federal construction project in New Hampshire that requires union representation for the workers and forces nonunion employees to pay dues and contribute to a union pension fund.
Mr. Obama issued an executive order in the first weeks of his presidency that would make the requirement, known as a “project labor agreement” or PLA, the norm for all government contracts on large-scale construction jobs. The order is under review and a final rule is not expected for months, but that did not stop the Labor Department from rushing to use a PLA to build its new Job Corps Center in Manchester, N.H.
On October 7, 2009, By Post
The North Branch Construction company of Concord, New Hampshire is standing up to the Obama Administration’s determined effort to ensure that ALL construction projects funded by the federal government benefit the union bosses.
In what is apparently the first effort to enforce the new executive requirement, the company is going to court to show that the policy “unduly restricts competition” and violates a number of federal laws and regulations. Of course, the Obama position will also boost the price tag for taxpayers, but what’s a few billion dollars when it comes to pleasing the union bosses.
Good for the North Branch Construction company and its’ employees. We should not take this, or any other government hand-out that expands forced unionism lying down.
On June 10, 2009, By Post
After bashing everyone else for decades regarding pension funding, the Washington Examiner has discovered:
Almost half of the nation’s 20 largest unions have pension funds that federal law classifies as ”endangered” or in “critical” condition due to being underfunded, an Examiner review of federal actuarial reports shows.
Pensions with less than 80 percent of the assets needed to cover present and projected liabilities are considered “endangered,” while those that fall below a 65 percent threshold are classified as “critical” under the Pension Protection Act of 2006.
Unions are required to file 5500 forms that record the financial health of their retirement plans, show that union pension funds have lost their financial footing over the past several years.
Eight of the largest unions have underfunded plans, according to the most recent 5500 reports, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Laborers International Union of Northern America, the International Association of Machinists, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, and the National Plumbers Union.
The average union pension has resources to cover only 62 percent of what is owed to participants, according to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). Less than one in every 160 workers is covered by a union pension with required assets.
These figures demonstrate that the liability challenge to the long term of health of union funds is systemic and across the board, said Brett McMahon, vice-president of Miller and Long, a Maryland-based concrete construction company.
Demographics figure prominently in the erosion of pension assets now that a smaller percentage of union workers are available to support an expanded group of retirees, McMahon said. Only 7.6 percent of private sector employees are members of a labor union, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The growing number of local and national union pensions that lack sufficient resources to cover their obligations could threaten the retirement security not just of union members, but also non-union employees if the proposed Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check) becomes law as currently written, McMahon said.
The Card Check legislation includes provisions both to abolish secret ballots in union representation elections in the workplace and to require a binding arbitration process that greatly favors unions, McMahon said.
”It’s like the Social Security problem on steroids,” McMahon said. “We are talking about a systemic, demographic problem where there are too few people paying in and the plans can’t earn enough returns to make up for the difference.”
McMahon believes “union members are not being told the truth about the condition of their retirement plans. The danger to non-union workers comes in with Card Check because there is nothing in it that prohibits an arbitrator from shoving companies and workers into these underfunded plans.”
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute, is encouraging EFCA critics to focus more attention on the arbitration side of the bill in addition to “card check” for this same reason.
Multi-employer pension plans that are typically negotiated by unions should be of particular concern because they have less federal insurance than single-employer pension funds, McMahon pointed out. The PBGC only guarantees $12,870 in annual payments to a member of the multi-employer plan in contrast to $54,000 for members of a single-employer plan.
If anything, the current 5500 records vastly understate the deteriorating condition of union pensions because they do not include the stock market drop from last year, James Sherk a labor expert with the Heritage Foundation points out. Reports are typically not filed for more than 12 months after the end of a plan year.
”There are a lot of red zone notices going out now for funds that fell under the critical percentage for liabilities with the market meltdown,” he said. “This would not be evident under the most recent 5500s because they only cover through 2007.”