Posted on 07/05/2012 1:23:07 PM PDT by kcvl
Check in to the luxury $187 million Westin Diplomat Hotel on the beach outside Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and youll be impressed by sumptuous, art deco features, hotel suites overlooking the ocean, flowing fountains, waterfalls in its infinity swimming pool, the plush green golf course and the top-notch restaurants.
Its a place even Donald Trump might envy.
You might also be impressed that this opulent hotel is owned by a labor union, and is frequently used for union junkets, government documents show. As is the $15.4 million Hillcrest Golf Club in Saint Paul, Minn. As is the $33 million lakeside resort and golf club in Onaway, Mich., owned by the United Auto Workers Union, a resort now hemorrhaging millions of dollars at a time of auto bailouts and auto job losses.
Labor officials routinely blast U.S. companies for not paying their fair share in taxes, and criticize fat-cat pay for executives, especially bankers in a time of bailouts.
Corporations already pay too low an effective tax rate, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka has said, decrying astronomical CEO pay. James Hoffa, Teamsters president, also has chimed in: We`re the ones that are fighting the big corporations so as to make sure [they] give their fair share back to the American worker.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
I was watching the report on Fox. Why does your link point to qvc.com?
I have NO IDEA....link below!
White House Officials Visit
The Westin Diplomat, owned by a plumbers and pipefitters union, is where President Barack Obama held a fundraiser last April touting his rescue of the auto industry.
Its also where Labor Secretary Hilda Solis spoke at a union conference in November 2010 about the White Houses efforts to help organized labor win federal construction contracts (even if those same contracts overcharge taxpayers, and when an estimated 25% of non-union construction workers are out of work.)
http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2012/07/05/union-bling-union-junkets-1969452526/
after decades of labor corruption (such as Teamster officials stealing from union pensions), the federal government enacted the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which says union officers must hold or use union funds solely for the benefit of the union and its members.
And now those union labor temples somehow have morphed into luxury hotels and country clubs.
Plumbing Union Owns Resort & Spa
Government documents show the Plumbing & Pipe Fitters Union of the U.S. and Canada initially spent $44 million of union retirement money to buy the dilapidated Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Fla., in the late-90s from a union-owned life insurer embroiled in an insider-trading scandal.
Steamfitters Union Owns Hillcrest Golf Club
Last year, this union bought the Hillcrest Golf Club in St. Paul, Minn., paying $4.3 million in cash for the private club and vowing to keep it private for at least two years, government documents show.
The 112-acre site in St. Paul has an estimated market value of $15.4 million and includes an 18-hole course, a rebuilt clubhouse, banquet hall and a swimming pool.
The unions members, including retirees, unanimously approved the purchase, using money from a special building fund established in the 1980s and financed by contributions from member paychecks.
The purchase of the course accounted for 64% of the locals expenses in 2011 (the union pays taxes on the club).
The local may need to increase membership to cover operating costs, which could run as high as $1 million a year, plus build reserves for future maintenance and improvements.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2012/07/05/union-bling-union-junkets-1969452526/#ixzz1zmZHx7Gr
Please change link to Fox Business...
Got it! Thanks!
When I saw the qvc link I figured it’s the same thing that happens to when I copy and paste. For some reason my XP doesn’t always clear the clipboard.
Now if I’m on my tablet it’s because I’m not good at using it, LOL!
I’m on my IPad and it doesn’t always cooperate!
I’m on my IPad and it doesn’t always cooperate!
built with union member’s dues and for the members. So what if these facilities are also used by the public and the union bosses (the mob) take the profits for themselves. These facilities are for the union members, with a fee of course and the members own them. Just ask any union member.
Your UNION DUES at PLAY!!!
We have a lot to do back here without having to fill in all the fields for posters.
Filling in a link once in a while, no problem.
We removed the posting of the FR mail, as that is against the rules here.
Can you imagine how busy we would be if we had to always fill in empty fields on posts many times a day?
We have to fight trolls too ya know...
Sorry you took offense at our notifying you in FR mail instead of notifying you on the thread.
Where is John Galt ?
We know who he is, but he may be everywhere.
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