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Big Labor, Big Money
foxbusiness.com ^ | July 5, 2012 | Elizabeth MacDonald

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 you’ll 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.

It’s 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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 07/05/2012 1:23:12 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: kcvl

I was watching the report on Fox. Why does your link point to qvc.com?


2 posted on 07/05/2012 1:25:59 PM PDT by prisoner6 (Right Wing Nuts bolt the Constitution together as the loose screws of the Left fall out!)
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To: prisoner6

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.

It’s also where Labor Secretary Hilda Solis spoke at a union conference in November 2010 about the White House’s 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/


3 posted on 07/05/2012 1:28:38 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: prisoner6

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.


4 posted on 07/05/2012 1:31:01 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: prisoner6

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 union’s 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 local’s 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


5 posted on 07/05/2012 1:33:12 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: Admin Moderator

Please change link to Fox Business...


6 posted on 07/05/2012 1:39:48 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: kcvl

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!


7 posted on 07/05/2012 2:01:13 PM PDT by prisoner6 (Right Wing Nuts bolt the Constitution together as the loose screws of the Left fall out!)
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To: prisoner6

I’m on my IPad and it doesn’t always cooperate!


8 posted on 07/05/2012 2:04:33 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: prisoner6

I’m on my IPad and it doesn’t always cooperate!


9 posted on 07/05/2012 2:04:59 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: kcvl

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.


10 posted on 07/05/2012 2:18:25 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: kcvl

Your UNION DUES at PLAY!!!


11 posted on 07/05/2012 2:35:32 PM PDT by ExCTCitizen (If we stay home in November '12, don't blame 0 for tearing up the CONSTITUTION!!)
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: kcvl

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.


13 posted on 07/05/2012 3:30:07 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
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To: kcvl
America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the/print

The Fragmenting of the New Class Elites, or, Downward Mobility
http://volokh.com/2011/10/31/the-fragmenting-of-the-new-class-elites-or-downward-mobility/

Environmentalism and the Leisure Class
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2835601/posts

The New Upper Class and the Real Reason We Dislike Them
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2843575/posts

Are you a member of the political class?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/are_you_a_member_of_the_politi.html


14 posted on 07/05/2012 4:40:48 PM PDT by familyop ("Wanna cigarette? You're never too young to start." --Deacon, "Waterworld")
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To: prisoner6

Where is John Galt ?

We know who he is, but he may be everywhere.


15 posted on 07/05/2012 5:02:34 PM PDT by 4Speed
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