Will Unions Use Obama's Job Summit to Push Job-Destroying Legislation?

With unemployment reaching 10.2% and likely to rise over the coming year, the Obama administration is getting desperate to show that it can reverse the rising unemployment and the President's falling poll numbers.

As Politico notes:

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the presidential playbook: when you want to focus attention on an issue, hold a meeting and call it a “summit.”

President Barack Obama’s already done a “Fiscal Responsibility Summit,” a “Health Care Summit,” an “H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit,” and even a “Distracted Driving Summit.”

Next up: a “Jobs Summit” Thursday, and if Obama thought fighting the flu or getting health reform done was tough, wait until he faces the hard truth that presidents ultimately face when they need an economic quick-fix.

There isn’t one.

Nevertheless, with much fanfare and photo ops, the President will be holding a jobs summit where he's invited "business executives, labor leaders, community activists, economists and others to the White House to spur ideas." [See partial guest list here.]

Interestingly, Bill Clinton's former secretary of labor and ultra-liberal Robert Reich states: “Most presidents don’t have all that much control over creating jobs. They can affect things at the margin.”

While Mr. Reich is half-correct (Presidents cannot create jobs, nor can government-at-large), he misses a larger point: Presidents and government, with ill-conceived policies, can and do kill jobs.

A near-bankrupt treasury, higher taxes, excessive regulation and uncertainty over big government proposals like health care nationalization and 'cap and trade' all have a strangulating on the creators of jobs.

Another piece of legislation that is creating great uncertainty and, therefore, a reluctance to create jobs is the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act (or EFCA).

Even though the President, according to AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka, has pledged to advance EFCA after the health care debate is over, Thomas Kochran suggests in the Huffington Post that the President's "jobs summit" should be used to push for EFCA.

The president needs to use this historic opportunity to break this impasse and launch an era of productive and innovative labor management relations needed
to foster and sustain the new pact.

To do so, the president should announce his intention to work for speedy passage of a reframed and expanded Employee Free Choice Act, a labor law reform bill currently stalled in Congress.

The problem is, EFCA (which, as written, replaces secret-ballot elections on the question of unionization with majority 'card-check' and gives government-imposed arbitrators the power to dictate wages and benefits) is a job destroyer.

As renowned Professor Richard Epstein wrote earlier this year:

The likely consequence of EFCA will be to retard the formation of small businesses, as fledgling entrepreneurs will reassess their prospects of success to take into account the danger of derailment at an early stage in the process. In the long‐term the EFCA will reduce the rate of firm formation, and thus deprive the economy of a central driver of new job creation and technology growth.

And for larger firms?

Faced with these constraints, a firm’s ability to shift and meet the rising competition from new firms could easily result in the loss of jobs from the failure of certain business lines, or the conscious redeployment by management of assets and new investment to locations that have lower costs and greater flexibility –traits most often associated with nonunion operations. The decision to send more activities offshore is also a distinct likelihood.

In 2005, even Andy Stern of the now-infamous Service Employees International Union seemed to implicitly acknowledge that unions hurt jobs when he presented statistics on a PowerPoint slide (at right) indicating that manufacturing jobs that were unionized suffered a much higher loss than did overall manufacturing jobs.

More relevant to Thursday's "jobs summit" is President Obama's own Larry Summers. Prior to his joining the Obama administration, Mr. Summers seemed to get it.

Just a few years ago, Mr. Obama's Director of the National Economic Council wrote that unionization is a cause of long term unemployment.

Another cause of long-term unemployment is unionization. High union wages that exceed the competitive market rate are likely to cause job losses in the unionized sector of the economy. Also, those who lose high-wage union jobs are often reluctant to accept alternative low-wage employment....

There is no question that some long-term unemployment is caused by government intervention and unions that interfere with the supply of labor....

As the meeting of the minds come together on Thursday to hold a photo op and give the appearance they are doing something to try to curb unemployment, perhaps they will get a sudden revelation that they, in fact, may be partly to blame for the high unemployment.

But, then again, the expectation that common sense economics would prevail from an administration that was paid for by union bosses may be asking too much.

__________________________

"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.

Eagle Scout Update: SEIU's PR SNAFU Shames Union into Volunteerism

A mere two weeks ago, the Union of Purple People Eaters (aka the SEIU) found itself in the middle of a media maelstrom for picking on a pathway-clearing eagle scout.

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park. Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

Within a few days, the offending Purple People Eater had resigned his post after having been thrown under the purple bus by his New York bosses.

On Wednesday, after getting hit by a steady onslaught of rights, Balzano got hit by one big left when his own union distanced itself from his comments and called Balzano's wounds self-induced."

His comments were completely unauthorized and they do not reflect the position or views of the union," wrote area leader of the SEIU's Mid-Atlantic District Wayne MacManiman in an apology letter to Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

"The careless and insensitive comments were prompted by frustration over recently laid-off workers in Allentown," MacManiman wrote Wednesday.

Now, however, in what may be too little too late, the SEIU is trying to make amends for its ill-conceived attack on the eagle scout.

Hauling brush and old tires out of the woods in Allentown early Friday, members of the Service Employees International Union learned an Eagle-Scout-to-be is just as forgiving as he is trustworthy, loyal and helpful.

The Eagle Scout service project of Kevin Anderson, 17, of Upper Saucon Township was caught up in a national media firestorm after Nick Balzano, an Allentown union official, threatened to file a grievance over Kevin's work clearing a trail in Kimmets Lock Park. Conservative pundits seized on the remark as evidence of the SEIU's ''thuggery,'' and Balzano later resigned.

To show there were no hard feelings, SEIU members from as far away as Philadelphia and New Jersey accepted Kevin's invitation to help with the project Friday.''They completely agreed -- to come out, to help, to make amends,'' said Kevin, a member of Troop 301 of Center Valley.

Of course, SEIU bosses wasted no time using their 'volunteerism' as a means of trying to get a boost in its PR debacle:

Wayne MacManiman, who leads the SEIU's Philadelphia-based mid-Atlantic district, said he thought Kevin's invitation was a great idea.

''Everybody's here on their day off, volunteering,'' said MacManiman, of Burlington County, N.J.

He noted SEIU members from Allentown had signed up to be part of the union's 20-member crew.

''Kevin's doing an amazing thing. We've always supported the Boy Scouts, whether it's here in Allentown, Bethlehem or Philadelphia,'' MacManiman added, gathering branches alongside Bethlehem SEIU chapter leader Bill Tone.

Always supported the boy scouts? Well, "always" may be always except when your union gets caught threatening to file a grievance against one and you, Mr. MacManiman, after throwing the offender under the purple bus for getting caught.

[Editor's note: It might be a safe bet that a union heavy like MacManiman wouldn't be picking up branches on a Friday after Thankgiving were it not for the bad PR his union received for picking on the scout to begin with.]

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

Will Unions’ Billion Dollars Buy Exemption from Obama’s Crackdown on Lobbyists?

The Obama administration is giving lobbyists the boot, according to the Washington Post, in an effort to reduce their influence in Washington.

No, really. It's not a joke. The Washington Post says it's the case.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street's influence in Washington, according to White House officials and lobbying experts.

The new policy -- issued with little fanfare this fall by the White House ethics counsel -- may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama, who also has sought to restrict the ability of lobbyists to get jobs in his administration and to negotiate over stimulus contracts. [Emphasis added.]

The Heritage Foundation notes that "[u]nions as a whole spent more than $1 billion of their members' dues to elect Obama and the current Congress."

Apparently, however, the Administration has forgotten all the union appointees like Patrick Gaspard (White House Communications Dir.), Ellen Moran (Commerce Department), Mary Beth Maxwell (Dept. of Labor), Jordan Barab (OSHA), Craig Becker (NLRB nominee) or John Sullivan (Federal Elections Commission) that have been handed plum jobs due to their special interest advocacy.

The initiative is aimed at a system of advisory committees so vast that federal officials don't have exact numbers for its size; the most recent estimates tally nearly 1,000 panels with total membership exceeding 60,000 people.

Under the policy, which is being phased in over the coming months, none of the more than 13,000 lobbyists in Washington would be able to hold seats on the committees, which advise agencies on trade rules, troop levels, environmental regulations, consumer protections and thousands of other government policies.

"Some folks have developed a comfortable Beltway perch sitting on these boards while at the same time working as lobbyists to influence the government," said White House ethics counsel Norm Eisen, who disclosed the policy in a September blog posting on the White House Web site. "That is just the kind of special interest access that the president objects to." [Emphasis added.]

There is little doubt that the "special interests" the White House is aiming at do not include union bosses like SEIU's Andy Stern (who seems to have his own key to the Lincoln Bedroom) and Anna Burger, or the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka, all of whom enjoyed a seat at the White House state dinner last week and spent hundreds of millions of dollars putting Obama into office.

[Of course, perhaps the White House is only targeting registered lobbyists. If that's the case, unregistered Andy Stern may be off the hook and the hypocrisy can continue.]

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

Cross-posted on RedState.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? Charges Filed Against SEIU Purple People Beaters...

It is said that the wheels of justice turn slowly.

In the case of the SEIU purple shirted thugs who beat a conservative black man (video) selling Gadsden flags (see right) at a town hall meeting in August, justice is coming more slowly than usual and the wheels?...Well, in St. Louis, the wheels of justice seem to be nothing more than that of a blue matchbox car.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch, which has a reporter among one of the charged, writes:

Six people arrested in August outside a raucous town hall meeting in south St. Louis County have been charged with misdemeanor ordinance violations.

The six, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, had attended a demonstration outside an Aug. 6 forum called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, at Bernard Middle School in Mehlville to discuss health care reform....

The maximum penalty upon conviction would be one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Some bloggers have been writing for months about the lag between the arrests at the politically-charged event and the filing of charges.

County Counselor Patricia Redington insisted it had nothing to do with politics, influence or pressure from any official.

"These charges are like the 90,000 other charges we file each year," she said.

[Emphasis added.]

Interestingly, although the county counselor insists her delay has nothing to do with politics, she seemed much more interested in justice nine years ago when she filed charges against a Republican staffer for pushing a camera away from his face.

Redington was quick to file charges back in 2000, when a staffer for Democrat Richard Gephardt stalked serious contender Republican Bill Federer on a parade route. The staffer, James Larrew, tried to shove his camera into Federer’s face until Federer was forced to push the camera away. The staffer freaked, flagged down a cop and claimed that he had been assaulted. Larrew then called Gephardt’s office and spoke to Joyce Aboussie, Gephardt’s top political adviser, who then contacted Redington’s office. Two days later Redington filed assault charges against Federer, on Columbus Day, a national holiday; after which Redington, Aboussie, and Larrew conducted a media blitz, all arranged for by Gephardt’s office.

Something tells us that the wheels of justice are a bit off track in St. Louis.

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

AFL-CIO Top Boss and SEIU's King & Queen Dine at the White House

Described as the 'hottest ticket in town,' an impressive, star-studded list attended President Obama's first state dinner at the White House.

According to ABC News, "fewer than 400 lucky guests received the official invitation."

Among the guest list of dignitaries, luminaries and Hollywood bigwigs were a trio that, under ordinary circumstances, might go unnoticed were it not for their nefarious influence on this Administration.

The "exclusive" list included:

From Hollywood: David Geffen (who stepped into the middle of the Obama/Hillary Clinton primary fight in Feb. 2007 when he told the New York Times Clinton was the “easiest to beat” in the Democratic field and that nobody believes that since leaving office, “all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person”).
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Alfre Woodard
Blair E Underwood
Steven Spielberg

Prominent Indian-Americans:
Mr. Deepak Chopra
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R)
Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN (and once the subject of much speculation for the position of Surgeon General)

From the world of politics:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
General Colin Powell (who endorsed Obama during last year’s presidential election)

From television media:
ABC’s Robin Roberts
NBC’s Brian Williams
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria
CBS’ Katie Couric
Oprah pal Gayle King
(Not on the list – anyone from FOX News)

From organized labor:
Andy Stern (SEIU)
Anna Burger (SEIU)
Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO)

And Obama family and friends:
Maya Soetoro-Ng (Obama’s sister)
Konrad Ng (Maya’s husband)
Dr. Eric E. Whitaker
Martin Nesbitt
Anita Blanchard (Nesbitt’s wife)
Penny Pritzker

Since the SEIU's union-busting boss Andy Stern seems to have his own key to the White House and is considered the hand in Barack Obama's puppet, it should come as no surprise that he and his fellow union accomplices were served a full-course meal at tax-payer expense.

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

Rasmussen: Democrats More Likely to be Unemployed than Republicans...

What a shocker!

We haven't seen this on the evening news yet but according to a new Rasmussen poll, Democrats are more likely to be unemployed than Republicans:

Data from Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys shows that 15.0% of Democrats in the workforce are currently unemployed and looking for a job. Among adults not affiliated with either major party, that number is 15.6% while just 9.9% of Republicans are in the same situation. [Emphasis added.]

This explains much ...

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

SEIU Bosses Lose Fight With Boy Scouts

Last weekend, when the Union of Purple People Eaters' (aka the SEIU) picked a fight with a lone boy scout, little did it know that a firestorm would ensue.

Apparently, the Purple People Eaters bit off more than they could chew:

Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.

Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley's congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the
local Service Employees International Union.

Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.

Even more telling that the Purple People Eaters will, when backed into a corner, chew off its own arm:

On Wednesday, after getting hit by a steady onslaught of rights, Balzano got hit by one big left when his own union distanced itself from his comments and called Balzano's wounds self-induced.

"His comments were completely unauthorized and they do not reflect the position or views of the union," wrote area leader of the SEIU's Mid-Atlantic District Wayne MacManiman in an apology letter to Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

"The careless and insensitive comments were prompted by frustration over recently laid-off workers in Allentown," MacManiman wrote Wednesday.

He said the union "has no intentions" of filing a grievance against the city and continues to support the efforts of voluntary organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America.

Let it be a lesson for moral cannibals everywhere. Attack an American icon, expect a backlash.

Hat-tip: Moe Lane.

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

Have Shopping Cart, Will Picket: Unions Rent Homeless for Picket Duty

Every now and then (actually, quite often these days) today's union bosses will do something that leaves one to wonder: Are union bosses really that moronic?

Some cases in point:

• Trying to deny workers the right to vote in a secret-ballot election on whether or not to unionize;


• Treading on an American citizen for passing out "Don't Tread on Me" flags;


• Bullying an Eagle Scout for doing volunteer work;


• ...and the list goes on.

The latest case of union idiocy comes from Pittsburgh, where the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA), announced that the union would gather several hundred homeless to picket in front of the [Rivers Casino] at a later date.

Why? Because the security guards at Rivers Casino voted to reject the union (in a secret ballot election).

Hmm. Let's see... Workers exercise their democratic rights to vote against unionization and the union, P.O.'d about losing, decides to rent a bunch of non-union homeless people to demonstrate against the employer because the targeted workers voted against the union.

Somehow, like America's union-controlled public schools, today's union leaders seem to have been...er...dumbed down. [Perhaps victims of their own scholastic successes?]

According to Steve Maritas, the organizing director for SPFPA:

...the union sometimes employs homeless picketers, paying them between $15 and $20 per hour, to represent the employees inside the establishment who may be too fearful to protest themselves. The idea is to get people’s attention, he said. In fact, Maritas seemed excited by the casino’s announcement that it would collect canned food and supplies for the holidays to benefit the region’s poor. The coincidence can be a cross-promotional opportunity.

It wouldn't, however, be the first time homeless people were hired by a union to picket.

Back in 2007, the Carpenters union became the subject of some media attention for hiring the homeless for picket duty:

Many have arrived with large suitcases or bags holding their belongings, which they keep in sight. Several are smoking cigarettes. One works a crossword puzzle. Another bangs a tambourine, while several drum on large white buckets. Some of the men walking the line call out to passing women, "Hey, baby." A few picketers gyrate and dance while chanting: "What do we want? Fair wages. When do we want them? Now."

Although their placards identify the picketers as being with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, they are not union members.

They're hired feet, or, as the union calls them, temporary workers, paid $8 an hour to picket. Many were recruited from homeless shelters or transitional houses. Several have recently been released from prison. Others are between jobs.

"It's about the cash," said Tina Shaw, 44, who lives in a House of Ruth women's shelter and has walked the line at various sites. "We're against low wages, but I'm here for the cash."

Carpenters locals across the country are outsourcing their picket lines, hiring the homeless, students, retirees and day laborers to get their message across. Larry Hujo, a spokesman for the Indiana-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, calls it a "shift in the paradigm" of picketing.

National Public Radio did a report on this 'shift in the paradigm of picketing' as well.

Most people who pass the picket line don't look closely at the protesters. Diego Castaneda, a doctoral student from California, snaps a picture of a marcher and gives her a thumbs up.

"I just like seeing people demonstrating and standing up for their rights," Castaneda said.

But when I tell him the protesters are actually homeless people, his face falls.

"Are you serious?" he says in disbelief. "It's pretty disingenuous of the union to hire people who aren't carpenters."

But that doesn't mean it's likely to change. As long as the union can hire low-wage workers to do the job for its members, it makes good business sense. After all, that's the genius of outsourcing.

According to the NPR report (audio), when one rent-a-picket (at 3:57) was asked if she needed more pay, she responds in the affirmative. When asked if she ever thought about unionizing, she says 'yes.'

Perhaps the Purple People Eaters' union (the SEIU) would be interested in unionizing the homeless picketers?

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.

Cross-posted on 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

Let Your Fingers Do the Talking: SEIU has 60,000 on Pro-Amnesty Call

The Purple People Eater (aka the SEIU), one of the main pushers of nationalized health care, denying secret-ballot votes on unionization, and amnesty for illegal aliens participated in a big town hall on Wednesday to push for "a pathway to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented people currently living in the United States."

According to event organizers and the SEIU, the event involved 60,000 pro-amnesty activists. From the SEIU's site:

Differing from past years, the Reform Immigration FOR America Campaign is already building a field movement that outnumbers and outpaces the other side. Last weekend, the controversial "Tea Party" anti-immigrant activists held a meager 50 events in 26 states that they themselves acknowledged were "not drawing huge crowds."

Well then. Another taunt from the purple puds.

Following this weekend's beating of anti-amnesty camera carriers, it seems the SEIU and its cohorts are spoiling for a fight.

Instead of stooping to the purple behemoth's low levels, energy may be better spent contacting the people who will be bowing to union pressure. You can go here to find them.

UPDATE: ACORN's Former Chief Organizer Comments on Union's "Pink Sheeting" Practices

Following our earlier post (based on a New York Times article) about union organizers who exposed the outrageous psychological warfare tactic known as "pink sheeting" that used on workers and themselves, ACORN's former Chief Organizer Wade Rathke posted the following on his blog:

Now in one of the rare articles we have about internal union business we get to read about tawdry internal affairs and psycho-babble mind games: kill me now!

....

I should disclose quickly that although I understand “one-on-ones” as a methodology, I have never been comfortable with their practice or their claims, largely because in my view they inappropriately elevated the role of the organizer in a way that both create a false mutuality with potential leadership and a distortion of the roles that would most effectively build the organization particularly around the issues of organizer-dependency and a conflation of organizers and leaders making them almost synonymous. It is neither the way I have trained or supervised organizers nor the way I have been involved in building organizations or organizing models. Nonetheless, I have always been respectful of the practice, despite my reservations, because I was confident that the best practices in the craft probably protected against some of these potential problems. In organizers’ shoptalk we used to kid about talking to organizers from other “schools” and having the conversation turn creepy when they started “one-on-one-ing” us and crossing boundaries on a personal level. But, realistically in doing leadership visits and building leadership relationships over time, all of us understood that real personal friendships would emerge and rigid protocols would evaporate over years of work and mutual understandings.

As the use of “one-on-ones” from community organizing morphed into some labor organizing, I think the adaptation got even more bent. In looking under the hood with HERE UNITE organizers, part of the construction of the “one-on-one” was more deliberately an effort to pull out of the organizers a core motivation for why they did the work that was deeply rooted in explaining their motivations, angers, and sense of powerless they shared with the workers based on intensely personal experiences in the organizer’s life. Divorces, family issues, dependencies, addictions, and whatever else frequently emerged as core issues for sharing in the one-on-one. Staff meetings and training sessions described to me were sometimes too eerily reminiscent of some of the old, hugely discredited Synanon sessions so notorious from the last years of the United Farm Workers under Caesar Chavez. [Emphasis added.]

Psycho babble indeed.

To read our earlier post, go here or see below.

Follow LaborUnionReport on Twitter.