Big Labor Backs Democrats in Hopes of a Pension Bailout (Fight the Payoff.)

Alliance for Worker Freedom ^ | 9/8/10 | Christopher Prandoni

[Andrea19]

...Having spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping Democrats build their huge majority over the past four years, organized labor is frustrated by the absence of a tangible victory — they have no single piece of legislation to hang their hat on. Sure, Obama issued executive orders favoring unions in construction and federal contracting, scuttled pending free trade agreements with allies, appointed numerous union-friendly officials to prominent positions, funneled billions in stimulus dollars to unionized workers, and coddled the UAW during the Chrysler bankruptcy process, but labor wants more.

Due to their falling popularity with the American public, labor unions have been relegated to cutting backroom deals with those they help get elected. The legislative victory unions were counting on was the misnamed Employee Free-Choice Act (EFCA), a bill which would have eliminated workers’ rights to a secret ballot when deciding unionization and mandated a government-appointed arbitrator to rewrite union-employer contracts during disputes. “Card check” would have stopped the union membership skid and solidified union power for years to come.

While the lame duck session may breathe new life into EFCA, it is likely that this toxic bill will lay dormant for some time. Subtly acknowledging this, unions have shifted their priorities to new bills which address Big Labor’s most pressing long-term problem — an upside-down, unsustainable pension system.

Most large unions enroll their employees in a multiemployer defined benefit pension system. Operating under the “last-man-standing” rule, every employer is liable for every retiree in the pool. Initially thought to reduce risk by pooling pensions together, the real result has been to burden employers with bankrupt companies’ pension payments. The underfunding of multiemployer pension plans is so pervasive that in 2009 Moody’s estimated that multiemployer plans were underfunded by $165 billion...

[Andrea19]

Our friend from Chicago, Mr. Obama, can see Russia's economic policies before the Soviet Union's fall from his house.

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[jmaroneps37]

Trying to steal everything they can before the cops come in January.