Free Republic

From time to time here on the blog we like to highlight the convictions, imprisonment and punishment of union thieves. It warms our heart here at the blog to see such criminal union thugs cut down by the law, to see them finally get their just deserts. We only wish that more of them found their proper ends sooner. But, when they are caught we rejoice at the justice done. Today we have what, if we were in an HBO TV series, might have been a member of Tony Soprano's bunch (is New Jersey sick of this allusion yet?) with...

According to Reuters, the United Auto Workers (UAW) has announced that they are spending $3 million on TV, radio and Web ads to promote the election of Barack Obama this month. The ads, which feature UAW members talking about lost health care benefits and the loss of manufacturing jobs, will run on television, radio and Web sites in the key manufacturing states of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. These union thugs have some gall to claim that increasing benefits is a good idea. Let's take a look and see how unions have already made American car manufacturers uncompetitive with others....

The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) has issued new reporting procedures for unions to report the details of what are called T-1 Trusts. These new reporting efforts should help bring light to these funds that have heretofore been shielded from transparency allowing unions to use many millions of dollars without accountability from its members or the government. A T-1 Trust fund is a nice bit of accounting sleight of hand that unions have used to fund what they claim is "retraining" of its members. But, millions of dollars end up in these funds and there are no rules to account...

Government workers from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania have been finding unwelcome visitors at the doorsteps since mid-August. Union organizers from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) mysteriously found themselves in possession of the home addresses of every government worker in the county. This is, of course, illegal... yet, magically, the SEIU has the contact info anyway. Naturally, every department head in the county is saying their agency is innocent of leaking the information. But, regardless who which inside operative of the union was helping them, it is not legal for the union to accept such information. The law states that only...

Confessions of a criminal... well, that is what this new memoir should be titled, but it isn't. The Bellingham Herald (Washington State) is reporting on the publication of a new memoir by Joe Miller who was once a lobbyist for various unions and Democratic Party candidates. In it he admits that he broke the law "all the time" in pursuit of legislative/financial wins for the left. In "The Wicked Wine of Democracy," Miller records his 40 years as a lobbyist, starting as a political operative for Henry "Scoop" Jackson in the 1960s, and the tales he gives us shows how...

The L.A. Times has really got it out for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), I have to say. On September 26, the Times published another one of its investigations into the corrupt union activities, this time revealing that SEIU union bigwigs have funneled millions of dollars to little companies owned by family members for "services" being provided the union. The investigation also showed that union chiefs are starting their own side companies only to get millions of dollars in "contracts" from the union. It must be nice to be a chief directing budgets of millions upon millions of dollars...

There has been a pretty vicious fight in Colorado over several Amendments that will appear on the ballots aimed at putting a collar on rampant union violations of worker's rights this year. The unions have imported all sorts of outside groups and money to defeat these worker freedom Amendments. Here is a page from the latest anti-worker rights the unions have sent out. As AnCap of the People's Press colorfully says of these claims... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

The Service Employees International Union's headquarters has paid millions of dollars to consulting firms, political nonprofits and individuals with family ties and other personal connections to some of the labor organization's top officers, records show. One company partly owned by a union director also received more than $1 million in SEIU consulting fees. The nation's fastest-growing union, the SEIU bills itself a standard-setter in the drive to reform and modernize the labor movement. It has adopted a code of ethics that bars officers from directing business to their relatives, although a spokeswoman said no competitive bidding process is required when...

Anyone following the print media will know that newspapers are falling on hard times everywhere in the country. The Internet has damaged newspaper's once dominant position as the source for daily local and national news. In this day when papers are folding everywhere and many more are firing people right and left (well, just "left" because there are few on the right in that business!) one would think that everyone involved with any particular paper would be bending over backwards to help keep the doors open and the printing presses rolling. Well, apparently, unions would rather see everyone lose their...

It's like some sort of spy novel gone bad where the Soviet Agents are somehow the good guys. A grocery store worker and union member that makes over $20 an hour "quits" his job and starts a job in another grocery store making only $10 an hour just so he can cajole his new workplace into joining the union from the inside, pretending to be one of them. In fact, the union "supplements" this activist's pay while he invades the other store to agitate for unions there. At issue is the organizing of the Fresh & Easy grocery chain in...

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) donated nearly $5.5 million to three non-profit, leftist political groups to beat Republican politicians in Florida, Michigan and Ohio this year. AFSCME gave to Campaign Money Watch, Patriot Majority and Patriot Majority Midwest. AFSCME's role, however, was not well known until now. Detractors say that this shadowy financial support violates the spirit of campaign finance reform and open government. Allowing non-profits to raise and spend unlimited union or corporate funds violates the spirit of laws aimed at curbing special interests in elections, said Meredith McGehee of the non-partisan watchdog Campaign...

To head off claims by California Republicans that California State House Democrats are covering up for the fraud involved in a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) spending and influence peddling scandal, it was announced that a criminal investigation is going forward against the union. One wonders just how hard the Democrat controlled House will pursue the matter, though? The Education and Labor Committee's top-ranked Republican, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), suggested last week that the congressional examination of an SEIU local in Los Angeles had stalled because the union is a key ally of the Democratic Party. The committee...

Unions in America have finally arrived at farce. Yes, they have become a parody of themselves because now we have an example of a union being formed so that it can strike against... its own union. Confused? Don't blame you. From the Associated Press we get this tale of high comedy, this story of brother fighting brother and sister cat fighting with sister: Union employees form their own union, then strike.... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

Responding to Republican charges of foot-dragging, the Democratic chairman of the House labor panel said Tuesday that it is pursuing its inquiry into a spending scandal at the Service Employees International Union but taking care not to interfere with a criminal investigation. The Education and Labor Committee's top-ranked Republican, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), suggested last week that the congressional examination of an SEIU local in Los Angeles had stalled because the union is a key ally of the Democratic Party. On Tuesday, the committee chairman, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), said in a letter to McKeon that the inquiry...

The troubled Service Employee International Union (SEIU) in California is seeing yet another explosion of negative publicity this week as one of its Local chiefs is arrested for possessing child pornography. The Sacramento Bee is reporting Local 1000 District Labor Council 784 Jaime E. Feliciano, 49, was arrested Tuesday, September 9. Authorities on Tuesday arrested the president of a state workers union local on suspicion of possessing child pornography and violating his probation as a sex offender.... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

The Compton city attorney's office is investigating a $1-per-lot sale of government land to a housing corporation that failed to receive the tax-exempt status it sought and is associated with a Los Angeles labor union mired in a spending scandal. The housing group was established as a nonprofit in 2004, but never received an Internal Revenue Service exemption and had lost its right to do business in California for not filing its tax returns, The Times disclosed last month. It was founded under the direction of Tyrone Freeman, president of the Service Employees International Union local, whose financial practices are...

The Service Employees International Union announced Thursday that it had placed a senior manager at its biggest California local on leave and that two lower-ranking staffers had lost their jobs, because of allegations that other employees were retaliated against in connection with a widening spending scandal. The Times reported last month that some workers who did not immediately sign a letter of support for the Los Angeles local's president, Tyrone Freeman, who is at the center of the scandal, had their union cellphone service canceled and were transferred to distant jobs. One staffer who balked at signing the letter was...

The more we learn of the management style of President Andy Stern of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) the more we see that he is an authoritarian as bad as any top-down led corporation that he and his union might criticize. And this newest abuse of office that his protege in California, Tyrone Freeman, has been embroiled in is yet another window into Stern's undemocratic ways. As Freeman was wildly spending union members' dues to float little companies run by his relatives, and as Freeman's associate Rickman Jackson went to a Michigan union to try his own hand at...

The Service Employees International Union's top California officer has taken a leave of absence, and her former boyfriend has been ordered to return tens of thousands of dollars he received from the state council and Los Angeles local that she heads. Annelle Grajeda is the third major SEIU leader to step aside following reports in The Times about the union's financial practices. The SEIU acknowledged Saturday that Grajeda was on leave as president of the L.A. local and the union's state council, and as an executive vice president of the national organization, because of allegations that she was improperly involved...

A growing financial scandal in the 2-million-member Service Employees International Union has prompted a federal criminal investigation into the labor organization's largest California local, sources familiar with the probe say. U.S. Labor Department authorities are examining payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the union and a related charity to firms owned by relatives of the Los Angeles local's president and expenditures of similar sums on a golf tournament, restaurants, a cigar lounge and entertainment companies, according to people with knowledge of the investigation. The investigators are also looking into allegations that some union staff members faced retaliation last...

This just gets better and better. You'll recall our recent focus on the abuse of funds and influence peddling by California Service Employee International Union (SEIU) head Tyrone Freeman being investigated in depth by the L.A.Times and how Mr. Freeman has been funneling union contracts to his family members. Now a related investigation in Michigan has revealed that one of Freeman's former associates has had to step down from a Michigan SEIU post because of similar financial misdeeds there. Once again the L.A. Times is the source for this sad tale of union bosses abusing the power so blindly handed...

A spending scandal at California's largest union local spread to a second state Monday as the head of a sister labor group in Michigan stepped aside because of a widening financial inquiry. The Service Employees International Union said that Rickman Jackson, who formerly served as chief of staff at the California organization, has taken a leave of absence from its biggest Michigan local less than a week after the president of the Los Angeles chapter relinquished his post. Both departures followed reports in The Times that the local and a related charity paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms...

A spending scandal at California's largest union local spread to a second state Monday as the head of the union's leading Michigan group stepped aside because of a widening financial inquiry. The Service Employees International Union said that Rickman Jackson, who served as chief of staff at the Los Angeles organization, has taken a leave of absence from its biggest Michigan local less than a week after the president of the Los Angeles chapter relinquished his post. Both departures followed reports in The Times that the local and a related charity paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned...

The kids at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill feel like they've been used and discarded by Andy Stern's Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and they aren't happy about it. They are so upset they've issued an open letter to the SEIU to air their grievances... not that it'll matter much. It seems that the SEIU swooped onto several college campuses and encouraged student activists to organize college foodservice workers and then, assuring the kiddies that all their work was a worthy effort, quietly worked with the colleges NOT to organize the same workers that the kids thought...

The head of California's largest union local has stepped aside in the wake of Times reports that the organization and a related charity paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by his wife and mother-in-law. Tyrone Freeman, president of a Service Employees International Union chapter in Los Angeles, said in a written statement late Wednesday that he was taking a leave of absence and that the local would be placed in a temporary trusteeship. --snip-- In addition to the payments to his relatives' firms, Freeman's local, the United Long-Term Care Workers, spent nearly $300,000 last year on a...

On August 6, the Boston Herald reported the good news that Boston's Retirement Board finally turned down the disability retirement claim of a fireman that was filmed participating in a bodybuilding contest even as he claimed that permanent back injuries suffered on the job had ended his firefighting career. The Herald hoped this decision heralded the end of the constant corruption of the Retirement Board that had become "a virtual adjunct of the firefighters union." Perhaps there might be hope that the corrupt Retirement Board is reforming what with the retirement of executive officer Robert E. Tierney who is leaving...

Two former officials with the Houston Police Officers' Union -- one a police officer, the other a recently retired officer -- were indicted this morning on charges accusing them of stealing more than $100,000 from the union. A Harris County grand jury indicted ex-board secretary Ronny Martin on charges of misapplication of fiduciary property and theft by a public servant. Former board treasurer Jeff Larson is charged with misapplication of fiduciary property. All of the charges allege that $100,000 to $200,000 was taken. Both men were relieved of duty in mid-January in the midst of an investigation, police union officials...

It must be nice to be spending 85 million dollars on political campaigns yet refuse to fully fund your own member's pension plan. That, among other things, is exactly the sort of hypocrisy that it was revealed that the SEIU has been caught indulging in this week. Diana Furchtgott-Roth did yeoman's work in detailing the state of the SEIU's underfunded pension obligations in the New York Sun yesterday. The Sun's Furchtgott-Roth details the SEIU's latest campaign against New York financier Henry Kravis of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts whom they accuse of all sorts of nefarious activities... none...

Six out of ten... Click here for the table.

Philadelphia - A union staffer's 2002 court declaration asserted that current governor and former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell (D) encouraged Teamsters to pursue assault charges against a nonviolent protester, The Bulletin has learned. Testimony Mr. Rendell offered earlier that year differed markedly from the account. The differing versions emerge from the saga of assault victim Don Adams's arduous legal battles. After the Teamsters agreed in March to settle his almost decade-long civil action, Mr. Adams found the justice he received welcome, if incomplete. Mr. Adams, his sister Teri and about 40 others went to Center City to protest a visit...

Election: Barack Obama promises "change" in politics. But his promise to end federal oversight of the Teamsters union in exchange for an endorsement sounds like Chicago backroom politics. It's change — for the worse. It's disturbing to learn that the man who may lead the U.S. in the highest office of the land still bends and grovels to union bosses whose record of corruption is so bad that they still require federal supervision to keep the mafia out.

PROMINENT South Philadelphia electrical contractor was accused yesterday of cheating the government and the electricians' union out of millions of dollars, while giving sweetheart deals to union leader John Dougherty --snip-- it made clear that Dougherty, chairman of the city Redevelopment Authority and former treasurer of Philadelphia's Democratic Party, is another potential target of the continuing federal investigation.

NewsTip: Evidence of audio tracks secretly recorded during grievance proceedings at UPS Denver, CO. regarding drivers continues ongoing-payroll problems, and was accused of an allegation having no merit to these accusations was discriminated, harassed and abused during these proceedings as Teamsters local union 435 stood by and allowed this abusive behavior from the company (UPS) to continue. We invite you to please review this website: www.corporate-misconduct.com in order to understand the severity and ongoing occurrences of abusive behavior and discrimination in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Please publish this article based upon evidence: revealing and exposing embezzlement...

The question loomed like a cloud over the docks in Hudson County: Would the Genovese crime family try to regain control of the union? After all, Local 1588 of the International Longshoremen's Association in Bayonne had been a money-making machine for racketeers for three decades. Extortion. Embezzlement. Kickbacks. Paychecks for nonexistent jobs. It was all part of the culture. But the mobsters lost their grip in 2003 when a series of waterfront corruption indictments prompted a federal judge to appoint a former New York City police commissioner to clean up the local. The new guys in charge didn't ask for...

Documents of “no legitimate concern to the public.” OLYMPIA—On February 8, 2007, seven unions filed a complaint in King County Superior Court to prevent the state from releasing documents made and exchanged between the state and unions during collective bargaining agreement negotiations last year. The case has been assigned to Judge Hilyer, and has been noted for hearing on Friday, March 9, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. In 2006, the state’s Labor Relations Office (LRO) negotiated 22 contracts with unions representing state employees. These contracts will cost the state more than a half-billion dollars. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation filed a public...

OLYMPIA -- The state's largest teachers union is pushing legislation that would, in effect, allow unions to spend fees paid by nonmembers on political campaigns without first getting permission. The bills, drafted by the Washington Education Association (WEA) and other labor groups, were introduced Wednesday in the House and Senate by a handful of Democratic lawmakers. Union leaders say they are merely trying to clarify a confusing statute. But critics said the union is attempting an end-run on the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently reviewing the constitutionality of a Washington law that required unions to get permission before spending...

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today that LOCAL UNION NO. 8 OF THE UNITED UNION OF ROOFERS, WATERPROOFERS AND ALLIED WORKERS (“LOCAL 8”) pleaded guilty to racketeering. LOCAL 8 admitted it was a member of a criminal enterprise called the Local 8 Group and forfeited $200,000 and is placing $50,000 in an account controlled by the independent monitor with broad powers to root out corruption and organized crime control, whom the Court will appoint immediately. The Court will defer LOCAL 8’s sentencing for five years. If the District Attorney is satisfied after five years that LOCAL 8 is...

OLYMPIA—Today the Evergreen Freedom Foundation filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court�) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the Court to accept review of Washington v. Washington Education Association. At issue is whether individuals can be required to subsidize political speech they oppose. The Washington state Supreme Court ruled in March that a state law requiring unions to obtain permission from teachers before using funds for political purposes was unconstitutional. “The Washington ruling is a dangerous precedent that undermines free speech rights all across the country,� said Michael Reitz, director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Labor Policy Center....

“I love seduction, but I hate rape.” I heard those words for the first time during my freshman year at college. George Mason University professor Walter Williams was giving a lecture on the role of government and the proper use of its monopoly on force in a free society. Government isn’t alone in its ability to abuse its power. Labor unions have also failed to learn the lesson that “no” means “no.” One of the most egregious examples of this is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. For the last five years, Washington state, its National Education Association-affiliated teachers’ union,...

As Stephen Covey, the best-selling author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, once said: “Accountability breeds response-ability.” Thanks to a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals, labor unions will finally be required to show some accountability and transparency for how they spend their members’ money—a crucial step in making Big Labor more responsive to its membership.   On August 1, Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg ruled the U.S. Department of Labor can require state affiliates of the National Education Association to provide detailed financial records to members. The federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) requires labor organizations to annually...

By all accounts, this was an unusual tactic in a labor dispute, even for Boston. Thursday night, right in the midst of the dinnertime rush at one of the city's fanciest steakhouses, The Capital Grille on Newbury Street, a local labor leader allegedly walked into the dining room, opened a white shopping bag, and let three white rats loose. A commotion ensued as the varmints scurried about and diners slicing $40 cuts of dry aged sirloin and other succulent entrees scattered. Out the door, police say, ran Louis J. Antonellis, a business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers...

OLYMPIA—Today Thurston County Superior Court Judge Paula Casey denied the National Education Association's (NEA) motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF). At issue is the NEA's violation of RCW 42.17.760, which requires unions to get "affirmative authorization" before using nonmember dues for political purposes. After Attorney General Christine Gregoire successfully prosecuted Washington Education Association in 2001 for admitted violations of the law, EFF filed a "citizen's action" lawsuit against the NEA in April 2002, arguing the NEA committed similar violations. The Attorney General later filed an identical suit against the NEA.A Public Disclosure...

The most important California prison reform decision in decades may have been Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's refusal to accept campaign contributions from the powerful prison guards' union. The move freed Schwarzenegger to make "dramatic" reforms within the vastly troubled corrections system, including combating a "code of silence" among guards that hid inmate abuse and neglect, a federal court-appointed watchdog said. But improvements are now in jeopardy as Schwarzenegger, facing re-election, tries to curry favor with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said John Hagar, a prisons overseer appointed by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson. The San Francisco-based judge has seized control...

Still On the Waterfront: Long plagued by Johnny Friendlys, dockworkers fight to take back a mob-infested union by Tom Robbins June 27th, 2006 12:21 PM Just south of the Statue of Liberty, the huge white shipping cranes of New Jersey's container terminals arch into the sky. Even in the summer haze, the cranes still dominate the horizon. Their 200-foot-tall white hoists slant up and east, offering a kind of silent salute to the torch clenched in the statue's upraised arm. Most of New York's shipping is conducted on the Jersey side of the harbor now. More than $130 billion in...

Gangster James "Whitey" Bulger On FBI's "10 Most Wanted" List (AP) BOSTON -- Investigators searching for fugitive gangster James "Whitey" Bulger went to Chicago last week, delivering subpoenas to two labor union officials and taking a Palm Pilot from one of them, a lawyer representing the union said. The Palm Pilot was turned over by a union employee with Local 134 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said attorney Matthew J. Cleveland. Cleveland said the union was told by federal investigators that neither the union nor its employees was being investigated. "They were just following up on some...

Spending sends wrong message, some people say While their union its membership shrank by 15 percent last year, United Auto Workers officials spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on meetings at splashy resorts from Palm Springs to Cape Cod, and paid tens of thousands more for bowling and shooting tournaments, baseball and golf. More than $22,000 alone went for souvenir key chains. 'Vague' numbers The spending is outlined in U.S. Labor Department forms that, for the first time, require unions to provide greater details about how they spend members' money. But the filings still require only bare-bones summaries - leaving...

Investment Opportunity by Matthew Ladner June 20, 2006 Teachers unions look after union bosses not teachers In one episode of The Simpson's, Homer was elected union boss. The following conversation ensued: Homer: "How much does this job pay?" Workers: "Nothing..." Homer: "D'oh!!" Workers: "...unless you're crooked." Homer: "WOO-HOOOO!" This episode is not unlike a situation in New York, where the largest teachers union reached a settlement with the Attorney General, ending a scheme that saddled union members with high-cost investments providing limited benefits. New York State United Teachers tried to hide a $3 million annual payment it received from ING...

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was recently described by CBS News’ Leslie Stahl as “a new breed of union boss” who is “known as a street fighter and will use hardball tactics against companies.” That is generally understood by the non-union world to mean whatever it takes - no matter how unfair, untruthful or underhanded. “Dirty pool” is the SEIU’s game of choice. Which is why it should come as no surprise that the SEIU is one of the leading advocates for an illegal alien amnesty program. As a top SEIU official once told the...

The Washington Teachers Union spent tens of thousands of dollars for a river cruise, an annual conference and public relations consulting in fiscal 2005 despite posting more than $600,000 in debt for the second consecutive year. The teachers union, which is recovering from a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandal, has filed its 2005 financial disclosure report after months of scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Labor.

New strategy disturbs some labor expertsWASHINGTON – You’ve heard the panhandler’s common refrain, “Will work for food.” How about: “Will picket for food?” In Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta and elsewhere in the country, union organizers are scouring shelters and recruiting homeless people to maintain their picket lines, paying just above minimum wage and failing to provide health benefits. The national carpenters’ union, which broke from the AFL-CIO four years ago in a bitter dispute over organizing strategies and other issues, is hiring homeless people to stage noisy protests at non-union construction sites. “We’re giving jobs to people who didn’t have jobs,...