Labor Shorts: Exposing Union Bosses One Skid Mark at a Time

This week, to give break to the weightier milieu of the union agenda we wanted to lighten things up a bit by bringing back our ever-popular Labor Shorts and share some of the usual (and not-so-usual) shenanigans of today's union bosses:

First things first:

• The NLRB Scorecard: With the new, union-controlled National Labor Relations Board finally seated, we introduced the NLRB Scoreboard on the LaborUnionReport blog over the weekend to keep an unofficial tally of NRLB decisions, as well as general NLRB "stuff" (blogs and other souvenirs from the Land of Liebman and Becker).  If you have suggestions, blogs you'd like to see posted, tips, or see a case we haven't posted, please give us a shout here.
• NLRB Blowback: The business community is on edge, as Politico notes this morning, over President Obama's appointment of Craig Becker to the NLRB, as well as the prospect of appointing the NLRB's General Counsel in the Fall.  We blogged about it here.

All About Andy...

• His 'time to leave'...Ever since SEIU top boss Andy Stern's announced "retirement" from the SEIU last week, the pundits (from yours truly to Glenn Beck) have been trying to figure out why.  Then, on Thursday, like a post-bean dip epiphany, everything became eye-wateringly clear with a story that summed it all up:  Andy changed America forever, lost interest in the day-to-day running of the SEIU and got bored.  In fact, in his pontificating-on-all-things-union interview with a fawning Ezra Klein, Stern ends the speculation (and interview) by stating that he's going to the beach (...we'll see).
• Good Riddance... says former friend and current arch rival Sal Roselli.
• A Purple Palace Coup challenges the Queen of Labor... Instead of ensuring a smooth transition for his presumed successor, Anna Burger, Andy has left Anna flailing without as much as a simple nod or endorsement. The Queen of Labor's throne very is much in play, with a challenge from inside the purple palace.  Now, in an internal letter to the SEIU Executive Board, four out of nine executive vice presidents have endorsed one of their own, Mary Kay Henry, in her bid to replace Andy Stern.
• AFSCME and I'll tell ya... Loud, foul-mouth AFSCME boss Gerry McEntee threw a splash of cold water on the hopes of a family reunion in the House of Labor, stating the SEIU's rumored re-entry into the AFL-CIO is not likely.
• Now, that's what friends are for... As Andy looked on last Friday, actor-turned-union-activist Danny Glover received a pair of shiny silver bracelets at one of the Sodexho protests.
• A most Dangerous Place... Between Andy Stern and a microphone, notes Bret Jacobson on Breitbart's Big Government.com, as Andy asserts unions don't cost taxpayers a dime...(!)

When Hypocrisy Strikes...

• Shock! Not All Unions Like Card-Check...? After hundreds of millions spent and years of hard work to pass the job-destroying and hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act, it's hard to believe (well, maybe not) that when a union's own employees want to unionize, the union-employer wouldn't just voluntarily succumb agree to recognize the union based on card-check.  Such is the case here.
• Shhh!... Don't tell the UFCW you saw this, 'cause this is not your normal UFCW strike and they'd rather not have it talked about.
• Oh Hilda! You've got picketers at your door!  Will you or won't you cross?
• An Injury to One?... AFSCME throws Solidarity Under the Bus...  (again...)

Strike That!...

• Eee Gads! That Stinks! New Yorkers may soon discover the joys of hailing their own taxis, hauling their own garbage to the curb and opening their own doors if SEIU's 32BJ pulls 30,000 doormen (and women) out on strike tomorrow.  [Factoid: NYC produces 11,000 tons of garbage every day...who knew?]
• A juicy one...? The UFCW's RWDSU might be walking out on strike at Mott's NY applesauce and juice plant.
• Week Four... The Machinists at Merrill Manufacturing Corp. have been on the lines for four weeks.  Problem is, the company is operating at full capacity with replacement workers.
• Schools Out... Teachers in the North Penn School District walked out on their students Monday, causing classes to be cancelled.
• No Contract, No Talks, but No Strike either... The Teamster still don't have a contract with Waste Management in WaSta, but they're not striking either.  (Here's why.)

And then there's this...

• The bigger they are... On the same day President Obama rewarded his union buddies with a federal PLA on construction projects, a union-owned and built high rise was condemned for shoddy construction.

If you can't do the time...

• Stealing $50,000 earns this union boss no time served ever
• Stealing $110,000 netted this CWA boss five years probation, six months home detention and 200 hours of community service
• Allegedly stealing $46,000, draining the union's bank account, a firefighter from Norwell, CT earned himself a pair of shiny new bracelets
  
  

And this...

• Dumb & Dumber? Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) call unions strongest proponent of good government.
• In space DC, no one can hear you scream...  Where are the investigations (and media)??? A week ago, it was revealed that the SEIU paid the White House Political Director (former SEIU boss Patrick Gaspard) $37,000 in 2009 and, so far, there is only...silence.

And, that, dear readers, wraps up this week's edition of LaborUnionReport.com's LaborShorts.

__________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.

Obama Backs SEIU’s Becker, Labor Union Shorts & EFCA Update

A hearty Happy New Year to you!

Besides some breaking news and an EFCA update, we offer you our first 2010 edition of Labor Union Shorts and, as we know your inboxes were filled over the holidays, we'll keep as fairly brief for you (pun intended).

First, this…

BREAKING: Becker to be Re-Nominated…

President Obama's radical union nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, Craig Becker (who is Assistant General Counsel to both the AFL-CIO and the SEIU) had his nomination rejected by the Senate only a week ago. However, liberal blogs Huffington Post and FireDogLake are reporting that the President is frustrated with a lack of progress on his nominations and may be renominating Becker again.

According to FireDogLake:

Now, in all likelihood, McCain will again slap a hold on Becker; the White House will then have a couple options. It can negotiate with McCain for something else he wants; the HELP committee can hold a full hearing on Becker like McCain wants; Harry Reid can force a vote and get 60 senators to vote for Becker, which will end up being a proxy fight over the Employee Free Choice Act; or McCain’s icy heart will melt and allow Becker to go through.

In either case, as Becker’s nomination goes, so do the other 2 NLRB nominees, who must be voted on in a package with Becker. Meanwhile, the 2-member NLRB will continue to make uncontroversial rulings on pending cases that may yet be ruled invalid by the Supreme Court.

Read more from HuffPo here

The EFCA Echo Chamber:

You may have noticed lately that there's a lot of chatter throughout the blogosphere about the likelihood of Democrats attempting to muscle the job-destroying and hallucinogenically-named Employee Free FORCED Choice Act.

Although much of the chatter surrounding EFCA's timing is purely conjecture at this point, the chances are the chatter is correct.

Union bosses know that their days to get anything like EFCA done in DC are numbered. In fact, there are only ten months and three weeks left before Americans head to polls to either rebuke and repudiate the leftward lean of Washington or give the Democrats an endorsement of their running the country further into the ground. And, so far, it looks like the Democrats will be losing their 60-seat supermajority in the Senate as top Democrats run for the exits.

There's still hope (albeit slim) that a busy legislative schedule may impede EFCA.

The 2010 legislative calendar is still unclear with the nationalization of America's health care going into secret negotiations between House and Senate Democrats despite President Obama's repeated promises of airing the negotiations on C-SPAN. However, while the health care debate still goes on, it's being reported that the President is also preparing a push for amnesty for illegals, aka Immigration Reform. That debate will surely warm up the capital like a donkey's a** after eating hot plate of frijoles! [Editor's note: If you thought you were subscribing to a PC post, we apologize for any misgivings.]

This begs the question: What comes first? EFCA?...Or making sure that 12 million illegal immigrants can become health-insured Democrat voters before November?

LUR's Labor Shorts: Exposing Union Bosses One Skid Mark at a Time

For previous Labor Shorts, go here.

• Fugheddaboutit! They Don't Call it the Garbage Garden State For Nuttin!: Reputed Mobster Pleads Guilty To Racketeering Charge. "A high-ranking soldier in the Gambino Crime Family pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal charge of racketeering conspiracy for his role in running an enterprise that engaged in illegal gambling, extortion, fraud schemes and labor racketeering…"
• BFF? A San Francisco slammer and some new friends awaited Uber-Union Boss Richie Trumka on Tuesday as the newly-anointed AFL-CIO kingpin, along with dozens of others, got themsleves arrested during an allegedly illegal sit-in in the lobby of the San Francisco Hilton.
• Union of Ailing Workplaces… A New York Times expose on one formerly-militant, now newly humbled, UAW local should remove all doubt as to what helped drive Government Motors (…er, GM…) into bankruptcy. [Here's a hint: Some people would call it 'sabotage.']
• Is He or Isn't He?...Why not ask Andy? Nearly two months after a request to the U.S. Attoney to investigate whether SEIU's lavender-lapeled lord of labor Andy Stern is illegally lobbying, CNN finally did a partial puff piece on the months-old story…and asked Andy Stern if he is a lobbyist. [See more here.]
• Union Bullsh*t Watch is Back! Glass-Housed Teamsters Ticked Over "Anti-Union" Flyers As the adage goes: He who lives in a glass house should not throw rocks.
• Carpenters Build Glass Houses Too? With Apparently No Union to Save Them, Chicago's Carpenters' Union Lays Off Dozens of Organizers...but buys over $730,000 in cars.
• Rated 'M' (for Mature Audiences only): The Teamsters, the Tart & a Pocketful of Meth featuring one of the best quotes ever [upon appearing before a judge on drug charges]: "…before the accident, I was a heroin addict and used crack, but I don't do drugs any more. I'm a Teamster."
• Shameful: SEIU's Top 10 Bloopers Compiled by Stern Burger With Fries, one of the growing list of SEIU-critical blogs (this one apparently written by disaffected SEIU members) that is increasingly condemning of the Union of Purple People Eaters and its Lord of Labor, Andy Stern, his Queen, Anna Burger, and their collectivist minions.
• Dis-United Labor Union Boss Crows Over SEIU-Muddied Merger. UNITE-HERE's John Wilhelm is crowing over what he says is evidence that his rivals are falling apart and being absorbed into SEIU: "A war that they chose to start has become a war that they cannot win, although it is not yet ended."

Until next time, we offer you our very best wishes!

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

Cross-posted.

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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." -- Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

LABOR SHORTS: The Grinch, The SEIU & More...

Labor Shorts is back for its sixth installment and, in honor of the season and the first story below, we've changed the shorts (so to speak):

• Bah Humbug! No egg nog for those Union Scrooges! An ongoing brouhaha between NBC and NABET/CWA has the union threatening to pull the plug on "Christmas in Rockefeller Center."


• Why do they want to eliminate voting rights? Unions won 73% of NLRB Elections in the first half of 2009 which begs the question: Why do union bosses want to eliminate workers' right to a secret-ballot with the hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act? [What losers.]


• WTF?!? God, Guns and…Goldman Sachs? The SEIU is bragging (and Bloomberg is reporting) that executives at failed New Jersey governor John Corzine's former company, Goldman Sachs, are arming themselves against a potential proletariat uprising, as SEIU continues to harass the bailed-out billionaires club.


• Speaking of Class Warfare…In a newly uncovered video, SEIU's former favorite son (and current DNC Chair) Howard "Hear Me Yell" Dean has declared the debate between socialism and capitalism OVER and announces the DNC's "permanent campaign."


• Show Me State Turns Blind Eye To Purple People Beaters. Three months after the fact and just when it appeared that justice would be served upon the SEIU thugs who beat a black conservative last August, justice just got downgraded to an "ordinance violation."


• SEIU settles PR SNAFU with Boy Scout…sort of. After threatening to file a grievance for a boy scout volunteering his time to clear a path, SEIU bigwigs found themselves picking up sticks by the roadside in an attempt to revitalize their already-blown image.


• Fat Chance, Fat Head! The Machinists union is calling on President Obama to save 1,000 Pratt & Whitney jobs that are moving out of Connecticut. Apparently, the union is hoping that "the silver-tongued orator" Obama has forgotten Machinist President Tom Buffenbarger's anti-Obama tirade during last year's Democratic primaries. [Perhaps the IWAS is befitting.]


• How Objectionable: SEIU's Press Release Calls Out NLRB & Attempts Scare Health Care Workers. The National Labor Relations Board has apparently offended the seemingly above-the-law SEIU by granting health care workers at Kaiser Permanente the right to vote to choose whether or not to remain represented by the Union of Purple People Eaters. Read the release here.


• An Ex-SEIU staffer shares what he found wrong with Andy Stern's SEIU: "…an organization that dampened freedom of speech, weakened internal democracy, reduced meaningful member involvement, made secret deals with employers that harmed members’ interests, and isolated and punished members and staff who disagreed." [Read the rest here.]


• Union extortion gets NY contractor 3 Mos. in slammer. "After apologizing to his family and the court, Petrocelli told the judge that if he hadn't paid off McLaughlin, the crooked labor leader would have put him out of business by drumming up labor unrest."


• Thief Steals Millions from Sandhogs Union. "Like sand in an hourglass, so were the..." Over the last seven years, Melissa G. King of Irvington, N.Y., transferred $42 million from three union funds to bank accounts she controlled.


• SEIU Set to Walk Out on Patients. Richard Palmisano, president and CEO of Northern Berkshire Healthcare, the hospital’s parent corporation, said in a release that the hospital would continue to "provide high quality health care services to our patients without interruption" if the strike takes place as planned.


• Teamsters' Hoffa Imposes Concessions on Teamster Members. “We’re proud that we stood strong against concessions, and we did it on our own. Now our own International union comes in and undercuts us. They’ve sold themselves to the company,” stated Local 705 steward Mike Jordan.

These, as you know, are but a few of the stories we post seven days a week on LaborUnionReport's Linkedin Group. If you're not on there yet, you're missing a lot.

Readers, we wish you a very productive and prosperous week's end.

__________________________

"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." -- Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Labor Shorts, an EFCA Rumor & Health Care

An EFCA Update: The Latest Rumor…

We have not been hearing much about the job-destroying and hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act. However, given last Tuesday's Democratic drubbing at the polls in NJ and VA, we know that unions and their allies on the Hill are getting a bit antsy (read desperate) to try to get their agenda passed before the mid-term elections in 2010.

On EFCA, as it's been stalled in the Senate, rumor has it that there will be an attempt to do something…anything…after the first of the year.

While "anything" may be a watered-down version (i.e., "quickie elections," baseball-style arbitration, equal-access, and punitive fines), or it could be the EFCA in its original form, the real reason unions and their cohorts are going to try for something after the first of the year is to see who's with them and who's against them. This way, with the help of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and his help in developing labor's 'hit list,' they'll know who to target in the mid-terms.

Now, this might sound a bit like 'extortion' to laypeople (like us). But no one should dare call it 'extortion.' For 'extortion' really has no place in politics…And, stating the truth would be about as absurd in today's political environs as laypeople calling political threats from union bosses 'extortion.'

Labor Shorts #6: Exposing Union Bosses, One Skid Mark at a Time…

• Proud Propagandists: SEIU Leaked Memo Exposes Union Propaganda Techniques Used For Union Bailout Bill
• Angry in Arizona. As a strike deadline nears, UFCW-represented grocery workers in Arizona are upset with their union and picketed the UFCW offices in Phoenix…BUT…
• Grocery workers in Colorado want to strike. However, UFCW bosses quibble on constitutional language as member claims union is "playing games with our lives."
• The SoCal Slaughter. In Washington, UFCW bosses' bad memories of the 2004 SoCal strike that went kaput are causing some angst over granting a strike sanction.
• Tough Times for the UFCW Staff as one UFCW Local Threatens its Own Staff Union With Layoffs!
• Black and blue and purple too! With two alleged beatings over the last few months, we take a look at The SEIU and its Purple Pattern of Persuasion
• Don't Mock Them! It may be hard to take unions seriously when one sees American Airlines' flight attendants mocking a strike. [LMAO!]
• No Tips Today… Workers at the San Francisco's Palace Hotel walked off the job this morning, taking to the streets with picket signs, drums and whistles.
• Bugging Becker… Eminent scholar Richard Epstein takes on NLRB nominee and SEIU radical Craig Becker, as well as the overly (and overtly) politicized National Labor Relations Board.
• What a MESS! The Teamsters are threatening to walk out on the mess hall at West Point, possibly leaving 4,000 cadets with nothing to eat.
• Dis-United Unions… The ongoing slug-fest between the union (formerly) known as UNITE-HERE and the SEIU-backed Workers United continues as laundry worker Carmen Padron says: "They should be organizing workers who don't have a union, not harassing us." [More here…]
• More Machinists to Lose Jobs as Hawker Beechcraft announces the closure of its Salina, Kansas plant--one of the two locations where the Machinists waged a bitter (and fatal) strike last year. The strike resulted in one fatality.
• A Disastrous Divorce or a Swimmingly Sweet Note? It all depends on one's point of view of how good the now-locked out musicians of Broadway's "Tony N' Tina's Wedding" played.
• The Last of the Mohicans? YRC bankruptcy may only be a matter of time as the last major Teamster trucking company continues to get creative in trying to save itself. If this latest effort fails, YRC's bankruptcy may be imminent and the company will join a long, long list of failed Teamster trucking companies.
• Topping 34,000. In the last day or so, the total number of site visits to 1-888-NO-UNION.COM have topped 34,000. This is all through word of mouth, as the site (as a free resource for employees and their employers) grows in popularity.
  

The Coming Apocalypse? Nationalized Health Care…or Not.

Okay. So "apocalypse" may be a bit of a stretch (*see footnote).

However, despite being declared DOA in the Senate (and whether you like it or not), Nancy Pelosi and her minions passed a 1,990 page monster of a bill under the cover of darkness on Saturday night.

“There’s no doubt that this is the most liberal health care bill that’s ever going to be passed by the Congress,” said a senior Democratic aide who helped ram it through the House. “Everything after this is likely to be weaker.”

While union bosses, like CWA's Larry Cohen gloat on the House's passage of PelosiCare, others are not so keen on the idea of a government-run, nationalized health care debacle.

"If this health care bill becomes law, America, life as you have known it, freedom as you have exercised it and privacy as you have enjoyed it will cease to be," says Judge Andrew Napolitano of the nearly 2,000 page freedom-ending monstrosity of a bill.

You can download all 1,990 pages here and sink into a recliner for a few hours, or you can view a partial breakdown of the bill on WSJ here.

And, if you're into that "holding-your-representatives-accountable" thing, you can see how your representatives voted here.

• Footnote: A few of our readers rebel at our staunch promotion of individual liberty so, on occasion, we like to throw a bit of hyperbolic bluster their way to gauge their reactions. [Bro-hugs, dudes!]

Readers, that is our take on all that which is important on the union front.

As always, for Labor News & Views delivered to your inbox daily, join the LaborUnionReport group on Linkedin.

And, don't forget, you can also follow us on Twitter.

We hope that you have a productive and prosperous week.

Best wishes.

LaborUnionReport
"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

LABOR SHORTS #4: Exposing Today's Union Bosses One Skid Mark at a Time

Vol. 1, Issue 4

It's Friday and our socks are soaked as Mother Nature drops an early winter Nor'easter on the Eastern third of the U.S. (yep, even some snow flurries in October!).

Nevertheless, we persevere in order to provide you with our fourth installment of LaborUnionReport's Labor Shorts, where we expose another week's worth of shenanigans from today's union bosses. [Click on the following links to see previous installments: #1, #2, and #3.]

• Seeing Red? Welcome RedState readers! [Last weekend, LUR began posting on RedState.com and we were was surprised to have the following post promoted to the front page: Absence of Erroneously-Named Employee Free Choice Act Has Some Union Bosses Getting Antsy]


• Deaf, Dumb and Dem. Despite a letter requesting a hearing (PDF), Senate Democrats are ready to confirm SEIU-radical nominee Craig Becker to the pro-union National Labor Relations Board without a hearing on SEIU's Purple People Eater's attorney and ACORN ally. (Read more on Becker here.)


• Pledging Allegiance to…SEIU? In a newly-uncovered video, the omni-present SEIU gets an oath of allegiance from its Organizer-in Chief to paint the country…purple?


• Related: Another Purple People Eater Goes into Government. Another SEIUer, Michael T. Kerr, who serves as Assistant to the Queen of Labor, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, has been sworn in as New Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management at the Department of Labor. This brings the number of union insiders running our government to…a LOT!


• Related ReDux: Purple Pimpernel Among Washington's Most Powerful. Lavender Lapeled Labor Lord (and SEIU boss) Andy Stern is number 36 of Washington's Top 50 Most Powerful People, according to Gentlemen's Quarterly (GQ).


• Third Time's a Charm. Workers at MeadWestvaco were finally successful in their attempt to oust the United Steelworkers in favor of their own independent union. The USW has seven days to object to the election outcome (again).


• Unfriendly Skies? Jimmy Hoffa (the Younger) is out campaigning to unionize Continental Airline's fleet service workers, according to a Teamster press release.


• Get a Job! One way to get people back to work? Drop the hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act, says Forbes' Steven Davis. [More on the delusionally-dubbed job-killing EFCA here.]


• Targeting Toyota? Amid the worst auto industry slump in decades, the Machinists' union--not the Union of Ailing Workplaces (UAW) is targeting Toyota workers.


• Health Care Workers Walk Out. Yesterday, the Purple People Eater, SEIU, led a one-day walk out of hospital workers in Washington State. Purporting the walk out was over patients instead of profits, the SEIU's contract has been expired since June.


• Teamster Tussle. Apparently left out of the auto bailouts earlier this year, Teamsters are talking tough over UAW-owned Chrysler's shifting of work to non-union car carriers, fearing that Government Motors (GM) may opt to do the same.


• Bye Bye, Bronx Biscotti. Despite their clever chants, October 8th was union workers' last day at the Bronx cookie maker Stella D'Oro, following an 11-month strike and the company's sale. The now unemployed union workers left the plant chanting, "The workers united, will never be defeated!" [For background, read 'No Contract, No Cookies!...and No Job!']


• Tough-Talking Trumka. Though he is accused of being "narcissistic, lazy" and "self-indulgent" from people within his own movement, newly anointed AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka talks of being tougher than his predecessor, DSA member John Sweeney.


• NO CHIT! Despite the newly-reported Administration ties to health care lobbyists, unions are calling in their chits on health care, according to Townhall, making Dead Fish Sender (and presidential advisor) Rahm Emanuel more afraid of losing union bosses' backing than he is of America's citizen backlash. Continued…


• Tax Thee Not Me! Unions are fighting mad over the Senate version of Health Reform because it contains a tax on many employer-sponsored benefit plans.


• NYC Commuters Brace For 'Day of Outrage.' MTA bus and subway riders are bracing for an undefined union job action based on a mysterious text message, although union officials are denying involvement.


• Corrupt Union Bosses? Former UTU Secretary-Treasurer Michael P. Kelly is heading off to the Big House for a year after pilfering nearly $100k from his union and its members.


• Corrupt Union Bosses Part Deux? Teamster affiliate, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers' president Edward Rodzwicz, was arrested on Tuesday, accused of soliciting and accepting $20,000 in bribes from a St. Louis lawyer. The Teamsters have no comment.


• Tips on How Count the Corrupt Union Bosses...Bring more than ten fingers and toes, then go here.


• Union-Free = Un-Patriotic. The proposed Patriotic Corporation Act will give you a 5% tax break if you let your workers unionize (other strings attached). No word on whether your company or employees would get a government bail out if the union drives you out of business.


• Unions Taught In Higher Ed? Albeit rather oxy-moronic to begin with, the moronically-named Employee Free Choice Act will be heading to Penn State as the United Students Against Sweatshops aim to teach others about the no-vote unionization bill.
  

And that, dear readers, is our fourth installment of Labor Shorts.

We hope you have a truly great week's end!

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

LABOR SHORTS #2: Exposing Today's Union Bosses One Skid Mark at a Time

Labor Shorts, Vol. 1, Issue 2

Welcome to Labor Shorts, where we expose today's union bosses one skid mark at a time.

In this week's issue, we bring to you the following briefs...er...shorts:

• Harkin Hopes for EFCA in Fall. Union-mastered Senator Tom Harkin "hopes" for an EFCA vote this fall, reports the Hill. [For more information on the hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act go here.]
• Goodbye Norma Rae. EFCA pushers invoke the spirit of the late Cheryl Lee Sutton (aka 'Norma Rae') as a means to draw support of the job killing legislation. What the proponents of no-vote unionization neglect to mention is that the textile plant that 'Norma Rae' helped unionize closed in 2003 [Listen to the NPR report here.]
• Kiddie Indoctrination Part Deux. We've seen the videos of kids eerily singing praises to the President, but those are considered educational anomalies. On the other hand, Michelle Malkin is posting how union indoctrination (including union organizing, complete with the creation of "peer education program about workers’ rights today") is built into the curriculum in the L.A. Unified School District.
• Boeing, Going, Gone? Despite its denial that it has made up its mind about transferring some of it 787 production to its recently union-free South Carolina facility, Boeing is seeking land clearing permits [perhaps to send a signal to its unionized workforce in Washington?].
• A Paper Tiger? The United Steel Workers (formerly the United Steel Workers of America) will learn tonight whether it will continue representation of 900 Virginia paper workers, many of them who are supportive of an independent union formed by former USW local officers.
• Let Them Walk and Carry Signs. Did you know that crossing guards are unionized in the State of Rhode Island? And, did you know the City of Warwick gave the crossing guards lifetime health care and pension benefits? No, really! Well, apparently the mayor of Warwick thought the same thing so he fired all the crossing guards. Problem is, the State Labor Relations Board ordered the city to rehire the crossing guards and pay them the salaries and benefits they would have been paid under the terms of their last contract. [Of course, at taxpayer expense.]
• Union Fundraiser: 'Raids Made Possible Only Through the Support of Members Like You.' The Willamette Reds report that the National Union of Healthcare Workers (the union formerly known as SEIU United Healthcare West) had a successful trip to the AFL-CIO Convention two weeks ago, receiving financial pledges from unions around the country. This will allow the NUHW to continue its fight against the Purple People Eater, otherwise known as the SEIU.
• Speaking of Union Raids... The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is raiding another union's 6,700 members in Suffolk, NY
• Goodyear's Steelworker Contract Saves 1/2 Billion+. The new contract covers 10,300 workers at plants in Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; Danville, Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Gadsden, Ala.; Topeka, Kan.; and Union City, Tenn.
• Everyone is NUTS over ACORN! Of all the czars and union stars proliferating the White House these days, Patrick Gaspard, former SEIU and ACORN front man and current White House Director of Political Affairs (think Karl Rove) has caught the attention of RedState.
• Where ACORN gets its Nutty Flavor. Union-Free America has posted where some of ACORN's green money making machine comes from. [Here's a hint: Unions.]
• Between a Rock and a Boulder. When teachers abandon school kids for picket lines, education gets short changed. However, in Boulder, CO, the school superintendent plans to use subs to keep schools open.
• Speaking of Rocky Relations in the Rockies. UFCW-represented grocery workers at Safeway and City Markets have rejected their employers' offers, setting the stage for a strike.
• Teamsters get a Time OUT. After representing workers at El Paso's Time Warner Cable for 30 years, the Teamsters were ousted (130 to 90) by TWC employees.
• ...And Bombs with Plans for FedEX. Teamsters' most recent efforts to run FedEx (into the ground) by busting founder Fred Smith's job into two were shot down by shareholders.
• Take this Shot & Shove it! Hundreds of health care workers in New York protest mandatory pig flu shots: When asked if he's willing to lose his job, Frank Mannino, RN, said, "Absolutely. I will not take it, will not be forced. This is still America." [Um... okay...]
• Don't Do the Crime if You Can't Do the Time. Only in New Jersey. Anthony R. Ambrosio pled guilty to five charges, including embezzlement of an employee benefit program, tax evasion and conspiracy, and now faces up to 25 years in prison and $6 million in fines. One of his charges was paying $20,000 (+/-) to leaders of the Operating Engineers Local 825.

And, that, dear readers, concludes this week's Labor Shorts.

Best wishes for a productive and prosperous week's end.

For more news and views on today's labor unions, join LaborUnionReport's group on Linkedin or follow us on Twitter.

"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." -- Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776