Posted on 08/09/2008 5:32:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
California's largest union local and a related charity have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by the wife and mother-in-law of the labor organization's president, documents and interviews show.
The Los Angeles-based union, which represents low-wage caregivers, also spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, a Beverly Hills cigar club, restaurants such as Morton's steakhouse and a consulting contract with the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent shop, records show.
In addition, the union paid six figures to a video firm whose principals include a former union employee. And a now-defunct minor league basketball team coached by the president's brother-in-law received $16,000 for what the union described as public relations, according to the union's U.S. Labor Department filings and interviews.
Most of the 160,000 people represented by the union, a local chapter of the nation's fastest-growing labor organization, the Service International Employees Union, earn $9 an hour or slightly more tending to the infirm and disabled in private homes under taxpayer-funded programs. The workers, whose dues fill the local's coffers, often are described as "the poor caring for the poor." In its Labor Department filings, the local, headed by Tyrone Freeman, has reported more liabilities than assets for each of the last three years.
Freeman, who leads the United Long-Term Care Workers, said he and his union have done nothing wrong. "Every expenditure has been in the context of fighting poverty," he said.
A rising star in labor circles, Freeman, 38, said the union's members have benefited from the money spent on the video production and day-care companies that his wife and mother-in-law operate at their homes, because of what he termed the high quality of the services.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
those things need to be seen .. “ .. in the context of fighting poverty,”’ he said.
those items are just elements to being successful, yaknow
beverly hills cigar club, morton’s, and golf too .. what a life.
Corruption...... Unions.......... go figure
They are fighting poverty, one union thug at a time.
There is NO REASON why the union workers can't fire these bastards and make a criminal complaint.
The business of unions is collecting union dues.
You could add to your list major financial supporters of the Democratic Party.
Gud point, they’re nearly one and the same.
Yes there is.
American trade unions are fascist institutions - one party political machines with no respect secret ballot. In fact, the word "Fascism" derives from a French word that is a synonym for trade union. Anyone who descents is treated like descentors are treated in any other fascist system.
“...beverly hills cigar club, morton’s, and golf too .. what a life.”
I have been told all along, those were benefits only sought out by fat cat, evil country club Republicans.
Cripes. Baby Nobama.
Even the Unions that aren’t corrupt seem to think they have the right to take your money and promote left wing causes. In some workplaces having the protection a union can give might be necessary and so you can find people with conservative/republican leanings in Unions but I wonder if they are aware where their money goes.
Mel
Wow! If arnoldfornia was part of America this would be an important story.
Lodging, LOL. Yeah, right.
These scumbags sure stick together. The founder of the Grand Havana is an old-time stock fraudster that went to jail for money laundering and securities fraud (IIRC). Some of his co-conspirators were the subject of articles written in the late 1990s about "the Mob on Wall Street."
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