Organized Labor : Corruption


Subtopics on this page:

    Organized crime
    Shadowy connections
    An atmosphere of sleaze and graft
    Occasional violence and constant strife



Organized crime

Union Corruption 2012: Big Labor's Federal Rap Sheet.  America's labor unions have amassed quite a federal rap sheet in 2012.  According to the Justice Department, union officials nationwide have been arrested for or convicted of embezzlement, extortion, bribery, racketeering, money laundering, fraud, and witness tampering so far this year.

How a Union Boss Turned Old Light Bulbs Into a $574,000 Vacation Home.  I've been combing through the arrest warrant for Pat Santeramo, the former president of the Broward Teachers Union (BTU) who was charged with 20 counts of fraud, racketeering and other stuff.  It makes for fascinating reading.

Cushy 'low-show' jobs for Mafia kin and friends pay $400K a year.  A small band of longshoremen — including relatives of famous mobsters — were paid for working more than 24 hours a day, every day of the week, at the ports of New York and New Jersey, The Post has learned.  And the Port Authority is warning the industry that if it wants public funds for waterfront improvements, it has to stop handing out outrageous perks to favored workers.

Jimmy Hoffa and Feds Scheme to Control Teamsters.  Fred Gegare, who is challenging Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in elections this month to head up the transport union, says that Hoffa and the US government are colluding to control the union by the use of intimidation. ... When you figure in Obama's mobster roots in the Chicago Combine with his administration's willingness to use government power in conjunction with unions to get what they want, then the question becomes, not if the mob is making a comeback in unions, but how much control do they already have?

Brooklyn DA and feds smoke out mob influences in LIUNA union.  Fresh from a record mob takedown, the feds have targeted one of the city's most important construction unions for some Mafia housecleaning, sources said.  Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch's investigators have begun plotting strategies to break the Gambino crime family's 50-year stranglehold on the Pavers and Road Builders District Council, the sources said.

Organized Labor, Organized Crime.  [Scroll down]  Also among those indicted are Albert Cernadas Sr., who stepped down five years ago as executive vice president of the International Longshoreman's Association and head of ILA Local 1235, as well as the son of the man who replaced him at 1235, Edward Aulisi — prosecutors say Aulisi was recorded promising continued payments to the mob after Cernadas left.  The current president of 1235, Thomas Leonardis, was indicted, as was Nunzio LaGrasso, vice president of ILA Local 1478.  Union corruption is only one part of what the Mafia does.  But it's important to recognize that our laws facilitate it...

The Mob Round-Up:  The FBI is making headlines this morning with a massive roundup of mobsters from top crime families in New York City.  Working with state and local police officers, they've hauled in over a hundred suspected wise guys, on charges NBC News says will range from "gambling to racketeering to murder."  FBI officials told NBC that "organized crime is still active in New York's construction industry," while "labor union corruption, loan sharking, and gambling are among the other schemes run by the mob."

Organized crime still has firm grip on unions, even at Ground Zero.  The massive mob takedown shows organized crime's grip on unions is virtually unbroken — even at Ground Zero — despite decades of prosecutions.  Exhibit A:  Ralph Scopo Jr.  Scopo, who pleaded guilty to extortion in 2005, inherited leadership of concrete workers Local 6A from his father, who was convicted in 1986 in the Mafia Commission case.

Union Busted:  Local 333 of the International Longshoremen's Association.  [Scroll down]  Of these 379 members, 219 — almost a quarter of the union membership — have been convicted.  By removing from the list of convicts those who were ruled guilty only of relatively minor charges — things like traffic offenses, cable-television fraud, open container, disorderly conduct, housing violations, leaving the scene of an accident, etc. — the list is whittled down to 194 members with serious criminal backgrounds, more than one-fifth of Local 333's roster.  So far this year, 21 members of Local 333 have been convicted of serious crimes.  All but one of them have prior convictions.  Their 2010 convictions include:  armed robbery, possession with intent to distribute drugs, drug dealing, attempted drug dealing, drug possession (five counts), firearms (three counts), sex offense, escape, theft (two counts), and assault (three counts).

Two Jersey City union leaders are charged with embezzling $375K.  Two Jersey City labor leaders were arrested by federal agents today and charged with embezzling from a union representing bus drivers, hotel employees and factory workers.  David J. Caivano, 55, and Stephen P. Arena, 55, are accused in a 29-count indictment, unsealed today [9/21/2010], of bilking $375,000 from Local 148 of the Production Workers Union.

In any other state, this would be considered organized crime.
 Medical Marijuana Growers Join Teamsters Union.  In California, the teamsters have organized 40 marijuana workers.  They work as gardeners, trimmers and cloners.  It's not clear how labor laws will apply to this situation, since medical marijuana is legal in California but is still a federal crime.

Marijuana initiative gains backing of state's largest labor union.  The campaign for Proposition 19, the initiative on the November ballot that seeks to legalize marijuana, plans to announce Tuesday [9/21/2010] that it has won the endorsement of the state council of the Service Employees International Union, the largest labor union in California.

Union protects growers of pot.  As organized labor faces declining membership, one of the country's most storied unions is looking to a new growth industry:  marijuana.

Union boss returns some of $1.2M pay.  The president of a maritime workers union — a labor organization dogged for years by declining membership and a federal racketeering lawsuit — reported receiving $1.2 million in compensation last year but abruptly gave back much of the money in April after his big payout was disclosed to the government, according to federal documents and interviews.

Former union organizer pleads guilty in labor racketeering case.  A former organizer for Operating Engineers Local 17 today became the first person pleading guilty in connection with a labor racketeering case filed against construction union leaders almost two years ago.  James L. Minter III admitted that he engaged in a decade-long conspiracy, using threats, harassment and extortion against non-union construction workers and companies throughout Western New York.

Teamsters convicted: 3 in Chicago Local 743 guilty in union election scheme.  A former union officer and two employees of Teamsters Local 743 were convicted in federal court Friday [5/1/2009] for rigging two elections in 2004.

RICO Trial for Bosses of Florida Union Gets Underway.  Michael and Robert McKay have been living on borrowed time.  Respectively, president and treasurer-secretary of the American Maritime Officers, the McKay brothers, aged 59 and 56, rigged elections, stole funds, obstructed justice, and orchestrated illegal campaign contributions.  At least that's what the Justice Department has been alleging in a criminal racketeering suit against the pair.

Head of Nation's Largest Municipal Labor Council Arrested in NYC.  A seven-term Democratic state assemblyman who also is president of the nation's largest municipal labor council was arrested on federal racketeering charges Tuesday, accused of stealing more than $2 million from the state, labor unions and even a Little League fund.

Mob-Controlled Queens, N.Y. Local Threatens, Ignores Members.  Members of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) want some answers about where their money is going.  That's understandable given the caliber of people running the show.  The president of the 15,000-member Queens, N.Y. school bus drivers' local, Salvatore Battaglia, is facing federal charges of obstruction of justice, having been accused of conspiring with members of New York's Genovese crime family.  He's still in office.  The union's secretary-treasurer, Julius Bernstein, was forced by prosecutors to step down from his post in June; he's due for sentencing late next month for racketeering.  And its pension fund director, Ann Chiarovano, despite pleading guilty in August to obstruction of justice, remains at her job because she is technically not a union officer.

Port Fear:  Longshoremen union members will continue to handle packages at America's ports, no matter who owns the facilities.  Oddly, none of these same members of Congress have called for inspecting the disturbing history of these unions.  At least three aspects of Longshoremen history suggest that these union members at our ports might pose a risk to national security.  They have been associated with organized crime, specifically the Mafia.  They have a history of anti-American radical politics and have committed acts of violence.



Shadowy connections

Agenda: How Marxists Are Grinding America Down.  A good history lesson is crucial in understanding that the organized war to destroy America really does go back nearly 150 years — all the way back to the 1880s, which is roughly the time Marxists began infiltrating unions in an attempt to take them over here in the U.S.

Chavez celebrated at SEIU offices in New York.  Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local 1199 in New York City allowed a celebration of the life of the late socialist Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to be held in their offices Friday.  The event, organized by the pro-Chavez Bolivarian Circle of New York, was held last Friday [3/8/2013] at 6:30 PM and promoted on Facebook.

DNC Literally in Hock to SEIU.  The Democratic National Committee (DNC) owes at least $8 million to a bank owned by one of the largest unions in the country, according to the committee's most recent financial report.  The DNC initiated an $8 million loan with the Amalgamated Bank of New York on Aug. 10, the report shows, accounting for the majority of the committee's overall debt of $11 million.  Amalgamated Bank, often described as "America's Labor Bank," is a national entity, the majority of which is owned by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a politically active union with deep ties to the Democratic Party.

National Labor Racket.  One of President Obama's controversial recess appointees to the National Labor Relations Board has ties to corrupt mafia bosses, Fox News reports.

Obama pick for NLRB was top lawyer for union tainted by mob ties, history of corruption.  The rap sheet for members of the International Union of Operating Engineers reads like something out of "Goodfellas."  Embezzlement.  Wire fraud.  Bribery.  That's just scratching the surface of crimes committed by the IUOE ranks.  And it is from this union that President Obama earlier this year picked one of his latest appointees to the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency tasked with resolving labor disputes between unions and management.

Union with Obama ties rents offices for Occupy DC.  A labor union with strong ties to President Obama is helping make the Occupy Wall Street movement a more permanent fixture in the nation's capital, moving Occupy DC into office space the group can use to organize and grow through the presidential election.  The Service Employees International Union, one of Obama's most vocal supporters among labor groups, is paying $4,000 a month for three offices the Occupy protesters will use for at least the next six months to plan future demonstrations, organize and host workshops.

SEIU Paying Occupy DC's Rent — Really.  Now that Occupy DC has been kicked out of downtown Washington after camping out for months, SEIU is making sure the violent, rape filled, rat ridden and dirty movement has a place to stay and operate for the next six months.

SEIU Confirms Democrat-Socialist Marxist Connection.  I have long contended that the US's largest and most militant labor organization the Service Employees International Union, is allied to, or subordinate to the country's largest Marxist organization — Democratic Socialists of America.  Here is proof of this connection, from the latest edition of DSA's Democratic Left, Winter 2011/2012, page 11...

Labor unions and communism.  Labor leader Andy Stern has seen the future.  There's no freedom there, but he's OK with that.  Mr. Stern, a former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), recently returned from a trip to China, where he had the opportunity to meet with "high-ranking" government officials, who outlined for the former labor leader the authoritarian regime's long-term economic plan.

Richard Trumka.  While at the helm of the AFL-CIO, Trumka helped repeal a longtime rule that banned Communists and fellow-travelers from leadership positions in the organization and its unions.  The move to open the previously patriotic union to subversives delighted the Communist Party USA.  "The radical shift in both leadership and policy is a very positive, even historic change," CPUSA National Chairman Gus Hall said in 1996.

Editor's note:
 This multi-part series at Front Page Magazine also focuses on Craig Becker, Stephen Lerner, Leo Gerard, Andy Stern, Ron Bloom, Heather Booth, Wade Rathke, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., John Sweeney, and Daniel De Leon.

SEIU drops mask, goes full commie.  A May Day rally in Los Angeles, co-sponsored by the SEIU and various communist groups, as well as other unions, reflected yet another step in the normalization of self-identified communist and socialist ideologies in the Obama era.  Not only did the SEIU help to organize the rally in conjunction with communists, they marched side-by-side with communists, while union members carried communist flags, communists carried union signs, and altogether there was no real way to tell the two apart.

Communists, socialists rallying support behind Madison protests.  Communist and socialist groups — including the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party, the Communist Party USA, Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party and the Democratic Socialists of America — are voicing their support for the public-sector unions protesting Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker's plans to curtail their collective bargaining abilities.

Is SEIU Working With Hamas And FARC?  Prominent current and former members of SEIU local 73 are being investigated for their potential ties to the Hamas and FARC terrorist groups.  Late last year, their homes were raided by the FBI, and they were subpoenaed to appear in front of a grand jury for questioning.

Do Bureaucrats Know Better Than You? The NLRB Thinks So.  In a democracy, the will of the voter is the ultimate mandate.  Those elected to public office are the servants to the electorate, and by extension, this is true for the bureaucrats appointed and nominated by those same officials.  But all of this seems to be lost upon the members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  Whether it's the board chairman, Wilma Liebman who previously worked for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters or Craig Becker who was previously on the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) payroll, their allegiance appears to be with union bosses, not the American people.

Union Terror Link?  From being involved in fraudulent voter registration in Texas to beating up Tea Party activists outside town hall meetings in Missouri, SEIU's reputation is well-established.  Now we can possibly add a linkage to terrorism.  On Friday [9/24/2010], the FBI searched eight addresses in Minneapolis and Chicago.  Among those addresses was the North Side home of Chicago anti-war activists Joe Iosbaker and his wife, Stephanie Weiner, whose home was searched for 12 hours.

Is President Obama Using Executive Powers To Organize Protests?  Earlier, we posted about the links between Andy Stern's SEIU and a group called National People's Action (NPA).  NPA, together with SEIU and the AFL-CIO, is organizing a series of angry marches against Wall Street and capitalism.  NPA is a very dangerous and radical group that isn't shy about its radical philosophy. ... President Obama is very close with NPA board member, John McKnight.  Mr. McKnight also sits on the board of the Gamaliel foundation where President Obama worked as a community organizer.

Union and Whistleblower Complaint Documents SEIU Ballot Fraud.  Today's Wall Street Journal and Fresno Bee report that SEIU engaged in illegal threats, ballot-tampering, and other serious violations of election rules during a June union election for 10,000 homecare providers in Fresno, according to voters and union staff who worked for SEIU during the election and have now come forward.

Transparency in union finances a thing of the past.  Ignoring their own rhetoric about the value of transparency and openness, the Obama administration is "rolling back rules requiring labor unions and their leaders to report information about their finances and compensation," according to [a] Washington Times report written by Jim McElhatton.

Obama team reverses union transparency.  The Obama administration, which has boasted about its efforts to make government more transparent, is rolling back rules requiring labor unions and their leaders to report information about their finances and compensation.  The Labor Department noted in a recent disclosure that "it would not be a good use of resources" to bring enforcement actions against union officials who do not comply with conflict of interest reporting rules passed in 2007.  Instead, union officials will now be allowed to file older, less detailed conflict reports.

Obama Tries to Stop Union Disclosure.  Fifty years ago, Congress passed the landmark Landrum-Griffin Act to protect rank-and-file union members from malfeasance by union leaders.  Senate hearings had uncovered serious corruption and other unethical practices inside the labor movement, and a bipartisan coalition emerged to shine the light of disclosure on union practices.  Nevertheless, Democrats in Congress and in the executive branch have often attempted to undercut that law's financial reporting and disclosure requirements.

ACORN joins with unions.  Political activists who masquerade as non-partisan community organizers have joined with organized labor to pressure elected officials into supporting left wing causes, according to a top analyst with the Capital Research Center (CRC).  Matthew Vadum, a senior editor and analyst with CRC has determined that the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) is best described as a "multi-headed hydra" with over 400,000 member families positioned in 110 cities fiercely opposed to the capitalist system.

Obama Stimulates Unions, Inflation and Debt.  The George Soros-funded Center for American Progress, which was run by Obama's Transition Project co-chair, John Podesta, said Obama would launch a "Green, Unionized Economic Recovery."  The key word was "unionized," a tip-off that public money would subsidize expansion of the labor unions that backed Obama.  One of those powerful unions, the AFL-CIO, is headed by John Sweeney, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

ACORN Cracks Wide Open.  It's more than a little ironic that ACORN for nearly 15 years has been leading heavily union-backed campaigns to force private- as well as public-sector employers in cities and counties across the nation to pay workers a "living" wage, while severely underpaying and otherwise exploiting its own community foot soldiers.  Indeed, ACORN for years had blocked attempts by employees to unionize until the National Labor Relations Board told them otherwise.

Did someone mention ACORN?

When Unions Negotiate With Governments:  Ever wonder what determines the outcome of multi-year billion dollar employee contracts negotiated between labor unions and state government agencies?  Here's what happened when one group filed a public records request to find out.

Government Unions Hide Behind Secrecy Protections.  There is little doubt that financial transparency is a major deterrent to labor union and political corruption.  Yet, where the two meet — unions of government employees — there is virtually no financial transparency.  Unions composed entirely of government employees at the state and local level are not covered by the federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act.

Carpenters' Union Outsources Picket Lines.  In this video, one union boss oversees a picket line of homeless and transients the union hired to do work the union's members won't do themselves.  When a reporter tries to ask the picketers questions, they say that they will be fired if they talked to him.  The union boss remains tight lipped too.

Outsourcing the Picket Line:  Carpenters Union Hires Homeless to Stage Protests.  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.

Whose side are they on?
 AFL-CIO Sues Over Government Crackdown.  The nation's largest federation of labor unions sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a plan to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, arguing increased scrutiny of Social Security numbers will result in errors and threaten the jobs of legal workers.

How Labor Rules:  Why did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi renege on her previous commitment?  She dances to the tune of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who preaches outright protectionism.  Hostility toward not only the Peru and Panama pacts but also a vital agreement with Colombia can be traced to influence on U.S. unions by South America's leftist labor leaders, originating in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

Union behind illegal immigrant.  Of all the offenders that U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown has sentenced, a carpenter and union organizer who illegally immigrated from Mexico more than 15 years ago drew one of the biggest crowds.  Instead of spurning Jose Alfredo Cobian of Molalla as a threat to their jobs and wages, fellow union members packed Brown's Portland courtroom last month in a gesture that reveals the changing relationship between organized labor and immigrant workers.

A confounding alliance of unions and illegal immigrants.  It was billed as the biggest act of civil disobedience in Los Angeles history — rivaled only by Californians' defiant use of appliances during peak hours back in the days of the energy crisis.  In reality, it was street theater in three acts with a confusing plotline.  Thursday's march [9/28/2006] encouraged unionization of hotel workers at the Hilton near Los Angeles International Airport, coupled with a call for amnesty for illegal immigrants.  Or, to put it plainly, unions demanded higher wages for workers, while throwing their weight behind an immigration movement that drives wages down.

Unions Played Key Role in May Day Rallies for Illegal Immigrants.  Organized labor since the mid 80s has moved away from its historic opposition to high levels of immigration.  Whereas union leaders for decades had believed — and with more than passing evidence — that a huge influx of unskilled workers from abroad drives down wages, they have come to view immigrants as the salvation of the labor movement.

Did someone mention the Immigration Protest Rallies?

Communist Leaders Speak Their Minds:  Many if not all Left-wing organizations, including some labor unions, abortion-rights groups, "gay" liberation groups, "peace and justice" groups and others, have been shown to be heavily infiltrated or influenced by Marxist, Socialist, Trostkyite and Communist ideas, persons and organizations.  All of these groups seem to work together in relative harmony and solidarity.

SEIU Parking Lot Still a Drug Dealers Zone.  [Scroll down]  Eliminating the Post Office problem will leave the first block of Turk and the SEIU Local 87-owned parking lot at Turk and Hyde as the two remaining centers of illegal drug activity in the Tenderloin.


Union workers lose Labor Day holiday

...in order to appease the Muslims.

Plant Drops Labor Day For Muslim Holiday.  Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville [Tennessee] will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.  According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

Tyson 'regrets' public reaction.  Tyson Foods says that Labor Day is still a holiday, but not for the union employees at the Shelbyville poultry processing facility, who will be taking off the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr instead.  Meanwhile, the union that negotiated the controversial contract at the Shelbyville plant has removed the original press release announcing the holiday change from its web site, and the union president has described the backlash to the decision as "bigotry."

Tyson Foods Adopts Muslim Holiday.  Eid mubarak, Shelbyville!  Union employees at Tyson Foods' poultry processing plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee will enjoy a paid holiday this year on October 1, the date on which the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr falls this year.  And on Labor Day, they will be hard at work, per a new agreement that the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) negotiated with Tyson.  The RWDSU explained that the new contract "implements a new holiday to accommodate the … Muslim workers at the plant."

The Editor says...
 Something tells me most of the non-Muslims will call in sick on Labor Day, so they can go to the parades and picnics with everybody else.



An atmosphere of sleaze and graft

California teachers sue NEA over forced $1,000 union dues.  Ten California schoolteachers on Tuesday sued the National Education Association and California Teachers Association to escape mandatory union fees in a case that piggybacks on a 2012 Supreme Court ruling against forced union dues.  The teachers, represented by the Washington-based Center for Individual Rights, claim that California's so-called "agency shop" law violates their free speech and free assembly rights and forces them to cough up $1,000 to pay for the union's mostly Democratic political activities.

Michigan Teamster Boss Busted Over Double Dipping.  According to financial reports on file with the U.S. Department of Labor, a local Michigan Teamster boss took in nearly $90,000 in 2011.  Obviously, though, the income Al Sprague made from his members' dues wasn't enough for him because, the Jackson (MI) Teamster boss decided to file for unemployment compensation.  What's worse is that the State of Michigan apparently granted his request for unemployment compensation.

Ex-SEIU local exec convicted of stealing from low-income members.  A onetime rising star in national labor circles who headed California's biggest union local was convicted Monday on federal charges that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from his low-income members.  Tyrone Freeman, who represented about 190,000 homecare workers as a leader of the Service Employees International Union, was found guilty on 14 counts after a 10-day trial in Los Angeles.

Former SEIU union local president convicted of embezzlement.  The former president of California's largest union local was found guilty by a federal jury in Los Angeles on Monday [1/28/2013] of stealing from the low-wage workers he represented.  Tyrone Freeman, who led Local 6434 of the Service Employees International Union, was convicted on 14 criminal counts, including embezzlement of union funds, violating tax laws and mail fraud.

Bakery Union Bosses (& Their Kids) Do Well.  As is the case in other unions, nepotism is something that bakers' union bosses apparently embrace.

Labor union bosses' salaries put 'big' in Big Labor.  There can be riches in standing up for the working class:  The Boilermakers union president earned $506,000, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars more for travel expenses, while the Laborers union president made $441,000.  The Transportation Communications Union leader made $300,000, bumped up to $750,000 with business expenses.  Patrick W. Flynn makes $435,000 a year in his capacity as treasurer of a 13,600-member Teamsters union local, and the $30,000 in business expenses he collects on top of costs associated with carrying out his duties around Mokena, Ill., approach that of a typical worker's entire salary.

Union Corruption Report: October 2012.  On October 16, 2012, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, John McNamee, President of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 829 (located in New York, N.Y.), pled guilty to one count of embezzlement in the amount of $150,000, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 501(c).  The charge follows an investigation by OLMS New York District Office.

Union Corruption Report: September 2012.  On September 19, 2012, in the District Court for Hunt County, Texas, 196th Judicial District, Rosalin Dukes, former Secretary-Treasurer of American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Local 3607 (located in Greenville, Tex.), pled guilty to one count of credit/debit card abuse and was then sentenced to five years of deferred adjudication probation, 100 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay $18,598.34 in restitution, $285 in court costs, and a $50 Crime Stoppers fee.

Police union cards used to get cop relatives out of minor jams.  New York police union cards, which officers give their friends and family as 'get out of jail free' cards for minor offenses, are selling on eBay for as much as $100 a pop and city authorities are fuming, the New York Post reports.  The union cards are meant to be used to prove that a police officer can vouch for another person, though holders often use them to get out of minor incidents like parking and speeding violations.

Power Hungry: Teachers' Union Wants To Administer Standardized Teachers' Test.  As Republicans are painfully reminded, progressives thrive on deception.  Throw public sector unions into the mix and the worst aspects of Chicago-style cronyism and pay-to-play politics inevitably surface.  Add national teachers' unions, and the potential for a previously unimaginable pay-to-play scam — a scam conservatives might blindly and reflexively support — becomes all too real.

Washington, D.C., Union President Convicted, Faces 183 Years in Prison.  The founder and president of a private security officers' union in Washington D.C. was convicted last week of 18 different federal offenses.  He faces a maximum of 183 years in prison and $2.1 million in fines.  A jury ruled on September 5 that Caleb Gray-Burriss, founder and president of the National Association of Special Police and Security Officers (NASPSO), was guilty of six counts of mail fraud, seven counts of theft from a labor organization, one count of criminal contempt, one count of obstruction of justice, and three union record-keeping violations.

Hey, Fat Cat Unions: Pay Your "Fair Share".  The California Federation of Teachers, an AFL-CIO affiliate that rakes in an estimated $22 million in coerced dues, enjoys nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(5) status.  So does CFT's larger counterpart, the California Teachers Association, which collects a whopping $300 million in annual dues.  While they burn through mountains of dues lobbying for everyone else to pay higher taxes, these Democratic partisan heavies pay nothing in either federal or state income taxes.

The perks of being a union executive.  Wage amounts are usually public record, but are perilously difficult to pin down.  What a union executive makes can be inflated in the record by sick leave accrual or severance payouts, or can be understated because of tax deferments or allowances in lieu of pay.  Still, with that caveat in place, an examination of 2010-11 tax records reveals wages of the highest paid employees of the National Education Association and its state affiliates — defined here as the money reported in box 1 of a W-2 form — ranged from almost $540,000 down to less than $92,000.

SEIU Worker Asks Members To Falsify Signatures To Sink Anti-Union Measure.  The Service International Employees Union — the same union that will be shutting down traffic around Los Angeles International Airport on Thanksgiving Eve — has admitted that a staffer requested that union members stack a legal petition with fake names to sink it.

Paramus-based union leaders arrested on embezzlement charges.  Richard "Buzzy" Dressel — a prominent and influential North Jersey labor leader who served on the boards of the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation and Bergen Community College — was arrested Thursday [11/15/2012] on charges of conspiring to steer more than $350,000 in union funds to his wife.  Dressel, 63, of Montvale, the business manager and principal officer of Local 164 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was arrested along with John M. DeBouter, 55, of Oakland, the local's president, after a two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Troubling Auto-Rescue Plunder (TARP).  Remember that "trillion-dollar bank bailout" that President Bush pushed four years ago?  The Congressional Budget Office now says that (1) it cost just $24 billion, nowhere near a trillion; (2) taxpayers made money from the banks; and (3) the vast majority of the money went to auto companies.  Don't call it a trillion-dollar bank bailout.  Call it the $20-billion UAW payoff.

Public Sector Union Supports Obama after Cushy Contract.  The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a public sector union, has emerged as the second-largest donor to Democratic Super PACs, including a $1 million donation to President Barack Obama's Priorities USA, reports the Wall Street Journal.  This support comes after the Obama administration gave air traffic controllers a plush contract.

North Bergen public official admits to graft.  North Bergen's just-retired superintendent for the Department of Public Works admitted in state court Tuesday [9/11/2012] that he regularly commandeered teams of workers to canvass and rally voters for elections throughout Hudson County — and had township taxpayers foot the bill.  At the same time, James Wiley acknowledged employing workers as his personal labor force during the workday and on overtime, turning them into gophers and handymen, directing them to clean his gas grill, clear leaves from his yard and string Christmas lights.

Wisconsin Union Boss Busted In Prostitution Sting.  On the heels of the former U.S. Border Patrol union boss caught using union funds to pay for trips to his mistress, Media Trackers picked up a story about Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO boss, Bill Brockmiller, and four other would-be "Johns" who were arrested in a prostitution sting Monday night [8/27/2012].  According to Brockmiller's LinkedIn profile, the AFL-CIO boss is also employed as a labor market analyst for the La Crosse Job Center.

Retired president of Border Patrol union indicted.  The former, longtime national leader of the union representing Border Patrol agents on Friday [8/17/2012] called a federal indictment alleging that he siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars in union funds "a wild goose chase."

Indicted Ex-Union Boss Defiant.  The former head of the union for Border Patrol agents fired back at federal prosecutors Friday [8/17/2012], saying charges that he defrauded the union out of hundreds of thousands of dollars are politically motivated and a "wild goose chase."  T.J. Bonner issued a one-page statement calling the charges "groundless" and predicting he will be cleared.

Ex-Leader Union Leader Is Charged With Fraud.  A former rising star within the Service Employees International Union has been charged with bilking his ex-employer, one of the nation's most powerful labor groups.  Tyrone Freeman, 42 years old, who once led a large Los Angeles-based local representing low-wage health-care workers, was indicted Tuesday [7/31/2012] on 15 criminal counts, including mail fraud and the embezzlement of $100,000.

SEIU Subpoenaed in Milwaukee Investigation.  New documents obtained by Media Trackers reveal that the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office recently subpoenaed the national office of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) in Washington D.C. for the employment documents of a senior organizer currently under investigation for vote fraud in Wisconsin.

SEIU's Mobile Voters.  The Wisconsin-based Media Trackers reported Monday that the Milwaukee D.A. had subpoenaed the SEIU headquarters in Washington, D.C. for the employment records of Clarence S. Haynes, a senior organizer for the national public-sector union.  Haynes, along with two other SEIU organizers, registered to vote for the Badger State's April 5, 2011, election using an out-of-state ID and claiming a Marriott hotel in Glendale, Wisconsin, as his residence, Media Trackers reported in October 2011.  In response to the report, the Milwaukee District Attorney's office began investigating Haynes and his associates.

Is Obamacare Redistributing Wealth to Big Labor?  It has become obvious that the SEIU has a major interest in the healthcare legislation.  Although the SEIU is a major player in the public union market, it is also one of the largest unions in the private sector.  Furthermore, the largest share of its private sector members are healthcare employees: nurses, hospital staff, janitors, and home healthcare workers.  Is it any wonder then that President Obama's primary piece of legislation was Obamacare?  As Andy Stern, SEIU's President at the time, was reportedly in the White House at least 22 times in the first year of Obama's Presidency, while the main priority was passing Obamacare!

Court rules no tax dollars for unions.  A Maricopa County Superior Court has ruled that spending taxpayer money for union activity must stop.  Judge Katherine Cooper issued a preliminary injunction June 5 halting Phoenix's practice of paying union leaders to do union work, rather than their city jobs, on the taxpayers' clock.

Union demands credit card numbers from members.  One school employee union in Michigan is demanding that members turn over bank account and credit card information so that the union can automatically claim monthly dues after the state voted to stop deducting the money on behalf of the union.

The Editor says...
 If you are dumb enough to give your credit card information to a labor union for perpetual monthly billing, you should keep a close eye on your monthly credit card bills.

Sacrificial Scams.  The unions thought they could fight back against Gov. Scott Walker's tiny rollbacks without anyone finding out the details.  Most people saw what public employees were getting and assumed it was a misprint.  Two years ago, seven bus drivers in Madison, Wis., made more than $100,000 a year.  A few years before that, we found out that the city manager of little Bell, Calif. — per capita annual income $24,800 — was making $787,637, or including benefits:  $1.5 million a year.  The chief of police was getting $457,000 a year — $770,046 counting benefits — making him the first chief of police to commit highway robbery on the job.  The assistant city manager was taking home $376,288 per year, for a total compensation package of $845,960.  All were Democrats, the party of Big Government.

Hefty salaries, perks for union leaders raise eyebrows.  Life is good at the top of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.  The union, with its headquarters in Kansas City, Kan., represents about 59,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada who make and repair boilers, fit pipes and work on ships and power plants.  The recession has hit their trade hard, reducing union membership.  At the same time, the president's salary has surged 67 percent in the past six years, not counting a recent raise.  Add in travel and some other expenses, and Newton B. Jones received more than $600,000 last year, putting him at the absolute top of the presidents of the dozen biggest unions in the country.  Many relatives of union officers also ride the payroll.

Former SEIU Member Registers 23,207 Fraudulent Voters.  Former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) member Steve Caddle of Houston, Texas has been caught registering 23,207 fake voters in Harris County alone due to the hard detective work of Catherine Engelbrecht and her "True the Vote" project.  This is one of the best examples of what good citizen activism inspired by Tea Party principles can do for their community.

Unions Behaving Badly: Registering Inmates to Vote, Spending Dues at Strip Clubs.  The Albany Times Union has broken a story involving correction officers in Rensselaer county trying to unseat the incumbent Republican sheriff, Jack Mahar, through unsavory means. ... Reports show a labor union leader for the corrections officers, Kevin Rogers, allegedly dropping off 140 voter registration forms that enrolled people in the Conservative Party, of which four have been confirmed to be inmates.

Top Ten Union Corruption Stories of the Year.  [For example, #8]  United Food and Commercial Workers officials in Brooklyn charged with massive extortion, fraud.  Extracting payments from employers and stealing from member benefit plans came easy to the leaders of UFCW Local 348 in Brooklyn.  It helped that the leaders of the racket were family.  A six-count federal indictment handed down in October ended the decade and a half run of Anthony Fazio Sr., Anthony Fazio Jr. and John Fazio. Arrested and charged with racketeering, extortion, money-laundering and other offenses, the Fazios allegedly pocketed $2.4 million in coerced employer "donations" and fake invoices paid out of local accounts.

UAW Thugs Appeal Extortion Conviction ... And Get A Stiffer Sentence.  Two UAW officers, Danny Douglas and Jay Campbell, agreed in 1997 to end an 87 day strike at a Michigan GM plant — but only if GM agreed to hire Campbell's son and the son-in-law of another UAW official to high paying jobs for which they were unqualified.  For this, Douglas and Campbell were tried and found guilty of extortion.  The judge, who could have sentenced the pair to up to 30 years, instead gave them a gentle slap on the wrists of six months house arrest and two years probation.  Not satisfied with even this, Douglas and Campbell appealed their conviction.

The Pervasive Corruption of Public Employee Unions.  Today's Wall Street Journal has a good piece by Philip K. Howard summarizing how corrupt many public employee unions have become.  It starts by discussing the recent $1 billion fraud case at the Long Island Rail Road workers union.

Labor Department Official Advises Unions to Circumvent Disclosure Rules.  In April we exposed Obama's overseer of union financial disclosure and his personal conflicts-of-interest.  Now we have well-sourced evidence that Director John Lund is telling union officials to bypass Department of Labor investigators and work with him personally.  Imagine if U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Mary Schapiro invited delinquent reporting corporate presidents and treasurers to deal with her directly and ignore SEC personnel.  Lund is the Office of Labor-Management Standards Director who oversees investigations and audits of union financial records and union officials' conflicts-of-interest reporting, and he is using his new position to benefit his old clients form Big Labor.

The Five Million Dollar Man.  The Chicago Tribune reports that an investigation it conducted with WGN-TV found "23 retired union officials from Chicago stand to collect about $56 million from two ailing city pension funds."  That's an average of $2.4 million each, and some will rake in even more.  Dennis Gannon, a former president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, stands to collect some $5 million.

Union Boss Collects Pension After One Day on Job.  If you need evidence on how corrupt self-serving unions and union officials can be, then please consider ["]Ex-labor chief's 1-day rehire nets $158,000 city pension[".]

Union leader draws lucrative pension perk based on false information.  Every month, Thomas Villanova gets a $9,000 reminder of how lucrative it can be to serve as a union leader in Chicago. ... Villanova last worked for the city in 1989 as an electrical mechanic with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, making about $40,000 a year.  Yet in 2008 he was allowed to retire at age 56 with a $108,000 city pension.  That's because, under a little-known state law, his pension was based not on his city paycheck but on his much higher union salary.

City union leader Diana Frey accused of embezzlement.  For the past 6½ years, the $9 in union dues withheld from the biweekly paychecks of the roughly 800 members of Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees sent more than $7,000 flowing every other week into the city employees' union bank account.  At least, that's what was supposed to happen.  What actually occurred, federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday [7/20/2011], is that roughly one of every two dollars that City Hall deposited in CODE's account eventually ended up in the pocket of its president, Diana Frey.

Video Shows Confrontation Over SEIU Ballots.  An SEIU member says she was physically forced out of a room after she questioned union leaders about how they were counting ballots, and she recorded the confrontation on her cell phone.  Mariam Nojiam, a state worker for the Department of Motor Vehicles, began recording video as she walked into an SEIU election office while officials were giving instructions on counting procedure.

Head of L.A. city union held in alleged theft of computer.  The leader of the union that represents Los Angeles city architects and engineers has been arrested, along with his wife, on suspicion of stealing a laptop computer from the labor group, police announced Saturday [5/7/2011].  Josif Kahraman, 51, executive director of the Engineers and Architects Assn., and his wife, Ani, 31, a union volunteer, were arrested on suspicion of felony grand theft about 9:50 p.m. Wednesday at the union's headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.  The couple were released the next day after each posted $20,000 bail.

Cloud of Corruption Around Democrats' Union Patron.  As the Democratic National Convention gets under way in Los Angeles, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is once again leading the way in soft money donations to the Democratic Party, pouring in just less than $2 million to the party over the 2000 election cycle, according to numbers compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.  AFSCME's unparalleled support of the party (it is the largest soft money donor this cycle to the Democratic National Committee and related committees) continues the Democrats' tradition of keeping close ties to the labor movement.  But while the news media focus on the union's financial generosity, little attention has been given to AFSCME's checkered history.

Obama's Discriminatory Application of Laws Abounds.  CNSNews.com reports that the administration gave one-year waivers to 28 separate local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, exempting them from an Obamacare requirement that bans annual limits on what insurance plans will pay for coverage.  The UFCW's political action committee spent $673,309 in independent expenditures promoting Obama's 2008 election.

More about Obamacare waivers.

O'Keefe video appears to show New Jersey union official describing voter fraud.  A new video by conservative activist James O'Keefe appears to show a New Jersey union official describing voter fraud during a Jersey City mayor's race several years ago.  O'Keefe would not tell The Daily Caller how he obtained what appears to be audio of Wayne Dibofsky, the associate director of the New Jersey Education Association, admitting that voter fraud took place inside the union's Jersey City office in 1997.

Union Accused of Voter Fraud Involving Mentally Handicapped.  Authorities in Crow Wing County are investigating possible voter fraud involving people with mental disabilities.  An affidavit, filed Monday [11/1/2010] by Brainerd resident Montgomery Jensen, claims a large group of mentally handicapped people were told whom to vote for by mental health staff members and that staff filled out the ballots themselves without the disabled voters close by.

Union's 'funny money'.  The Manhattan DA's Office has opened a far-ranging probe into the Transport Workers Union Local 100's new boss over whether he misused part of its $400,000 pot of political money, The [New York] Post has learned.  John Samuelsen — barely a year after being elected by the 35,000-member union — is being probed by the DA's newly reorganized Rackets Bureau, sources said.

Voter Fraud in America.  Some Nevadans who participated in early voting in Clark County reported that Harry Reid's name came up pre-checked on the screen when they were voting for Senator.  Although no formal complaints have been filed, the allegation is still troubling, and all the more so because of the fact the Service Employees International Union is responsible for maintaining voting machines in Clark County.  SEIU, which endorsed Reid and gave over ninety-five per cent of its campaign contributions in 2008 to Democrats, is hardly a neutral party.  The union is indelibly tied to the Obama administration's commitment to expanding the role of the public sector in American life.  Whether SEIU tampered with voting machines or not, union members should never have been allowed anywhere near a device that so directly affects their future prospects.

Obama Rules That SEIUs Law Breaking is OK By Him.  With a recent Federal Election Commission decision, Obama's government has ruled in favor of the SEIU's illegal kickback scheme and decided that such law breaking it is A'OK as far as he is concerned.

Media Ignore Questionable Activities by Unions.  A number of media liberals are up in arms over a far-left blog's inconclusive investigation — replete with innuendo and assumption — purporting to show that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has illegally spent funds obtained from foreign entities on political campaigns in the United States.  Of course near-identical efforts by a handful of the most powerful labor unions have not been mentioned.

SEIU's Shady Political Cash.  Marc Theissen recently asked some very important questions about where the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is getting the mountains of cash that it spends on Democrat political campaigns.  He finds that it is coming from foreign sources, but the SEIU is refusing to yield to requests for transparency.

SEIU denies investigation reports.  An SEIU spokeswoman flatly denied an Associated Press and Los Angeles Times reports today [9/28/2010] that the union and its former president Andy Stern are subject to an FBI investigation.  Ringuette said she'd had "not a single report of a federal inquiry" from the union's staff.  "Andy hasn't been contacted" by the FBI, she said.

Local Tea Party group may have uncovered massive vote fraud in Texas.  True the Vote appears to have made some pretty significant discoveries, including one blockbuster revelation possibly connecting the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to vote fraud in Houston.

Obama's Labor Day gift to the special interests.  Promising more stimulus spending in a speech to labor union members and officials, President Obama four times derided Republican coziness with "special interests" — his standard trope.  But surely Obama knows that union political action committees have spent far more money so far in the 2010 elections than the PACs in any other industry.  And he should know that his proposal for an unaccountable "infrastructure bank" is a recipe for a politically charged, corporate-welfare slush fund.

Working Families Party claims it's no longer subject of federal probe.  The union-backed, ACORN-connected Working Families Party — under federal investigation for the last eight months — today declared it's off the hook in the probe.  "We were advised last night that the US Attorney's Office has decided to close its investigation without the filing of any charges," a statement from the left-leaning party said.  The US Attorney's Office declined to comment.

Buying Union Votes With Food Stamps.  In an election year in which Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress are threatened, no price is too high for extra votes — even if it means taking from the poor.

Former N.J. union chief admits taking $10K in kickbacks.  Dennis J. Giblin, the nephew of a Democratic Assemblyman and scion of a family that for decades has run one of New Jersey's most powerful labor unions, pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark yesterday [8/9/2010] to taking $10,000 worth of kickbacks and stealing a $1,300 couch.

Working 'Sham'-ilies.  A former employee of the Working Families Party says he was so disturbed by the labor-backed group's practices that he walked out after only one week on the job.  In an exclusive interview, Brooklyn resident Patrick Crooks said he was encouraged by higher-ups to falsify names and addresses on sign-up sheets supporting the left-wing party's push to repeal a state law that took rent regulation out of the city's hands and gave it to the state.

Crooked union official pleads guilty to racketeering.  A crooked labor leader pleaded guilty this afternoon to racketeering charges in a scam that betrayed his fellow union members by letting contractors hire illegal aliens to work off the books.  Michael Brennan, a former shop steward for Local 608 of the carpenters union, faces up to 87 months in the slammer under a plea deal in which he admitted pocketing bribes from On Par Contracting, whose owner, James Murray, is cooperating with authorities.

Union boss hog in $300K hooker scam.  A married, obese former president of a Port Authority union admitted yesterday [6/16/2010] in court to embezzling nearly $300,000 in member dues and using the cash for tawdry hook-ups with prostitutes, casino trips and lavish meals, sources told The [New York] Post.

Numerous high-profile cases of union embezzlement in just the last year.
 Union label:  suckers!  Remember why unions were formed in the first place — to protect workers from being taken advantage of?  Nowadays, the rank-and-file mostly need protection from their own leadership.  Daniel Hughes, former head of the Field Supervisor Association representing Port Authority workers, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court this week to looting $300,000 in members' dues over five years.

Prosecutors say N.J. carpenter's union official rang up 'epic' go-go bar tabs.  In the words of prosecutors, the bar tabs of Shawn Clark were "epic."  Amid thumping music and twirling dancers, the former labor union official dropped $65,000 in seven years at go-go bars across New Jersey.

Ex-N.J. carpenters union official convicted of embezzling $85K.  A former carpenters union official from Somerset County was convicted in federal court in Trenton today [5/17/2010] of pocketing $85,000 from the organization to host hundreds of lunchtime drinking sprees at go-go bars.

Carpenters union big Brian Hayes named in bar scam.  A union official is accused of selling out his own members — getting a corrupt contractor to build his Manhattan bar by letting him hire nonunion workers on other jobs.  Brian Hayes, a business agent for Local 608 of the carpenters union, allegedly took thousands in cash, free labor and materials to build McGarry's on Ninth Ave. in Manhattan, prosecutors and union sources said.

More Details on Obama's Big Bribe to Big Labor:  If you're part of one America, you have to pay a tax if you receive generous health benefits.  But if you're part of the other America that has contributed handily to Democratic campaigns and has access to the White House, you can receive those same benefits without paying a tax.

ObamaCare's latest bribe:  It took two days of wrangling behind closed White House doors under the demanding gaze of big-labor bosses, but President Obama won a major health-care victory yesterday [1/14/2010].  The same can't be said of America.  The deal in a nutshell: a big, fat wet kiss for labor unions, which won exemption from a proposed 40 percent tax on on expansive private health-insurance plans until 2018.

Unions Collect A Health Care Payoff.  Big Labor carved out a tax exemption for union members' health plans on Thursday [1/14/2010], paving the way for passage of health care reform.  Call it what it is:  a bribe to cronies in an increasingly corrupt overhaul.

Labor's $60 Billion Payoff.  Democrats seem impervious to embarrassment as they buy votes for ObamaCare, but their latest move makes even Nebraska's Ben Nelson look cheap:  The 87% of Americans who don't belong to a union will now foot the bill for a $60 billion giveaway to those who do.

Obama's $59 billion giveaway to unions:  Public outcry over a $59 billion special deal President Obama cut with unions on Thursday [1/14/2010] should be deafening.  Repeatedly throughout his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama promised that health care negotiations would be carried on C-SPAN precisely to prevent these types of special-interest favors.

Ex-newspaper union head faces charges.  The feds are closing in on a former newspaper union official who's been charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars during his final two years running a Communications Workers of America local with members at three New York City dailies.

Obamacare:  How the Unions are "Getting Well".  And you thought Capone's Chicago was corrupt?  Apparently it's got nothing on Obama's Washington, D.C.  Amazingly, though, both versions of Obamacare do something far worse than slipping billions of dollars into the pockets of organized labor leaders as a payoff for their support in the 2008 election:  They actively seek the forced unionization of the entire health care industry.

Dirty Money Watch:  Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.).  [Scroll down]  Multiple officers and members of these unions, including division presidents, secretary-treasurers and business managers, have been convicted since 2001 of felonies ranging from embezzlement, falsifying official reports to government, mail fraud and conspiracy.  The Communication Workers of America and The American Federation of Government Employees have had eight convictions, the Service Employees International Union has had nine convictions and the Boilermakers have had 10 convictions, while the IBEW has had 14 members convicted.  The United Steelworkers of America has had 30 convictions among its membership.  The amounts of embezzled funds range from over $5,000 to over $100,000.

Boss at ACORN-Friendly SEIU Found Guilty on Kiddie Porn Charges.  Jaime E. Feliciano, president of the radical Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1000 District Labor Council 784, has been convicted of possessing child pornography.

Workers using fake Social Security numbers are fired — and the union is upset.
 Computer 'raid' in Vernon leaves factory workers devastated.  "A desktop raid" is how the workers' representative, John M. Grant, vice president of Local 770 of the United Food and commercial Workers International Union, described the scenario.  Overhill, a $200-million-a-year company that provides frozen meals for clients such as American Airlines, Panda Express, Safeway and Jenny Craig, says it had no choice:  An Internal Revenue Service audit found that 260 workers had provided "invalid or fraudulent" Social Security numbers.  The government took no action against the workers.  But Overhill did:  All of the employees were fired May 31.

Union-founded nonprofit spent zero on its charitable purpose in two years.  A nonprofit organization founded by California's largest union local reported spending nothing on its charitable purpose — to develop housing for low-income workers — during at least two of the four years it has been operating, federal records show.  The charity, launched by a scandal-ridden Los Angeles chapter of the Service Employees International Union, had total expenses of about $165,000 for 2005 and 2006, and all of the money went to consulting fees, insurance costs and other overhead, according to its Internal Revenue Service filings.

Ohio organizer faked union donor cards.  An Ohio union organizer has been fired after he was caught forging documents to deduct money from public employees' wages to pay for political activity, the Service Employees International Union said yesterday [4/14/2009].  Becky Williams, president of the SEIU District 1199, said she thinks this is an isolated incident, but the union is continuing to investigate.

AFL-CIO to Federal Union Watchdog:  Drop Dead.  The AFL-CIO is shameless.  In addition to trying to eliminated employees' right to a secret ballot vote, they are also trying weaken the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards, which serves as a watchdog for union members by fighting corruption and embezzlement.  In a petition made public by the Obama's Transition Project — which was oddly filled with typos — the union calls on the incoming administration to issue an emergency interim rule (meaning no public comment period) eliminating "all financial reporting regulations that have not yet gone into effect."  That is their "Priority for Day 1."

Union Leader's Spending Scrutinized.  Annual reports filed with the Labor Department show that the local paid $177,000 last year to a video production firm run by [Tyrone] Freeman's wife, Pilar Planells.  The local's training center has often paid more than $90,000 a year to a child care firm run by Mr. Freeman's mother-in-law.  In 2006, the local paid $16,000 to a basketball team coached by Mr. Freeman's brother-in-law.  The expenditures were first reported by The Los Angeles Times.

Embezzlement, False Reports, Violence, and More.  Most people don't know just how many crimes are committed every year through which union officials hurt their own members.  The number of reputed and verified crimes is staggering.  Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the hundreds of indictments of union officials for violations of the Labor Management and Reporting Disclosure Act.  According to the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), those crimes include "embezzlement, filing false reports, keeping false records, destruction of records, extortionate picketing and deprivation of rights by violence."

Food Workers Local 951 Pressuring witnesses to save a suspect election.  The DOL charged substantial and numerous LMRDA violations, including:  no secret balloting; ballot distribution and collection by staff at work sites; failure to account for hundreds of unused ballots and replacement ballots; denying ballots to eligible voters; discriminating in the use of the membership list; and using union and employer money to promote the incumbent slate.

Puerto Rican Union President Sentenced for $15 Million Theft.  In the summer of 2005, four officials of UTM 1740, an affiliate of the International Longshoremen's Association, along with six businessmen and three companies, were indicted in U.S. District Court on nearly two dozen counts of embezzlement, money-laundering and maintaining false records.  They were accused of converting some $10 million in funds, mainly from the union's health care plan, to their own use, plus underreporting another $1.5 million in dues collections.

Former postal union leaders arrested.  Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat could stop two leaders of an American Postal Workers Union local, but a federal criminal investigation apparently has.  John McGovern, 50, of Hawthorne and Gary Weightman, 53, of Keansburg were arrested Friday [2/17/2006] and charged with embezzling more than $400,000 from Local 190 of the APWU.

Union corruption and the law:  Some corrupt acts are punishable by criminal laws, most effectively in blatant cases.  Others are best addressed through labor law and regulation, again of limited effectiveness except in the most blatant cases of financial misuse.  The entire control structure is complex and uneven in application, reflecting the particular concerns that happened to occupy regulators during their sporadic bouts of regulation.

Union Leader Fraud & Corruption:  Most people don't know just how many crimes are committed every year through which union officials hurt their own members.  The number of reputed and verified crimes is staggering.  Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the hundreds of indictments of union officials for violations of the Labor Management and Reporting Disclosure Act.

Ex-LA labor leader pleads guilty to campaign finance violations.  Former city councilman and ex-labor leader Martin Ludlow pleaded guilty Wednesday [3/8/2006] to breaking campaign laws by secretly accepting $36,000 in union money for his 2003 campaign.

Financial disclosure is a wonderful thing.  Gerald B. Ellis, for example, made $116,703 in 2004 as a business manager at Local 627 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, a member of the AFL-CIO.  Local 627 also buys $86,400 worth of legal services from the one-man law firm Gerald B. Ellis, Inc., nicely padding its business manager's income.

Union Corruption Update.  Local 933 of the American Federation of Government Employees for the last few years has been in financial shambles.  The explanation lies at the top.  The local's leadership operated their union like a personal bank.  A series of investigations, most recently by the Detroit News, reveal a disturbing pattern of embezzlement and other forms of malfeasance.

Union corruption update - the August 29, 2005 issue.  David Feeback's sybaritic ways as president of Local 69 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees ended several years ago.  This August 23 he got the final bill:  a year and a day in federal prison, and mandatory restitution of almost $90,000.

Elaine Chao is looking out for you!  John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, has said, "transparency, accountability and full and accurate disclosure should be central goals of financial regulation."  Of business.  But try to apply those reasonable standards to Sweeney's own organization, and he sings a different tune.

Second union official charged with embezzling.  A former ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor union president conspired with a former union secretary to embezzle more than $40,000 from United Steelworkers Local 1011, according to a federal indictment.  Loren Hanson, 68, of New Mexico, was charged along with Jesse Lee Daniels Sr., 69, of Chicago, in a superseding indictment filed Wednesday [4/20/2011] in the U.S. District Court in Hammond.  The new indictment claims that Hanson and Daniels increased their pay by signing checks for each other from 2005 to 2008.

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2013 by Andrew K. Dart



Occasional violence and constant strife

The Top 50 Liberal Media Bias Examples.  [#50]  Unions:  Unions have always been given a pass by the media.  Take AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, for instance.  Trumka has a long history of inciting violence as well as partaking in such.  In the 90s Trumka was even involved in a murder.  Yet the media ignores all this when reporting on his actions.  Unions commit violence all the time yet the media rarely bothers reporting it.  Now imagine if a right-wing group had such a history of violence?  Do you think we'd ever hear the end of it?

AFL-CIO Ignores The Union-Related Inferno That Killed 97 People.  On New Years Eve, 1986, negotiations between Local 901 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — led by militant armored-truck-robber-turned-union-lawyer, Jorge Farinacci — and the management of the Hotel Dupont had come to a screeching halt when union members rejected management's final offer.  Ten minutes later, an inferno was ignited, sparked by the hands of union militants.

'Do you know a Scab lives in your neighborhood?'  A teachers strike in Strongsville, Ohio, has entered day five — and things are starting to get ugly.  Parma, a town located near Strongsville, was littered with flyers outing a so-called "scab" (i.e. a person substituting in place of one of the union members).  "I got a letter about four in the afternoon Wednesday," Parma resident Dan Dubecky told Fox 8 Cleveland.  "It starts off by saying, 'Do you know a scab lives in your neighborhood?'  It gives the gentleman's name, his address, his telephone number, personal information.  And then it says, 'Why is he a scab?'  And it talks about him crossing the picket line in Strongsville," said Dubecky.

9 Phony Martyrs of the Left.  [#2]  The McNamara Brothers:  No, this isn't a movie about Irish thugs, but rather the true story of John ("J. J.") and James ("J. B.") McNamara, two union members who bombed the Los Angeles Times building in 1911, killing 21 innocent newspaper employees and injuring over 100 more.  Both were found guilty, and James admitted setting the bomb, for which he got life in prison.  His accomplice, John, served 15 years in prison and went back to being a union organizer.

Goon City.  The engineer's assault was caught on tape.  But despite being charged with simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person, and conspiracy simple assault, two union members, Ryan P. Stewart and Philip J. Garraty, each got off with a $200.50 fine and 18 hours of community service.

Goon City — Part 2.  Jamie Lokoff hung up his phone and rushed downtown on a summer day in 2011.  An arsonist had targeted his new bar, MilkBoy, just weeks before it was scheduled to open.  The butcher paper lining the windows had caught fire, alerting a passerby to call 911.  The incident marked a sinister turn in the MilkBoy owners' ten-month battle with the carpenters' union over the construction of the bar and music venue in downtown Philadelphia.

Obama, The Left and the National Football League.  [Scroll down]  Demonstrably, the Left and Unions are joined at the hip in a corrupt manner that embraces extortion, violence, thuggery, threats, criminal acts, often the mafia and always the unspoken truths of "Nice business you got.  Shame if anything happened to it."  My example?  Let's start with Toyota and Starbucks and Jesse Jackson.  Shakedown covers his racketeering skills in detail.  Al Sharpton, the king of boycotts including Colgate, Chrysler and Macy's.  The experience of Sinclair Broadcasting at the hands of the Left's media machine.

Pay Up or Get Sued.  The president of Michigan's largest union is instructing officials to prepare to sue its own members, according to a leaked memo issued after the state adopted right-to-work laws in December.  Steven Cook, president of the Michigan Education Association, circulated an email to local unions officials and staff instructing them to monitor revenue streams in light of the right-to-work laws, which are set to go into effect on March 27, 2013.  The law allows workers to opt out of union membership unless they have an existing contract with their employer.

The Philadelphia Story.  The video [in this article] shows a Philadelphia union keeps non-union engineering contractors off the premises.  He tries to sneak past them to do his job and they crush him against the fence until he passes out.  Then they laugh at him.  When not similarly engaged they also use tire-busters and direct threats.  Maybe that's not news.  What is news is that the video was collected by the Pestronk brothers, a pair of developers, who used it and similar surveillance videos to fight back.  No they didn't go to the police.  They took the videos to the public.

Union Dissidents Fear Retaliation For Speaking Out.  There has been an undercurrent of dissent in the union ever since the company locked the gates of the Wilcox Street plant in November, but the unorganized faction has confined itself to speaking at union meetings and through anonymous flyers and Internet postings.  Until now, no one has spoken openly.

Lawmakers push for new laws to punish union sabotage.  Labor groups are immune from prosecution under the Hobbs Act, a 1946 provision that criminalized extortion and robbery using the threat or fear of force.  Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) attempted to close that loophole last year with the Freedom from Union Violence Act (FUVA).  The bill never left committee but Lee has pledged to crack down on the sabotage and violence some unions use during labor disputes.  "Union violence and intimidation are serious issues and my legislation is an effort to close the loophole that protects unions from being held accountable for their actions," Lee said.  "Threatening workers and damaging property shouldn't be defended as 'legitimate union objectives' and the law should be clear about that."

Phila. police tie construction-site arson to union sabotage.  The site where Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting is building a new meetinghouse was damaged by arsonists during Christmas week, and police are now "absolutely" sure the attack was the result of a dispute between members of a Philadelphia construction union and the project's nonunion contractor.

Potential port strike shows that Big Labor needs big reform.  Over the past few months, we've witnessed the death of Hostess and its Twinkie (until someone buys the brand), a teacher strike in Chicago, a Thanksgiving Eve strike at Los Angeles International Airport, failed union walkouts at Wal-Mart and New York City's fast food restaurants, and an eight-day, $8 billion strike at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California.

Summary of Saul Alinsky's "Rules For Radicals".  Union organizers are often highly trained.  In many unions this training includes indoctrination in Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals."  Saul Alinsky was a ruthless radical organizer.  He would stop at nothing to win.  Before he passed away in 1972 he published a book called "Rules for Radicals" in which he outlined his power tactics and questionable ethics.  Anyone interested in staying, or becoming, Union Free, whether in an organizing campaign or in a decertification or deauthorization election, ought to become familiar with these rules.

Pro-Union Activist Threatens the Michigan Governor: 'We'll Be at Your Daughter's Soccer Game'.  A speaker at a protest against Michigan's right-to-work legislation said that Republican governor Rick Snyder will "get no rest" from pro-union activists if Snyder signs the bill into law.

Union Thug to Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan, "We'll be at your daughter's soccer game".  Remember kids, this is how the left operates.  They want what they want, and if anyone stands in their way, they will be subjected to threats, attacks, intimidation, and harassment.  They aren't above threatening children, or families, or disrupting Church, because even God takes a back seat to the temper tantrums of the petulant left.

Right-to-work proponents demand justice for violence.  Conservative activists and supporters of Michigan's new right-to-work law gathered on the Statehouse lawn Thursday [12/13/2012] to demand justice for what they said were threats, intimidation and entrapment under a tent that was destroyed by union supporters during protests two days earlier by thousands of labor union activists.

MI Union destroys hot dog cart, calls owner an 'Uncle Tom' over right-to-work.  Clint Tarver's hot dog cart, which he has operated since 1996, is another casualty of the union protest against the right-to-work law.  Union members destroyed the cart and called Tarver an "Uncle Tom," among other racist epithets, for serving right-to-work proponents.  After destroying the Americans for Prosperity tent, where Tarver was catering hotdogs, the mob turned there [sic] attention to the hot dog cart.

Union Thugs Demolish Lansing, Michigan Hot Dog Vendor Clint Tarver's Equipment.  Everyone who has passed the hot dog cart knows what a kind and caring individual Clint is.  He never fails to bestow a smile or friendly greeting.  In no way [did] he provoke this attack, nor any of the behavior displayed toward him.

Union Goons Destroyed Man's Hot Dog Cart While Calling Him [Names].  So Mr. Tarver runs a business, semi retires, operates a hot dog cart for so long that it becomes a local icon, then gets himself hired by those Koch minions and somehow gets the unions' tolerant and thoughtful ones to call him names and wreck his business, er, if you're a liberal and buy the alternate history view of Tuesday's events.  That's one of the longest and weirdest false flag operations I've ever heard of.

Liberals: Political violence is okay (if it's for a really good cause).  Liberals are portrayed as nonviolent and peace-loving.  And some of them are.  But some on he left prefer an "ends-justify-the-means" mentality.  And that seems to be on full display right now.

Union Violence In Michigan Is No Tea Party.  The assault on a Fox News contributor protecting women and seniors in a tent is but the latest example of the civil discourse and respect for democracy the president's union supporters really have.

'Democratic Underground' Users Claim Steven Crowder Caused Michigan Union Violence.  Shame on Steven Crowder for brutally smashing his face down upon the tender closed fist of union member Tony Camargo.  Although the network news shows are carefully avoiding committing themselves to real journalism by not reporting on union violence in Michigan, those of us who have access to the censored news via the Web are well aware of what is actually happening.

Union Thugs? No Kidding.  Had King Electrical Services owner John King been shot by, say, a Tea Partyer, there'd be no end to the public pontificating from Washington's politicians and media commentators about their rhetoric or protests inciting violence.  It's quite a different story for the Lambertville, Mich., contractor who woke up in the dead of night a week ago found a silhouetted figure on his driveway spraying "SCAB" on the side of his vehicle.  The figure fired a gun at him before fleeing.

Money pours in to replace hot dog vendor's equipment destroyed at Capitol.  During Tuesday's [12/11/2012] mass demonstrations that attracted an estimated 10,000 to the Capitol lawn, protesters of the right-to-work law the Legislature was passing and voting on tore down a tent rented by the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity.  Witnesses and Internet videos show protesters, some wearing union clothes, using knives or box cutters to cut the tent's ropes.  Clint Tarver, owner of Clint's Hot Dog Cart, said he was trapped inside as the tent came down and damaged about $400 in catering equipment.

Lansing Union Attack Victim: Assailant Wore Guy Fawkes-Like 'Devil Mask'.  Local Lansing Michigan hot dog vendor Clint Tarver was catering for Americans For Prosperity during the right-to-work demonstrations at the State Capitol on Tuesday [12/11/2012], when two men rushed into the tent.  In a video interview with Breitbart News, Clint claims one of the men wore a "Devil Mask."

This is who they are. This is what they do.  As the organized left, right down to Obama himself, ramp up pressure to keep Michigan's Governor Rick Snyder from signing right to work legislation into law, the hired thugs / "labor activists" they deploy to drive home the seriousness of their "suggestions" attack those who stand for fiscal responsibility and real freedom of speech and association — here, the tent of Americans for Prosperity, who have been helping in the effort to turn Michigan into a right to work state.

Union thug violence towards right-to-work supporters in Michigan.  Moral of the story, besides the obvious?  GET A CAMERA.  The Left STILL doesn't get how bad they look when they get recorded Acting Badly.

Union Violence in the Age of Obama.  Not so many moons ago, President Obama urged us all to "make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."  He Who Heals advocated "a more civil and honest public discourse" in the wake of the January 2011 Tucson massacre.  As usual, though, the White House has granted Big Labor bullies a permanent waiver from the lofty edicts it issues to everyone else.

Hoffa predicts 'civil war' in Michigan.  Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said Tuesday [12/11/2012] he expects Michigan unions and lawmakers to break out into "civil war" after the state legislature passed right-to-work bills that would weaken unions' power.

AFSCME Openly Threatens WI Businesses.  Business owners are now receiving threatening letters telling them that, if they don't support government-sector unions, their businesses will be boycotted.

Michigan Dem on right-to-work law: There will be blood.  As protests against Michigan's right-to-work laws swelled, pro-union Democrat legislator Douglas Geiss took to the state House floor — and Twitter — to promise violence.

Democrats threaten violence on Michigan House floor.  "There will be blood," State Representative Douglas Geiss threatened from the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives today as the body debated legislation that would make Michigan the nation's 24th right to work state.

WH: 'There will be blood' might not mean real blood.  President Obama's spokesman cited the ambiguity of the statement, "there will be blood," as he avoided condemning the remark made by a Michigan Democrat who opposes the imminent state's right-to-work legislation.

Fox News contributor punched in face at pro-union protests in Michigan.  A Fox News contributor was punched in the face during a pro-union protest Tuesday [12/11/2012] in Michigan, one of a series of confrontations between union demonstrators and opponents on the day the state Legislature approved so-called "right to work" legislation that unions oppose.

Obama's Union Goons Assault Steven Crowder.  President Barack Obama owes conservative Steven Crowder — and the nation — an apology after union thugs, angered by right-to-work laws passed by the Michigan legislature today, assaulted Crowder several times in the capital city of Lansing, causing mild injuries.

MI Pro-Union Crowd Destroys Tent with People Inside.  A group of pro-union, progressive protesters leveled a large tent with people inside during Tuesday's demonstrations outside the Michigan Capitol building in Lansing against right to work legislation.  [Video clip.]

Right-to-Work Supporters Assaulted Multiple Times By Union Mob.  Steven Crowder peacefully confronted union protesters today in Lansing, Michigan when the mob turned violent.  Crowder was punched multiple times and, at one point, when his back was turned to the crowd as he was leaving a confrontation, he was pulled by the collar of his coat back into the mob to be assaulted again.

MI Right to-Work Battle: Union Members Shout Down Tea Party Counter-Protest.  Just a few minutes into the demonstration against Michigan's right to work legislation, Union loyalists show their disdain for free speech by instructing and shouting down members of the Tea Party on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol building.

Right to Sue.  Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will make Michigan one of the largest right-to-work states in the country on Tuesday [12/11/2012], but opponents have vowed to fight the legislation.  "You can expect the lawsuits.  There's nothing to prevent the unions from filing suit, so they're going to do it," said Patrick Wright, a senior legal scholar at the conservative Mackinac Public Policy Center.

Worker Freedom Comes to Michigan?  As Michigan lawmakers prepare to strike a blow for worker freedom, organized labor is resorting to its old playbook in an effort to prevent the state from adopting "right to work" legislation" aimed at restoring the Rust Belt state's economic vitality.  True to form, the entrenched forces of organized labor that have been gnawing away at Michigan for decades are throwing a big, carefully stage-managed, media-saturated temper tantrum.

Memo To Strikers: You Could Have Killed Your Own Job.  For a week, an 800-member clerks' union shut down most of the vast Los Angeles-Long Beach seaport.  Who's winning?  Workers in Mexico.  Who's losing?  Workers in Southern California.

CA Union Shuts Down America's Largest Ports.  California may find itself in a disastrous fiscal situation, but that won't stop California's newly-empowered unions from flexing their muscle.  In the aftermath of the failure of Proposition 32, which would have prevented public sector unions from funding politicians, the unions are celebrating their confirmed power by striking.

Small union is causing big problems for ports.  The small band of strikers that has effectively shut down the nation's busiest shipping complex forced two huge cargo ships to head for other ports Thursday [11/29/2012] and kept at least three others away, hobbling an economic powerhouse in Southern California.  The disruption is costing an estimated $1 billion a day at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, on which some 600,000 truckers, dockworkers, trading companies and others depend for their livelihoods.

Happy Thanksgiving: Unions Shut Down Traffic to LAX.  Ready to fly out of Los Angeles today to get to your family before Thanksgiving?  Not so fast.  Los Angeles' labor unions have decided to protest on Thanksgiving Eve — one of the busiest travel days of the year — to snarl traffic around Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).  President Obama's favorite union, the Service Employees International Union, is spearheading the obnoxious effort; it's supposed to last from 11 a.m to 4 p.m., virtually the entire day.

NLRB sues to reinstate union saboteurs at nursing homes.  President Obama's National Labor Relations Board asked a judge this week to force a Connecticut nursing home to re-hire employees involved in a labor dispute, including the workers who sabotaged patient homes as they went on strike.  The Service Employees International Union members who worked at HealthBridge went on strike after rejecting the company's final offer in contract negotiations.

Update:
 Endangering the Elderly.  Judge Robert Chatigny on Wednesday [12/12/2012] ordered Healthbridge Systems to lay off hundreds of replacement workers in order to make room for the 600 striking members of the SEIU Local 1199, one of the Atlantic region's most powerful unions.  Those workers walked out of their jobs over a contract dispute in July.  Some employees allegedly tampered with the identification materials and medical records of patients, including some suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's, on their way out the door.

Trumka Promises More than 2,000 Union 'Poll Monitors' in Battleground States.  Setting the scene for possible post-election legal challenges, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said his unions plan to deploy 2,000 "poll monitors" who will be linked with lawyers around the country as a way to prevent "voter suppression" in states such as Ohio.

4 men arrested in Perrysburg for stealing Romney signs while driving sheet metal union truck.  Perrysburg police arrested four Toledo area men early Friday morning on charges of stealing Mitt Romney campaign signs in Wood and Lucas counties in Northwest Ohio.  The signs were found in a pickup truck owned by Sheet Metal Workers International, Union Local 33 in Parma, according to the police report.

Georgia power crew turned away from Sandy-stricken New York for refusing to join union.  A business coordinator at a power company in western Georgia told The Daily Caller Friday afternoon [11/2/2012] that workers from his electric-utility employer were not permitted to help restore power to New York consumers because they would not join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).  The revelation comes on the heels of similar stories TheDC has reported about power crews from Alabama and Florida who volunteered to fix downed power lines after Hurricane Sandy left millions in the Northeastern United States in the dark this week.

IBEW thugs strike again, turn away transformers delivered by non-union truckers.  Is your power still off?  Blame the IBEW!  For the second time since Huricane Sandy their unionista thugs put solidarity above customer service.

Nonunion Alabama crews turned away from Sandy recovery.  Crews from Decatur Utilities headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can't do any work there since they're not union employees.  The general manager of Decatur Utilities, Ray Hardin told Fox Business they were presented documents from the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers at a staging area in Virginia.  The documents stated they had to affiliate with a union to work, which the crews could not agree to.

'No Red Tape'? New Jersey Turns Away Non-union Relief Crews.  How desperate is hurricane-ravaged New Jersey?  Not desperate enough to suspend a union monopoly that keeps the state in the bottom ten states for economic competitiveness (and #48 for business friendliness).  Relief crews from Alabama who were specifically called to New Jersey found themselves diverted to Long Island, NY after they arrived because they use non-union labor.  Alabama is a right-to-work state.

Hey, New Jersey!  You should have thought of this earlier.
 Non-union power crews welcomed in NJ to help restore service, state says.  New Jersey's power companies are stressing today that they are accepting help from both union and non-union crews during the massive effort to restore power to those still in the dark in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.  The clarification comes after a utility company from Alabama said a six-man crew was headed to New Jersey on Wednesday, but turned back in Virginia after they said concerns were raised about whether New Jersey would accept help from the company's non-union utility crew.

11 days without power, Sandy victims want answers.  Eleven days after Hurricane Sandy made landfall, hundreds of thousands of utility customers in New York and New Jersey are still without power — and they want answers.  Unfortunately, the answers provided by the power companies have generated even more anger and frustration.

The Editor says...
 Attention New York and New Jersey residents: The IBEW turned away workers because they were non-union.  Talk to the IBEW about "answers."

The Union Racket.  The union that launched the career of Democratic National Committee executive director Patrick Gaspard is being accused of strong-arming a group of nursing homes to increase membership rolls.  HealthBridge and CareOne, two nursing home companies, are suing the New England Health Care Employees Union (Service Employees International Union Chapter 1199 New England), accusing the labor leaders of using political threats and dangerous workplace sabotage to force several non-union shops into their ranks.

Care One, HealthBridge nursing homes accuse SEIU affiliates of extortion in RICO lawsuit.  Two of the largest health care labor unions are engaged in racketeering and endangering the lives of elderly residents, according to a federal lawsuit filed by a chain of nursing homes in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  Instead of bargaining, the Fort Lee-based Care One and HealthBridge companies say that two local affiliates of the Service Employees International Union are resorting to criminal activities, defamation and sabotage to get contracts approved and workers organized.

Allen West event turns into beer-throwing fight when SEIU-backed protesters arrive.  Union-backed protesters interrupted Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., by taking over the balcony above an outdoor event on Wednesday [9/26/2012] before reportedly participating in a beer-throwing fight with West's supporters.  Stand Up Florida, a group backed by the Service Employees International Union, hung a banner from their hotel balcony criticizing West.  One of his supporters pulled the banner down, and then things got interesting.

State worker union has its own labor issues.  A messy fight between California's largest state employee union, SEIU Local 1000, and another union that has represented 160 of its staff has spilled into public view.  As they battle for those workers, the United Auto Workers is calling Local 1000 a hypocritical union-buster.  An official with the National Labor Relations Board says SEIU, as an employer, has engaged in "unfair labor practices."  The local rejects the accusations.

Meet the bragging teachers' union chief who has brought Chicago schools to a standstill with strike.  The union chief leading 26,000 public school teachers out on strike in Chicago bragged last year about 'smoking lots of weed' at college and mocked the lisp of President Barack Obama's Education Secretary.  Speaking at a North West Teaching for Social Justice conference in Seattle, Washington in October 2011, Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers Union, pacing up and down a stage, delivered a sarcastic tirade.

Union thugs crying about Democratic convention.  Labor leaders have had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year, politically speaking.  So bad, in fact, that they decided to throw a temper tantrum and partially boycott the Democratic National Convention — holding their own "shadow convention" in Philadelphia on Saturday [8/18/2012].

Some Laws Favor Labor Unions.  A new study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds that, when it comes to "threatening or disruptive behavior," union members have far more rights — or, at least, far more license — than their fellow Americans.  The Chamber's study, "Sabotage, Stalking, and Stealth Exemptions: Special State Laws for Labor Unions," examines little known state laws that favor organized labor, even to the point of exempting union members from laws prohibiting "conduct that would otherwise be considered criminal activity."  Although none of the laws highlighted by the Chamber's report condone violence, the report suggests that state laws facilitate or even encourage the circumstances in which a labor dispute might become violent — or even deadly.  The report highlights exemptions for violations such as stalking, trespassing, and other kinds of behavior that can be intimidating or seriously disturbing.

Union organizing exempted from stalking laws in four states.  A new report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlights a striking example of Big Labor's strength at the local government level:  the states of Pennsylvania, California, Illinois and Nevada have all exempted unions from the state's own anti-stalking laws.  The report, titled Sabotage, Stalking & Stealth Exemptions: Special State Laws for Labor Unions, claimed:  "union favoritism under state laws tend to occur in criminal statues and allow individuals who engage in truly objectionable behavior to avoid prosecution solely because they are participating in some form of labor activity."

Union Exemptions from Criminal Laws.  West Virginia declares that all persons in the state "have the right to be free from any violence, or intimidation by threat of violence" committed against them or their property based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation or sex.  These broad protections for civil rights are commonly found at the state level and even exceed the protections afforded by federal law and the U.S. Constitution. [...] Remarkably, the state's civil rights protections provide an exemption that says the law cannot be construed in such a way as to "impede or to interfere with any person conducting labor union or labor union organizing activities."

Unions offer reward for Romney's Olympic whereabouts.  Two of the U.K. and U.S.'s largest unions say they are determined to locate the exact location of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the London Olympics.  And they're willing to pay for that information.

Unions Offer Reward For Romney Event Locations.  Why the manhunt?  So they can organize 'grassroots' demonstrations. So their goons can beat up any Romney supporters they can get their clutches on.  So they can intimidate people for expressing any opinions they don't like.  Why else?  Students of history should recognize this kid of behavior.  We saw it from Hitler's 'Brown Shirts' in Weimar Germany.  We have seen it from the 'Red Guards' in the Soviet Union and China.  It has a long tradition.

The "long arm of the Union" concept.  The idea of "sending a message" is what Unions have in mind when they go on strike.  That message is that if anyone dares cross them, the Unions will provide penalties.

Unions target hotel chain owned by Obama supporters with 'global boycott'.  On Monday [7/23/2012], Richard Trumka's AFL-CIO and a host of other labor unions and liberal activists will publicly target Hyatt, the hotel chain owned by wealthy supporters of President Barack Obama.

Striking SEIU workers intentionally endangered CT nursing home patients, says company.  After the collapse of 17-month-long union negotiations on July 3, unionized health-care workers walked out of five nursing home facilities in Connecticut, but not before placing some elderly patients in dire medical risk through acts of sabotage, according to the company that owns and operates the facilities.  "In the hours leading up to the strike by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 SEIU (the Union) against five HealthBridge Management Health Care Centers in Connecticut, Union members engaged in multiple illegal and dangerous acts against Center residents," reads a statement released by HealthBridge on Tuesday afternoon [7/17/2012].

Longshoremen file suit while clogging Northwest cargo at Port of Portland.  An escalating dispute between two unions tying up millions of dollars of freight across the Northwest boils down to a spat over just two waterfront jobs, the Port of Portland's executive director said Thursday [6/14/2012].

Old tone: South Carolina AFL-CIO president beats piñata with Nikki Haley's face on it.  According to Dave Weigel, the guy who recorded it and uploaded it is a progressive.  This is something he and the local union brain trust actually wanted people to see.

South Carolina AFL-CIO Leader Bashes Nikki Haley piñata.  Donna Dewitt, the outgoing president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, is seen in this video bashing a piñata of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's face while Dewitt and her colleagues were at a retreat in Columbia, S.C. Saturday afternoon [5/19/2012].

South Carolina AFL-CIO Head Takes Aim at Gov. Nikki Haley's Head.  The incident occurred at a Saturday meeting of the South Carolina Progressive Network, a group of about 60 organizations that Dewitt co-chairs.  [Governor Nikki] Haley, who has voiced her dislike for unions and has been sued by the International Association of Machinists and AFL-CIO, wrote on her Twitter and Facebook pages, "Wow. I wonder if the unions think this kind of thing will make people take them seriously."

Unhinged, bat-wielding Big Labor thug of the day repeatedly whacks Nikki Haley pinata.  The head of the South Carolina chapter of the AFL-CIO, Donna DeWitt, thought it would be fun to take a baseball bat to GOP Gov. Nikki Haley's face on a piñata. [...] Just watch it and see how other Big Labor goons shrieked "Hit her again! Whack her again!"

SEIU Astroturfs May Day Protest to Disrupt LAX.  Local Los Angeles talk radio station KFI reported that the SEIU May Day protest snarling traffic around Los Angeles International airport was Astroturfed.  The vast majority of protesters at LAX were not the grassroots employees protesting working conditions but were, in fact, bused in by union organizers.  But that was enough to delay flights by almost an hour.

Union Leader Says Education Reforms Are an Attack Against 'Human Rights'.  Is teacher tenure a "human right"?  That's what the head of the Nevada State Education Association seemed to suggest in a television interview last weekend.  Appearing on a local news show, NSEA President Lynn Warne said the Silver State's new education reforms — which focus largely on teacher tenure — "really struck at the heart of what are educators' rights, workers' rights, human rights really."

Indiana Union Claims Right-to-Work Is Slavery.  Indiana's operating engineers' union has filed a suit against the state's new right-to-work law.  Among other counts in the lawsuit, they allege that providing union-negotiated benefits to non-union workers toiling alongside union members violates the 13th Amendment.  That is, because non-unionized workers aren't paying dues in exchange for the union's negotiations, union workers are being enslaved.

Protesters Mock National Anthem at Wisconsin Tea Party.  Not long ago, it was unthinkable to disrespect the National Anthem in anyway whatsoever.  However pro-labor union protesters showed no hesitation in crossing that line on Saturday [4/14/2012] in Madison, Wisconsin.

Unions Plan to Train 100,000 Occupy Protesters.  Welcome to Occupy Spring.  The Occupy Movement has become more sophisticated, how?  It now officially has big name backers like the Teamsters, Moveon.org and other groups.

Secretive SEIU network partners with Occupy movement, raises nationwide [strife and disorder].  During the past year, politically aggressive front groups founded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have been partnering with regional "Occupy" groups to pressure businesses and politicians, The Daily Caller has learned.  The organizations — including This Is Our DC; Good Jobs, Great Houston; Good Jobs, Better Baltimore; Detroit's Good Jobs Now; Fight for Philly; One Pittsburgh; Good Jobs LA; and Minnesotans for a Fair Economy — employ "flash demonstrations" and other tactics to deluge their political targets with protesters, sometimes numbering in the hundreds.

Government workers vs. their unions: Cato.  As part of the payroll tax bill on Friday [2/17/2012], Congress voted to tweak federal worker benefits.  New federal hires will be required to make an additional contribution to their pension plans.  While just a small change, federal worker unions railed against the bill as if were armageddon.

Attack on civility:  The crowd of more than 2,000 — bloated by swarms of Occupiers and their teachers-union promoters — shouted down any opposition via a standard Occupy trick, the so-called "peoples' microphone," in which one speaker's words are picked up and relayed in short phrases.  Naturally, four-letter words flew.  The goal was to thwart a legal and democratic process through disruption and intimidation.

12 Union Protestors Arrested At AT&T Protest.  Did I say union members?  Sorry I meant Occupy protestors.  Oh wait now I am confused.  Most of these protestors appear to be middle aged black people with jobs and a union card.  The whole occupy movement has been taken over by the union goons now and it is pretty transparent.  In Atlanta when the occupy protest began you couldn't find an African American among them.

Unions plan 'Occupy CPAC' thuggery.  Those who do not have logic and reason on their side, tend to violence to make up for it.  The CPAC attendees are as much a part of the "99%" as the occupy crowd.  Same socio-economic caste; same middle and upper middle class upbringing.  Even attending most of the same colleges (the CPAC crowd is mostly young college age activists).  This is will not be an enobling demonstration against "greed" and corruption" but rather a grubby political dispute.  The unions and their occupy allies disagree politically with conservatives and will seek to disrupt their gathering.  Their desire for confrontation will no doubt be realized.

NLRB Wants to Force Companies to Turn Over Employee Contact Info.  [NLRB] Chair Mark Pearce is introducing a series of new regulations.  One of these regulations, if passed, would require businesses to surrender their employee's personal contact information to campaigning union heads.  "If the National Labor Relations Board gets its way, companies could be forced to hand over your contact information, whether you like it or not, to union leaders," Fox host Neil Cavuto said.  "Union leaders having access to your phone number, your email address?"

Will Unions Occupy Super Bowl Over Right To Work?  Indiana unions, opposed to becoming the first right-to-work state in the Rust Belt, may disrupt Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.  Their unnecessary roughness will cost the Hoosiers needed jobs.

Bored with union organizing, SEIU gears up for thuggery.  We've already seen the kind of thuggery SEIU has in mind.  Remember two years ago when 14 busloads of leftist demonstrators from SEIU, National Peoples' Action, MoveOn.org, and other activist groups converged on the private home of a bank executive in the Maryland suburbs of the nation's capital?  Fortune Magazine's Washington editor Nina Easton described the scene:  "Waving signs denouncing bank 'greed,' hordes of invaders poured out of 14 school buses, up Baer's steps, and onto his front porch."

Anti-safety? Old union trope withers.  The old chest-thumping power plays used by public employee unions for years are not resonating with voters like they used to. ... Still, the union brass know no other way to behave, so they keep pounding their chests as if the ancient tribal call will be enough to send the reformers with the green eye shades back to their offices to cower in fear.

Greedy Union to Destroy Black Restaurant Owner's Business.  An actress, model, and African American business entrepreneur credited with reviving a once-blighted neighborhood and bringing back theater goers to the New York Theater District is about to lose her business to a greedy union that wants to hike the rent for her famous restaurant 350 percent.

The Union War on Wisconsin Governor Walker.  Unleashing forces of hate, making it personal, unions roll out heavy artillery in their all-out war against their declared enemy, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.  Union devotees will need about 540,200 signatures on petitions in 60 days to trigger a special recall election targeting the besieged rookie governor.  Meanwhile, protesters' signs hang in the Capitol rotunda, left from February protests, depicting Gov. Walker as a mustachioed Hitler, the devil himself, object of daily exercises of almost ritual union members' hatred, like an Emmanuel Goldstein in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.  Only the ritual hate sessions are not two minutes daily; rather, eight grueling months for unions' most faithful haters.

Union Chief Leo Gerard says:
 'Resistance Movement' Needed to Seize Bridges, Banks in Case OWS Fails.  United Steelworkers international president Leo Gerard has a message to the flea party whiny-whiners still camping out instead of sleeping in their parents' basements — playtime is over.  Just in case the Occupy movement fails — in other words, when it fails — Gerard is urging union members to fill that gaping void with "more militancy."

Useless unions.  The right of unions to compel with a 51% vote of the workers at a shop or organize has been seen as vital to improvement of the lot of workers in America.  That is not true.  Unions are granted by law the right to "bargain" on behalf of workers who do not want to be part of the union in states which are not right to work states.  These unions assess dues, which are overwhelmingly used for political purposes.  These workers serve a much meaner and rougher boss than their nominal employer:  union overlords.

'We're going to break your legs,' labour minister told as strike envelops Quebec.  Quebec's construction industry, already at the centre of a corruption crisis, hit another low Monday [10/24/2011] as a battle between powerful unions and the government descended into a province-wide illegal walkout and someone threatened to break the labour minister's legs.  Given the high tension and heated tempers in a province where workers in the industry are forced to belong to a union, the minister, Lise Thériault, had already been given an extra bodyguard since she introduced Bill 33.

AFL-CIO Trumka: Wisc. Governor 'Lucifer,' Will Support a Recall.  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that his union coalition would participate in a planned recall campaign targeting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) — a man Trumka referred to as "Lucifer."  "Would I support going after Lucifer?" Trumka said, after being asked if he would support a recall of Walker.  "Let me think about that.  That's a tough one.  Of course we're gonna' be there."

Video: Unionized Longshoremen Assault Police Officers.  You may recall that these classy gentlemen are locked in a bitter labor dispute with a company at the Port of Longview (a company, by the way, that actually employs other unionized workers).  The Longshoremen are incensed, you see, because they've been denied their God-given "right" to work at an EGT facility — and they've responded with characteristic restraint and circumspection.  And by that, I mean they've damaged railroad cars, sabotaged brake lines, destroyed property, criminally trespassed, taken security guards hostage, and threatened police with baseball bats.

NLRB Chairman's Former Law Partner Defends Union Violence.  A little over a month ago, in a case that drew national attention, a man was targeted at his home, shot and injured, all because he dared to run union free business.  Now, in Buffalo, New York, a case involving outrageous allegations of labor-racketeering and union violence aimed at non-union construction workers and company owners is proceeding through the judicial process.  Its outcome, however, may have wide-ranging ramifications on a national level.

Forty Policemen Needed to Control Wisconsin Democrats.  Since getting wiped out in the 2010 election and failing in their massively-financed recall elections, Wisconsin's Democrats have embarked on a permanent temper tantrum.  Like little children, they apparently intend to stamp their feet and hold their breath until they get their way.  Most recently, they infiltrated and disrupted a Rotary meeting at which Paul Ryan was speaking.  More than forty policemen were needed to keep the unruly Democrats under control; they escorted twenty from the Rotary meeting and arrested three.

Union protesters clash with police in Longview.  A train carrying a shipment of grain made its first delivery to a new terminal in Longview on Wednesday night, surviving a day of union protests that included two blockades and a tense clash with police.

'Day of Rage' an irony.  On Saturday [9/17/2011], the Service Employees International Union is planning a Day of Rage in locations all across our great county, with the theme being a "takeover" of Wall Street and those dirty, nasty, capitalistic American businesses.  Imagine that, an international union composed of American public-sector government employees, paid by us, the taxpayers, are going to make a direct attack on the source of the tax monies that pay their wages.

Meet the Democratic Party, Up Close and Personal.  Remarkably, this union violence seems to have received hardly any national news coverage.  Local reporters did follow up on the story, however, and went to the union's local headquarters to try to get the longshoremen's side of the story.  What followed wasn't pretty; in fact, there is hardly any part of the encounter that we can quote on this family web site.

Unions on the warpath.  In the wild, a wounded animal is the most dangerous kind.  Right now, the labor movement in the United States is such an animal, reeling from a string of devastating injuries that have eroded its ability to raise money, organize and influence elections. ... But unions are not going gently into that good night.  Rightly perceiving their very existence to be at stake, Big Labor and its bloated bureaucracies and bosses have reacted with rage.

NLRB Investigates Longshoremen Union for Strike Gone Wrong.  After a union wildcat strike turned violent on Thursday [9/8/2011], triggering a walkout at five ports in Washington state, longshoremen went back to work on Friday.  But in an unusual twist, the National Labor Relations Board succeeded in getting a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction Thursday against further union activity at the Port of Longview after the union ignored the temporary restraining order that he issued a week earlier.

500 Tea Party Protesters Storm a Government Building, Take Hostages.  Got your attention?  Good.  Because it seems that unless a story has negative implications for the tea party no one (even Fox News) is going to make a stink about it.  On Thursday morning [9/8/2011], over 500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (an AFL-CIO union) did something that should have been the top news story on every major news network in the country.

Warning:  Vulgarity throughout.
 Longshoreman assaults media.  A member of a Pacific Northwest longshoreman's union verbally attacked and threatened a news crew that showed up at the union's local headquarters in Longview, Washington.  The confrontation was captured on a video that hit YouTube Friday morning [9/9/2011].

Thuggery in the Wisconsin Union Battle.  [Scroll down]  A death threat is the ultimate form of thuggery.  Lesser threats — not to life, but to others' well-being and property — include intimidation of local businesses.  Sadly, unions are up to that tawdry task.  If a business does not bow to their demands, such as placing a pro-union poster in their windows, the threat — in writing, no less — is to boycott it. ... Astoundingly, even Wisconsin police and fire public unions hint that they would not respond to crime in progress or fires at non-union-compliant businesses.

Politics turns dangerously rougher.  Tea Party members could reasonably feel fear of violence from union activists after Mr. Hoffa's call to "take out" Tea Party members.  Given the history of violence associated with unions in general and the Teamsters in particular.  (Mr. Hoffa's father, also president of Teamsters, is widely believed to have been murdered by fellow Teamsters.)  Of course, both the Michigan attorney general and the U.S. attorney general would need to assess the specific statutes to see whether Mr. Hoffa's words are criminally proscribed.

Obama Gives Free Rein To Union Thugs.  To do something about kids in school getting shoved around, the White House sends the first lady onto the Ellen Show to bemoan the supposed "culture of bullying" in America.  But when it comes to those kids' hard-working fathers and mothers struggling for a paycheck amid 9.1% unemployment, President Obama is only too happy to see them bullied at the hands of labor thugs.

Nurses union holds dozens of rallies for Wall Street tax to 'Heal America'.  Carrying signs that read "Heal America Tax Wall Street," nurses union members rallied in front of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio's downtown Orlando office Wednesday to solicit support for a tax on Wall Street that would help fund projects on Main Street.  About 30 protestors wearing red shirts gathered on the sidewalk, carrying signs and chanting, "Human need not corporate greed."

Does Anyone Care About Actual Political Violence?  Over the last year, we have seen absurd efforts to blame violent acts committed by people who had nothing to do with politics on politicians and activists who have nothing to do with violence.  No matter:  it is all about political opportunism.  In fact, however, we do have a political or quasi-political movement in the United States that in recent years has often resorted to violence:  the union movement.

Name That Milwaukee Union Thug.  The unions are so angry and have become so obsessed with Scott Walker, that a contingency of union thugs followed him to Milwaukee's Messmer Preparatory Catholic School last Friday [8/26/2011] where the governor was to read to students and tour the school.  An unidentified union thug tried to prevent the visit from occurring by tampering with the school's door locks.  Media reports indicate that the vandal put super glue and sticks in the locks of eight school doors late Thursday night [8/25/2011].

Milwaukee Thug ID'ed as Former Teachers Union and SEIU Organizer!  When the protests turned ugly outside of the Milwaukee Catholic school where Gov. Scott Walker was appearing last Friday, I instinctively knew that the worst offenders would be teacher union leaders.  Why?  Because a nasty, belligerent attitude has become a requirement for a leadership post in most teachers unions.  Sure, union leaders publicly talk about the need for civility and open-mindedness, but in their unscripted moments they spew vitriol, intimidation and hatred.

Striking Union Agrees Not To Drop, Spread Or Throw Feces.  Well, actually, it's feces and other objects like "nails, glass, cinder block, spikes, feces, clubs, rocks, screws, or puncture devices of any kind, or other object or debris..."

Union organizer suspected of shooting non-union Ohio employer.  King Electrical Services owner John King was shot by a person who appears to be from one of the many unions who have targeted his workers, Toledo News Channel 11 WTOL reports.  King is the largest non-union electrical contractor company in the area of southeastern Michigan near the Ohio border.  He has a long history of being on the receiving end of union-related violence, and this case doesn't appear to be any different.

Ohio Business Owner Shot For Being Non-Union, Police Investigating.  With around 25 employees, John King owns one of the largest non-union electrical contracting businesses in the Toledo, Ohio area.  As a non-union contractor, his business happens to be doing well at a time when unions in the construction industry are suffering.  This, it seems, has made the usual animosity unions have for him even greater, making him a prime target of union thugs.  So much so, that one of them tried to kill him last week at his home.

Union Thugs? No Kidding.  An Ohio contractor was wounded by gunfire Wednesday [8/17/2011] by a shadowy man vandalizing his SUV with union threats. ... Had King Electrical Services owner John King been shot by, say, a Tea Partyer, there'd be no end to the public pontificating from Washington's politicians and media commentators about their rhetoric or protests inciting violence.

Non-Union Business Owner Shot, 'SCAB' Carved Into Car.  A business owner in Southeastern Michigan was shot last week after confronting a man carving "SCAB" into his car.  John King, the shooting victim, owns King Electrical Services, the largest non-union electrical contractor in the area.  Last Wednesday, King reportedly awoke at night to find someone in his driveway vandalizing his car.  When King stepped outside, the man shot him in the arm and fled.

Union Rep Declares "Open Season" on "Managers and Scabs".  As the CWA picketing of Verizon continues it seems some of the union leadership is becoming more and more unhinged.  Apparently one member of the union leadership went so far as to instruct his members, by way of publicly accessible telephone hotline, that it is now "open season" on "managers and scabs".  The thug went on to say that union members should "follow them" and "torture them, torture them with chants and noise".

Union Extremists Harassing & Menacing Replacement Workers In Verizon Strike.  It's only been a few days since 45,000 CWA and IBEW members walked off their jobs at Verizon, however, incidents of harassment, sabotage, and illegal picketing have already begun to pile up.

The Verizon Strike Gets Ugly Fast.  Refusing to comply with union demands is not "union busting."  Verizon's landline operation is shrinking.  They're entitled to make whatever offers of compensation fit their business plans.  Workers — either individually or organized — are equally free to accept or refuse their offer.  It's telling that the unions so quickly decided that the scales needed to be tipped in their favor through sabotage and intimidation.

Verizon gets injunction against NJ picketers.  Company spokesman Rich Young says it made the move after dozens of reports of sabotage, harassment and obstruction at its facilities.

Internal E-Mail Reveals Striking Union's Tactics Against Verizon.  Since the union strike against Verizon began a little more than a week ago, incidents of sabotage and property damage have been reported, homes of company executives swarmed upon by union protesters, and injunctions issued.

Union Extortion.  Union organizers reportedly are telling South Carolina Boeing workers they'll halt a National Labor Relations Board action to shut their plant as long as the workers join their union.

Racketeering Charges against SEIU; What Does Obama Know?  United States District Judge Claude Hilton, acting in the eastern district of Virginia, has ruled that the French-based food service and facilities management company Sodexo can proceed with an extortion claim against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  The SEIU, which has strong ties to the Obama administration, has been accused of using ties to the federal government to harass companies such as Sodexo.  The alleged methods include using regulatory or government action to pressure or embarrass the company or its employees.

Obama's Favorite Union Heavies.  Unions thrive on workplace conflict.  The AFL-CIO, for example, sponsors a "Bad Boss Contest," which awards the employee who submits the best story about a horrible boss a "seven-night vacation escape" from his or her workplace travails.  But aggressive union tactics are no laughing matter, as a recently unveiled playbook distributed by one of America's biggest unions reveals.

'New' ACORN Groups Join SEIU's Economic Terrorism Campaign.  Newly created ACORN front groups across America have signed on to SEIU's economic terrorism and sabotage campaign.  ACORN, long associated with President Obama, is participating in the disruptive campaign through its newly renamed state chapters.  Mortgage and student loan strikes, crippling bank boycotts, intimidation, and who knows what else are all on the agenda.

Auto industry worker testifies on union harassment.  Larry Getts was a union shop steward at a past job, so he was inclined to support unionization when labor organizers showed up at his current job at a Fort Wayne, Indiana Dana Corp. plant that packs and ships auto parts.  But this morning Getts testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce that he eventually soured on the union as its representatives launched a campaign to harass and misinform workers as part of its "card check" organizing drive.

Conservatives and the "N" Word.  It is simply unacceptable in America for liberals to continue to refer to conservatives as Nazis.  Last week at a union protest in Trenton the Vice President of Communications Workers of America, Chris Shelton, came close to using this barbaric language, but exercised slightly more tact by only referring to New Jersey's Governor as "Adolf Christie."  But the insinuation was still evident.  This type of vituperative language from the left is not uncommon.

Union Boss Calls Christie "Hitler".  Once again the leaders of America's union movement are providing more evidence of the devotion of liberals to civil political discourse.  At a rally in Trenton, New Jersey yesterday [6/16/2011], Chris Shelton, the vice president of the Communications Workers of America, told a crowd assembled to protest pension reform that "It took World War II to get rid of the last Adolf Hitler — it's gonna take World War III to get rid of Adolf Christie!"

Union that's pushing card check suddenly all about 'free and fair elections'.  With the dues and support of as many as 25,000 workers on the line and one of the nation's largest air carriers in the mix, this is an important election. ... Apparently it's so important that, according to a letter we have exclusively obtained, the IAM is frantically pestering the AFA-CWA to stop "intimidating" the workers who are voting in the election.  Yes, you read that right — a union that is affiliated with the AFL-CIO wants another union to stop intimidating people.

Hard to get good goons these days.  So the public employee unions have been on the defensive across the nation, and they've been losing battles in state capitols from Wisconsin, to Ohio, to Tennessee.  Although there have been some violent incidents and death threats, overall, despite the talk from many right-leaning pundits about "union goons," the actual danger posed by the union members appears to have been very small by labor-historical standards.  Apparently, you just can't get good goons nowadays.

Union whistleblowers: We were beaten and harassed.  Unionized phone company employees say they were beaten or threatened after they accused their labor bosses of looting their coffers through various scams.  One member of Communications Workers of America Local 1101 said that after he reported a time-sheet padding scheme, a thug beat him so badly his spine was injured.

Union Thugs Provide Card-Check Preview.  Card-check legislation is the unions' top priority and is strongly favored by Barack Obama and most Democrats.  Why?  Because under card check, there is no secret ballot.  The unions know who is supporting them and who isn't.  How will they treat the ones who don't sign the union card?  The same way they treated the communications union workers who didn't appreciate having their money stolen by the bosses.  If you think union violence is an old-fashioned concept, just let the Democrats adopt card check.

Union Official Teaches College Course in Violent Union Tactics.  If you are wondering why some folks are starting to question whether a college education is worth the cost, the video below goes a long way towards explaining it.  Recently, the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) sponsored two college courses:  Introduction to Labor Studies and Labor Politics and Society, to be taught simultaneously through a video conference between to two campuses.

Wisconsin Mobs: Thugs in Union Cause.  "Rampaging crowds invading the Capitol, overwhelming police, kicking in doors and climbing through windows.  Bomb threats and rounds of ammunition discovered at the State Capitol.  Is this Nazi brownshirts at work, busting up a meeting of political opponents in 1933 Germany?  No, it's what has passed for democratic opposition in Wisconsin over the last six weeks," wrote columnist Katherine Kersten.  Protestors shouted, "This is what democracy looks like!"  Though the union supporters claimed to be defending the noble cause of democracy, they were in fact subverting it.  And the Democratic members of the Wisconsin Assembly ran away from democracy to hide in Illinois, choosing to obstruct democracy rather than participate in it.

SEIU protesters take over bank HQ.  While the left will undoubtedly claim that Stephen Lerner and his plot of economic terrorism has nothing to do with them, SEIU continues to use radical tactics to attack economic institutions.  The latest shows a group of SEIU protestors infiltrating a bank in Pennsylvania and disrupting business for a portion of the day.

Union Thuggery Run Amok.  Having lost its war on economics, the SEIU has declared war on the economy.  Literally.  One of its top minds was caught vowing to crash the stock market to redistribute wealth.  Is this a union or a subversive group?

Union Organizer Defends His Plan To Crash The Stock Market.  Stephen Lerner, a veteran union organizer, wants collective bargaining for homeowners that owe money to the big banks.  And this week, he was caught on tape talking about a "mortgage strike" against the big banks.  He suggested that a large number of homeowners stop paying their mortgage until the banks agree to negotiate and modify loans.

Union Animals Storm Bank, Demanding CEO.  For the life of me, I still don't get why so many unions don't realize that acting like untamed beasts in public hurts their cause for amassing widespread support for their agenda.  In Wisconsin, for instance, not only did we see union supporters marching around the state capitol as a herd of cows, but they were harassing state senators at their offices and homes as well.  There were also the death threats.  Now comes a story from northeast Pennsylvania, where hordes of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) fanatics stormed a bank demanding to speak to its CEO.

Union boss goes off at meeting, prison guards say.  Prison guards at a Western Maryland correctional facility say a union boss berated and tried to intimidate them after they raised questions at a pre-shift meeting about how their fees are spent and the benefits of belonging to a union. ... The meeting took an unexpected twist, they say, when Mr. Berger opened the floor to questions.  When asked about the benefit of belonging to a union, why non-union members must pay a fee to AFSCME and whether the fees go into the same pot that helped the union give millions to Democratic candidates and causes in the 2010 elections, the representative launched into a threatening and profanity-laced tirade.

Uncivil disobedience: Media ignores union thuggery.  In Michigan, protesters opposed to Gov. Rick Snyder's austerity budget broke a window to get into the capitol building.  One faces felony charges after assaulting police with an edged weapon; 14 were arrested.  In Washington, DC, the windows at GOP headquarters were shot out, not the first time that Republican offices have been subject to such attacks.  In Madison, Wis., the state capitol was occupied for weeks by teachers-union members and their supporters.  Doors and windows were broken; a mob tried to keep Republican state senators from entering the Senate chamber to vote.

Wisconsin after the Union Takeover:  "Are you wearing a bulletproof vest?"  Click.  Michael Hintze's phone line went dead — the caller never identified himself.  A prominent Wisconsin Tea Party leader, Hintze is the latest recipient of anonymous death threats.  Maybe you thought it was finally over in Wisconsin. ... But there's more.  Though chapter one undeniably ended with a resounding victory for Walker, the next part may easily become a forgotten chapter among thousands in the left's annals of Alinsky-style combat.

State Tea Party Leader in Brookfield Receives Threat.  Police are increasing patrols near the Brookfield home of a state tea party leader who has pushed for greater health and pension concessions from public employees after he received a veiled death threat over the weekend.  Wisconsin Tea Party Patriots State Coordinator Michael Hintze told police when he answered a call on his cell phone about 2:30 p.m. Saturday [3/12/2011], a male voice "asked if he was wearing a bullet-proof vest" and then hung up.

'Civility' Was Always Dead.  Blogress Ann Althouse, a university of Wisconsin law professor, is half of the husband-and-wife team that has done a better job than any journalist of reporting on the skirmish in Wisconsin over government union privileges.  Yesterday [3/12/2011] she posted a link to a bizarre threat against her and hubby Laurence Meade that was posted on Scirbd.com.

Progressives in Their Own Words.  A death threat serious enough that State Department of Justice is investigating it -- along with "several" others made to Republican legislators, followed by a thinly-veiled threat of extortion by public service union police official sent to the director of a financial services company.  An extortion letter co-signed by other police, firefighting and teacher union "leaders" as well.  Take a good, long look at progressivism minus the mainstream media filter, my fellow Americans.

Death Threats by the Dozens in Wisconsin.  'We will hunt you down.  We will slit your throats.  We will drink your blood.  I will have your decapitated head on a pike in the Madison town square.  This is your last warning."  Is this a passage from Bram Stoker's Dracula?  A snippet from al-Qaeda's latest missive?  No, this e-mail reached Wisconsin state senator Dan Kapanke (R., La Crosse) on March 9, after he voted for GOP governor Scott Walker's controversial budget and labor reforms.

Chilling threats made against Althouse.  It's like living in Venezuela.  Blogger, lawyer Ann Althouse, who has been covering the Wisconsin labor dispute, received what can only be called a declaration of war on her from someone — or, more likely, some people — who don't like her anti-union sentiments.

The Aroma of Illegality.  For the last few weeks, Madison, Wisconsin, has been Malodorous Central, as various government employees, from the 14 Fleebagging Democratic state senators to protesting teachers and sundry public union apparatchiks, have endeavored to substitute mob rule for the rule of law.  "After the vote on collective bargaining in the Wisconsin Senate," John Hinderaker reports at Powerline, "armed guards led Republican Senators through a tunnel, out of the Capitol and onto a waiting bus, which reportedly was commandeered for the purpose on an emergency basis.  A howling mob of union members threatened the Republicans, shouted obscenities and pounded on the bus."

Union equates lavish benefits to black civil rights.  Fresh from defeat in Wisconsin, union leaders are planning a new campaign not just to head off future challenges to their collective bargaining powers but also to make the case that organized labor's benefits and prerogatives — wages, health care, and pensions that are more generous than those of comparable workers in the private sector — are the moral equivalent of rights won by black Americans during the civil rights movement.

Thousands of union members storm Annapolis.  As Maryland lawmakers prepare to make decisions in the coming weeks on budget cuts and pension reform, thousands of union members on Monday [3/14/2011] marched on Annapolis to send a message.

Top 10 Ugly Moments in the Wisconsin Union Battle.  [#6] The owner of the Easy Street Cafe in Madison called 911 when a group of union protesters, led by members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199, stormed his restaurant and verbally accosted seven Republican state senators who were sharing a meal after a vote at the capitol.  The group of about 10 people chanted and shouted obscenities at the legislators.  When asked to leave by the owner, they refused and got into a scuffle with the restaurant staff.

March of the Solidarity Cows.  It's a good rule of thumb that anyone who thinks Hitler is the only person who could possibly disagree with them has dug a deep foxhole on the losing side of an argument.  The point of all this is not persuasion, but intimidation.  No thinking taxpayer would be eager to support the continued looting of a bankrupt state, with vast new taxes looming on the horizon, to fund the diamond-studded results of collective bargaining by public unions.  The unions don't want Wisconsin taxpayers to think, and they really don't need their "support."  They require only their submission and silence.

The union bullies in Wisconsin target businesses.  Wisconsin's public employee unions are now hell-bent on punishing selected Badger State taxpayers for the transgressions of electing Scott Walker and sending too many Republicans to the legislature. ... Any pretense these unions had of showing civility, intelligence, or rational thought has evaporated in the sunlight.  We are left with the uninhibited tantrums of a spoiled child, angrily lashing out at his parents who have begun to teach the painful lessons of sharing with the rest of the family.

Union mobocracy drowns out democracy in Wisconsin.  [Scroll down]  Republican legislators were often surrounded and threatened by cursing demonstrators; protesters repeatedly disrupted the legislative process; and chanting, screaming, horn-blowing crowds took over the rotunda and other parts of the capitol.  Outside agitators were shipped into the state by President Obama's Organizing for America, the SEIU and other national unions, and the organization formerly known as ACORN.  As events reached a crescendo, demonstrators broke past security police, breaking windows and forcing doors open in mob actions clearly intended to bring Wisconsin government to a stop and to nullify the results of last November's elections.  Worst of all, many credible death threats were received by Republican legislators and are now being investigated by Wisconsin law enforcement authorities.

Bureaucrats to union thugs: Come out fighting.  No, the ruling was not issued by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.  It was the National Labor Relations Board that gave a green light to union thuggery in workplace representative elections.  The ruling was handed down by NLRB Chairwoman Wilma Liebman and board member Gary Becker.  Liebman was originally appointed to the board by President Clinton, then was reappointed twice by President George W. Bush.  Becker is President Obama's recess-appointed former AFL and SEIU lawyer who refuses to recuse himself from multiple cases in which he formerly participated as a union attorney.

Teamster Threatens To Break Cameraman's Neck.  Yesterday was a lovely day in Columbus, Ohio.  The sun was shining, the breeze was crisp, birds were singing, and union thugs were marching around the state capitol, demanding the "right" to squeeze more platinum benefits out of taxpayers. ... You probably already know where this is going, but stick with me until we get to the embedded video.

American Brownshirts.  'Every once in a while, you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary," Rep. Michael Capuano (D., Mass.) told a February 22 union rally in Boston.  Even if union members and their supporters missed Capuano's call to mayhem (or his subsequent tepid apology), many of them are on the same brutal wavelength.  Although Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.) still is recovering from a January 8 assassination attempt, the Left's post-Tucson civility campaign has vanished like gunsmoke in a desert breeze.

Uncivil Unions.  As Obama rakes in historic campaign contributions from Wall Street money, liberals claim Republicans are beholden to "the rich."  However that may be, it is far more true, and far less remarked upon, that the Democratic Party is the party of public sector unions.  And now, the nation watches helplessly as public sector unions and their Democratic allies say to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker:  Nice state you got there, governor.  Be a shame if something bad happened to it.

Protesting Teacher: Give Us the Billionaires' Addresses!  The Democrats and the unions had a very bad election last November.  Their only hope of stopping the inevitable demise of collective bargaining privileges for public sector employees is by swaying public opinion.  The unions are playing a very weak hand, and the protests are their "ace in the hole."  But what's inexcusable is the attempt of some protestors to villanize and make veiled threats against private American citizens (namely "The Rich").

Union bile runneth over.  The Boiling Over of the Liberal Mind is on full display these days, and it is not a pretty sight.  Union protesters in Wisconsin compared Gov. Scott Walker to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other tyrants.  A sign showed him in a Nazi salute and screamed, "Heil Walker."  Another said, "Hitler, Stalin, Walker."  Still another showed a swastika next to his name.

Desperate Wisconsin Unions Resort to Alinsky Tactics.  [Scroll down]  Realizing that they could not win using aboveboard tactics, the unions went far beyond peaceful protest, engaging in dishonest, unethical and probably illegal activity.  Doctors were filmed at the protests fraudulently handing out notes to excuse state employees from work so they could protest. ... Efforts are also being made to sabotage the democratic process of the State Assembly.  Republicans took over the Wisconsin State Assembly last fall.  As the majority, they intend to pass Governor Walker's budget.  Yet the unions, with the complicity of the Democrat minority in the Senate, are trying to stop the Assembly from conducting business.  Protesters outside the Assembly are blocking legislators from entering the building to vote.  House Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald adjourned the Assembly early on Friday [2/18/2011] after receiving a call from Governor Walker warning him that he could not assure his safety nor that of his caucus members.

Update:
 State board sanctions 11 more doctors for sick notes.  The Wisconsin Medical Examining Board on Wednesday [12/12/2012] sanctioned 11 more doctors for writing questionable sick notes to protesters demonstrating at the Capitol in February 2011.  The board reprimanded six doctors, who also took classes in medical record keeping or physical exams as part of their discipline.  The board said the doctors provided the notes without adequate documentation.

Why I Changed My Mind About Unions.  Buffalo is a place where actual union thuggery, violence and vandalism still exists in the 21st century.  In 2010, members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 17, an AFL-CIO affiliate, pleaded guilty to Federal racketeering charges.  According to The Buffalo News, the union members were charged with "death threats and stabbings," "throwing scalding coffee at non-union workers," "telling a construction company official they were going to his home to sexually assault his wife," and "pouring sand into the engines of 18 pieces of [nonunion] construction equipment, causing $330,000 damage."  What employer in his right mind would want to do business here?

The Audacity of Mobs.  Late on Friday the news cycle was abuzz that both President Obama's campaign organization as well as the Democratic National Committee were both utilizing significant resources to bring tens of thousands of out-of-state protesters to march on the capital grounds in Madison, Wisconsin to interfere in what amounts to a state matter.  Some of those protestors were dispatched to the private home of the Wisconsin Governor.  Others to the homes of Republican state legislators.

The Thugs Come Out in Wisconsin.  The last few days have made quite clear that, if you cross the public-employee unions, you run risks:  and not merely political risks (which are nothing).  I hope our national media will be covering Wisconsin, just a little.

'Our Political Process has been Stopped by a Mob'.  If you want to know just how unruly the union protests are at the state capitol in Madison, check out this eye-opening account from a Wisconsin political insider over at a Milwaukee radio station:  ["]Last night one Senator told me they had been told to clear the Capitol because the new groups coming in overnight are filled with with people 'who aren't afraid to be arrested' and the Administration could not guarantee the safety of the legislators and their staffs.  In our Capitol.["]

Union operative attempts to destroy Tea Party rally's speaker system.  Police officers in Madison detained and subsequently released a labor union operative who attempted, somewhat successfully, to destroy the speaker system at the Tea Party counter rally Saturday.  Police would not release the name of the man, or any more details, but eyewitnesses told The Daily Caller he ripped the wiring out of several different speaker systems.  Part of the sound system went out for about five minutes.

Democratic Party chief charged in fight.  The chairman of the Madison County Democratic Party is scheduled to appear in Jackson City Court this morning on a charge of simple assault that stems from an incident after a party meeting last week.  T. Robert Hill received a criminal summons on the charge and went to the Madison County Jail to be fingerprinted and photographed on Thursday afternoon [2/10/2011], said Sheriff David Woolfork.

Progressive Ralliers Call for Lynching of Black Justice.  We were joined by at least half a dozen busloads of public sector union members and common demonstrators from AFFCE, The Ruckus Society, 350, Greenpeace, Code Pink, and the Progressive Democrats of America, among others, without whose valuable contributions to the yelling, the rally would've been just a lousy bust.  Video camera in hand, I purposely engaged them to get beyond their programmed talking points, only to find some rather colorful agenda items — particularly for Justice Thomas.  In post-Tucson America, where for the past few weeks a chorus of voices on the left have amplified their attacks on the "racist tea party," "racist conservatives," "racist Republicans," and their "violent, irresponsible rhetoric" to the degree of accomplice-to-murder accusations, I figured a left-wing rally such as this would also be a demonstration of the left's ideal, self-proclaimed rhetorical composure.

Union Desperation in Michigan.  Kathy Hoekstra at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan has a great report about how unions, who are losing members in droves, are creating labor disputes out of thin air and engaging in new pressure tactics (they are always coming up with new pressure tactics) like "bannering."

Thuggery Prevails among Leftist Unions.  In Washington, D.C., a group calling itself "Wal-Mart Free DC" targeted the developer of a proposed Wal-Mart in that city for a protest.  The location of that protest?  The front lawn of the man's private residence, where 25 people showed up last Thursday night.  How did they know where to go?  The group distributed a flyer with the developer's home address — one which also contained drawings of cross-hairs and a smiley face.  The group claimed it is not affiliated with any particular union, but on the right side of its website home page it displays a link to "Wal-Mart Watch" which is funded by two union groups, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and United Commercial and Food Workers International Union.

Big Labor's Bloody Legacy.  Meet Eddie York.  He was a workingman whose story will never scroll across Obama's teleprompter.  A nonunion contractor who operated heavy equipment, York was shot to death during a strike called by the United Mine Workers 17 years ago.  Workmates who tried to come to his rescue were beaten in an ensuing melee.  The head of the UMW spearheading the wave of strikes at that time?  Richard Trumka.  Responding to concerns about violence, he shrugged to the Virginian-Pilot in September 1993:  "I'm saying if you strike a match and you put your finger in it, you're likely to get burned."

AFL-CIO President Bashes Palin, But He's The One With a Record of Violence.  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, gave a speech in Sarah Palin's home state accusing her of using rhetoric that could lead to violence by her supporters.  Trumka's words were certainly disingenuous, because if anybody has a track record of inciting violence, its Richard Trumka.  He had a reign as President of the United Mine Workers where his inflammatory rhetoric lead to bloodshed and death.

Video:  Union Goons In Action.  This footage was shot at a pro-Democratic Party union rally in California.  If those shirts were brown instead of pink, the video would have a disturbingly retro feel. ... It's funny how the political class is always wringing its hands about the potential for violence at Tea Party rallies, while 100% of the actual violence and intimidation that take place at political events is committed by union goons.

Union Goons Start Pushing and Hitting Videographers.  This is how "nurses" act?  The kind, gentle folks of the California Nurses Association are seen in [a video clip] intimidating, pushing and knocking around some videographers at the union's recent pro-Democrat rally in California.

SEIU strikes against Red Cross.  Blood collections were suspended Wednesday as 60 union workers joined a broader coalition to initiate a strike against the American Red Cross.  Locals workers sit and stood along Veterans Memorial Boulevard.  Some held signs, while one yelled into a megaphone.  Each belonged to Service Employees International Union Local 1199.

Bloody-Minded Union.  Is there any low to which the SEIU won't stoop?  Now it's interrupting blood donations in a strike against the American Red Cross.  The Boy Scouts and Baptist churches are also on unions' enemies list.

What Did President Obama Know And When Did He Know It?  Unfortunately, there are no alleged reporters in all of the Washington press corps who are either smart or curious enough to ask the President what the American people are to believe about the appearance of the Administration coordinating with unions to intimidate private citizens in their homes, terrorize their children, and break federal laws by organizing mobs to occupy and shut down bank buildings.  If the Executive branch of the government were conspiring with any group to break the laws of this nation, would that be grounds for impeachment, if not a few questions on the subject?

SEIU Storms Private Residence.  By now, you've probably seen the mob-scene that developed on the front lawn of the private residence of Greg Baer, deputy general counsel for corporate law at Bank of America.  This was planned for some time by the SEIU as part of a larger national event, their Showdown on K Street, which was shared with National People's Action and thousands of other activists from MoveOn.org and other left-wing groups.

What's really behind SEIU's Bank of America protests?  Every journalist loves a peaceful protest — whether it makes news, shakes up a political season, or holds out the possibility of altering history.  Then there are the ones that show up on your curb — literally.  Last Sunday [5/16/2010], on a peaceful, sun-crisp afternoon, our toddler finally napping upstairs, my front yard exploded with 500 screaming, placard-waving strangers on a mission to intimidate my neighbor, Greg Baer.

D.C. Metro Police Escorted SEIU Protesters to Bank Of America Executive's Home.  The family of Greg Baer, Bank of America executive, is located in a jurisdiction protected by the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD), which responded promptly to a disturbance call from his neighborhood last weekend.  According to Corporal Dan Friz, an MCPD spokesperson in Rockville, Maryland, the department received a disturbance call from one of Baer's neighbors at 4:10 pm last Sunday [5/16/2010].  Four MCPD units arrived at Baer's Greenville Rd. address at 4:15 pm.  At least two Metropolitan Police Department units from the nearby District of Columbia were already at the scene when they arrived.  Why?

SEIU thugs terrorize banker and his family.  Protesting in front of a Congressman's house is one thing.  He is a public servant and deserves little privacy.  But a banker?  SEIU thugs, bused in from around the region, descended on the private house of Bank of America deputy general counsel Gregory Baer.  More than 500 strong, they terrorized the banker's teen aged son while screaming through bull horns about bank "horror stories."

Hypocrisy in the Liberal Establishment.  [Kenneth] Gladney is African American.  And the SEIU thugs reminded him of his color as they beat him to a pulp, using the N word repeatedly.  Two members of the SEIU are under indictment and 4 others are under investigation.  Why didn't the main stream media bother to tell this story?

Who's To Blame For SEIU Thug Tactics at Bank Exec's Home?  [Scroll down]  Yeah, we have problems all right.  The problem is the actions of the jerks who claim to be with the Tea Party movement were condemned immediately by Republicans, conservatives and the Tea Party organizations themselves.  Meanwhile, the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration are practically behaving as cheerleaders for the SEIU home invasion.

Obama's Thugocracy.  This past Sunday, in one of the most aggressive and offensive intimidation tactics to date, hundreds of members of the largest union — the SEIU — stormed the front yard of Bank of America deputy general counsel Greg Baer's home. ... This is what unions do.  They pressure politicians into spending too much.  They push government into bad policy decisions.  They sacrifice the private sector for the public sector.  And now, they trespass and break the law only to scare the children of private citizens to get their way.  If you think the unions are working alone, think again.

No more police escorts for union thugs.  Imagine you are sitting at home on a peaceful Sunday when you hear buses pull up in front of your house and begin disgorging hundreds of angry people waving signs with threatening messages, shaking their fists and crowding onto your lawn.  Soon, hundreds of screaming people are tromping on your flower beds, peering into your windows, and scaring neighbors who nervously begin placing calls to 911.

A thug too far, part 2.  Nina Easton's account of the SEIU demonstration that terrorized the son of her next-door neighbor — the deputy general counsel of Bank of America — has drawn remarkably little attention.  That's the way that SEIU wanted it; the union only alerted one of its handmaidens at the Huffington Post of the event.  Easton notes that only "a friendly Huffington Post blogger showed up, narrowcasting coverage to the union's leftist base.  The rest of the message these protesters brought was personal — aimed at frightening Baer and his family, not influencing a broader public."

IBD Rips 'Mob Rule from SEIU'; Media Virtually AWOL.  Investors Business Daily called attention to an alarming story that goes back to Sunday, May 16 in a Monday evening editorial.  A protest noticed by the target's next-door neighbor who happened to be home at the time, namely journalist Nina Easton (who also took the photo at right), occurred in a Metro DC suburb in Maryland marked the next round of a national labor union's attempt at persuasion through intimidation.

As D.C. Cops Fine-Tune Their Story...
 Where's the Washington Post On the SEIU Protest?  Why is the Washington Post ignoring the SEIU protest at the homes of two bank executives, one being an employee of the Bank of America?  Aside from a brief mention in a larger story on May 17 about SEIU protests, the paper of record in the nation's capital has been strangely silent.

Mob Rule From SEIU.  Does belonging to the service workers' union give you the right to invade private homes, terrorize children and smear anyone questioning such tactics?  Apparently so, based on recent events in Maryland.

Hit job:  What Media Matters and the SEIU got wrong about Fortune's Nina Easton.  Last week, Nina Easton, the Washington editor of Fortune, wrote a column about the SEIU and National People's Action.  The two progressive groups had sent roughly 500 protesters to Easton's Chevy Chase neighborhood on May 16th to picket the front yard of Bank of America's Greg Baer.  Easton had just put her 2-year-old son down for a nap, and stepped outside to ask the protesters to quiet down.  They didn't.  Easton wrote a column.  And now she's become the target of the SEIU and Media Matters for America.

DC Bank Protest:  So, SEIU Now Owns the Cops Too?  [Scroll down]  Let me quickly digress to point out that Bank of America is SEIU's largest creditor.  Under the leadership of Andy Stern, SEIU leveraged itself to the hilt, largely to support Democrat campaign efforts, and now owes the bank around $100 million.  The loan payments are likely playing havoc with the union's finances.  (Rich that SEIU thinks it has a credible voice on financial reform, given that their own behavior is a set-piece for much of what went wrong.)  Coincidence that the bank is the target of a comprehensive and coordinated protest from the union?  (Dear Bank of America, Call the loan.  Today.)

The Rise of the Thug Left.  [Scroll down]  History may be repeating itself where the left is concerned.  But it's doubtful they'll duck anything this time around.  Union thugs have none of the romantic air of campus rebels, and the beards and filthy tee-shirts of the anarchists lost their shock value long ago.  They will get little in the way of protection from a media that's on the verge of collapse.

Meet Another One of Harry Reid's 'Rent-a-Thugs'.  When thousands of peaceful, Tea Party protestors came to Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nev. last Saturday [3/27/2010], you would have thought that the favorite son of this hardscrabble, mining town would garner tons of local support.  Not so.  Members of IBEW Local 357 were called to action to agitate the crowd and, as we've previously shown, to hurl eggs at the busses carrying them.

Payday For Unions.  If there's any question as to why union toughs turned up at recent health care town halls and got violent, consider what they were gooning for:  a $10 billion bailout for their mismanaged pensions — at our expense.

Victim of Alleged SEIU Town Hall Assault in St. Louis Interviewed on Cavuto.  On Friday's [8/7/2009] Your World program, Fox News Channel's interviewed Kenneth Gladney, the victim of an assault outside a health care town hall meeting in St. Louis on August 6, along with his lawyer David Brown.  A video of the immediate aftermath of the attack (posted earlier on NewsBusters by Seton Motley) showed some of the suspects wearing t-shirts bearing the logo of the SEIU union, which is a member organization of Health Care for America Now!, a left-wing coalition pushing for the passage of ObamaCare.

Eye Witness to St. Louis Scuffle:
 'SEIU Representative Punched Him In the Face'.  Last night [8/6/2009], as reports began to emerge of unrest at two big health care town halls in Tampa and St. Louis, a man on Twitter claiming to work with SEIU, claimed a handful of arrests in St. Louis had been Obamacare critics, and they'd been arrested for assaulting SEIU members.  His report was dutifully repeated by liberals looking to paint the violence as caused by critics of the administration.  When I went looking for corroboration of his story, I found something quite different in this report from the Post-Dispatch...

Obama, ACORN, and the SEIU?  They Go Way Back.  The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been acting as the president's thug squad, attacking ObamaCare protesters across the country.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reached out to them when the administration needed "backup" for the town halls...

The Storm Upon Us:  [Scroll down]  The SEIU (Service Employees International Union) is run by Andy Stern, a militant Far-Left thug, and Anna Burger, another Far-Left radical.  The SEIU has increased its size and power through arm-twisting intimidation tactics, and other nefarious means.  Two years ago Obama said before an SEIU rally, "I've spent my entire adult life working with SEIU."  That is not good news.  Once you've looked into the corruption, ruthlessness, and Far-Left agenda of the SEIU leadership, you will know that it is not good news at all.

Union thugs aren't helping Obama on health care.  I wonder who's the genius who first thought up the idea of having a bunch of thugs all wearing the same colored shirts show up to intimidate opponents of the government.  Now I remember!  It was that funny little guy with the mustache from Austria.  What's his name again?

Union Thugs Beat Up Man at Anti-Obamacare Meeting.  The St. Louis Tea Party movement is incensed that thugs from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) beat up an African-American conservative that had come out to a recent anti-Obamacare protest.  The attack sent the man to a local hospital.

Obama's Three Stooges.  The Service Employees' International Union made its presence felt in the 2008 election, spending a reported $150 million to elect Obama and Congressional Democrats.  And they're showing up at the town hall meetings in considerable numbers.  We've all seen the video of people wearing SEIU t-shirts pushing and shoving — physically assaulting — protesters outside one town hall meeting.

Obama Rent-A-Thug Program moves into High Gear.  As Obama already had SEIU (Service Employees International Union) in his back pocket, it was easy for him to have his union management friends pay overtime to SEIU rent-a-thugs at several recent Democrat Town Hall meetings.  Interestingly, as appears on one of the videos of the ObamaThugs referenced below, after one of the SEIU purple-shirted thugs beats Ned Gladney the thug pretends he has been injured.  Note:  This is part of the Obama and Alinsky Chicago Way — attack another unmercifully then claim to be the real victim.

"Brown Shirts" vs. Purple Shirts:  Who are the real thugs?  Democrats attack congressional town hall protesters as "Brown Shirts" — likening taxpayer activists across the country to Hitler's storm troopers.  But it's the Big Labor hoodlums clad in identical purple shirts — the uniform of Service Employees International Union members — who own the mob label.

Union Violence, Harassment, and Intimidation of Workers:  Many union officials have ordered or approved of violent, coercive, and harassing conduct aimed at making an example of employees who don't toe the union line.  The National Institute for Labor Relations Research has compiled a list of incidents of union violence that average nearly 300 per year for the last 30 years.

Labor Unions Admit They Are Killing American Jobs.  Industrial unions' origins have in nearly all cases involved violent property destruction and deaths as they strove to supplant capitalism and place business management in the hands of the workers.

I Was a Victim of Union Violence.  They shot me as I opened the door of my pickup truck.  They hit me five times.  ... I didn't have to see them to know they were militants from the local of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union.

Elections, Extortion, and Unions:  The American union movement is not the American labor movement.  In the private sector only 10 percent of the work force is unionized, and that percentage is getting smaller and smaller.  By 2000 private-sector unionization will be down to no more than 7 percent — just where it was in 1900.

Unions and Gangs:  A gang is a bullying group of individuals that draws its strength from numbers for the purpose of pushing other people around.  It operates at the expense of others.  Any such group deserves to be called a gang.  And when it receives legal acceptance and approval, it deserves the title of dictatorship.

Marine:  Union bullying me to pay $500.  A retired U.S. Marine who runs a high school ROTC program in Worcester says he faces the boot for refusing to pay local union dues, leaving the 58-year-old father of two crying foul and school administrators bewildered.

Unions budget up to $15 million for August campaign.  Labor unions and liberal advocacy groups will spend between $10 million and $20 million this month to twist lawmakers' arms over the stalled healthcare reform effort in Congress.  Much of the grassroots activity and television ads will be aimed at persuading centrist Democrats and Republicans to support the creation of a robust government-run health insurance program.

Unions now protesting churches.  Recently, we saw that the SEIU held a 500 person protest at the home of a bank executive, while his 14-year-old son was home alone, afraid and barricaded in the bathroom.  But ... here's another contender for most inappropriate union protest.  It seems Grace Baptist Church in Bakersfield, California added a building and one of the subcontractors on the project was non-union.  This was enough to get unions to stand out in front of the church holding a banner that said, "Shame on Grace Baptist Church".

American Union May Help BA Strikers.  The US transport union the Teamsters has said it does not rule anything "in or out" when it comes to supporting the British Airways strike action. ... Union bosses in Australia have also vowed to support any industrial action by making it hard for strike-breaking volunteer staff to work in airports.

SEIU chief:  We won't be silenced.  Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, has just released a statement vowing not to be "silenced" by "right wing attack dogs" targeting "progressive individuals" and "community organizations."

Economic sabotage with a union label.  During the mid-90s, for example, United Steelworkers Local 9121 targeted Bayou Steel Corp. In addition to striking, the local union (supported by the national union) advanced its demands through assaults, vandalism, blackmail, and threats against management's family members.  The exasperated Louisiana-based company filed a civil RICO suit against the union, eventually settling out of court.

So America wants Socialism, eh?  In the mid-sixties, Union activists started visiting my Dad's shop, pressuring [harassing] him to hire Union Employees and pay Union Wages.  As Ohio was a "right to work" state at that time [as I recall].  Dad told them that this was his business and that if they wanted to set the rules that they should go start their own business.  This was unacceptable to these organizers.  I remember the resulting vandalism, a slashed tire the following night on the family's only vehicle. ... Calls to the police never resulted in any arrests.  Telephone threats persisted.  Today, forty years later, ACORN has shown that nothing has changed.

Aviation Security:  Are We Looking for Answers in the Wrong Place?  The perpetrators of the violence were not the striking flight attendants but rather other TWA employees, predominantly from the air side of the airport, who supported the striking flight attendants by openly menacing working flight attendants and reputedly sponsoring and participating in acts of violence including assault, fire bombings and even an attempted shooting of a flight attendant through the window of her hotel room while on a layover in Denver.

Images from the Teamsters Attack on Don Adams.  President Clinton came to Philadelphia for a fundraiser October 2, 1998.  Because he was to visit several places in the same general area both his supporters and detractors were spread throughout a several block radius for most of the event.  The assault on Don and Teri Adams occurred just minutes after arriving in front of city hall where they encountered 150 Teamsters.

Making children cry:  How the unions stole Christmas.  Inside a South Florida Wal-Mart last Thursday [12/15/2005], union-sponsored protesters handed out empty, gift-wrapped boxes to children and made them cry, according to multiple witnesses — and it appears that the arrests of two of the protesters may have been part of a grand strategy designed by Big Labor-backed WakeUpWalMart.com.

The Editor says...
 If you are a member of a labor union, would you stoop to that level to get publicity for your cause?  I assume most of you would not.  How then can you continue to support organizations that have no moral boundaries?

Union Demands Washington Workers Be Fired.  On November 2, 2005, the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), Washington state's largest public employee union, delivered a list of 800 workers' names to the state Labor Relations Office.  The state then notified those employees they would be fired just after Christmas if they did not acquiesce to the union's demands.  Their crime?  Not paying union dues.

Rival Labor Unions Beating Each Other Up.  The effort to unionize Ohio nurses has ended with one labor union accusing another labor union of waging a "vicious union-busting campaign."

One union fights another -- over politics.
 Voter-Fraud Rethink:  Nevada allies of Hillary Clinton have just sued to shut down several caucus sites inside casinos along the Las Vegas Strip, potentially disenfranchising thousands of Hispanic or black shift workers who couldn't otherwise attend the 11:30 a.m. caucus this coming Saturday.  D. Taylor, the president of the Culinary Workers Union that represents many casino workers, notes that legal complaint was filed just two days after his union endorsed Barack Obama.  He says the state teachers union, most of whose leadership backs Mrs. Clinton, realized that the Culinary union would be able to use the casino caucuses to better exercise its clout on behalf of Mr. Obama, and used a law firm with Clinton ties to file the suit.

Unions bitterly divided in Democratic race.  The tight race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has opened surprisingly deep and bitter divisions in the ranks of organized labor, as rival union leaders fly planeloads of last-minute volunteers into key states, accuse each other of trying to disenfranchise members, and even launch open attacks on rival Democratic candidates.

Teachers Sue to Block Hotel Workers' Union Vote in Nevada Caucus.  Nevada's state teachers union and six Las Vegas area residents filed a lawsuit late Friday that could make it harder for many members of the state's huge hotel workers union to vote in the hotly contested Jan. 19 Democratic caucus in Nevada.  The 13-page lawsuit in federal district court here comes two days after the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Nevada endorsed Senator Barack Obama, a blow to Mrs. Clinton.

The Voters Beat Shameful Suit by Nevada Teachers.  This year's presidential contest already has sparked massive voter interest in Iowa and New Hampshire, and for those of us who are embarrassed by America's low voter turnout the past few election cycles, it is something wonderful to watch.  So thank goodness a federal judge in Nevada didn't damage this excitement by siding with the state's teachers union, which filed a shocking lawsuit eight days before Saturday's primary [1/19/2008] in a clear effort to dilute the voting strength of working-class people.

Tennessee raids Teamsters amid union rivalry.  The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday hauled away files and computer hard drives from the Teamsters, which took over as the police department's representative from the Fraternal Order of Police last year in a bitter department election.  Earlier this month, International Brotherhood of Teamsters organizer Calvin Hullett was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary.  Agents said he hid cameras at a youth camp run by the FOP.

Why union assault is 'failed campaign'.  Who is Gomez, I wondered, and what does he have to do with Cintas?  The answer tells us a lot about how far unions will go to distort the truth and destroy a successful company.

Union Ordered to Pay Sutter Health $17.3 million.  The jury found the New York-based Unite Here union had acted with "fraud, malice or oppression" when it mailed defamatory postcards about Sutter Health. … Unite Here sent a mass mailing last year claiming Sutter Health used inadequately cleaned bed linens in its hospitals.  The linens were cleaned by a commercial laundry service, which was embroiled in a labor dispute with the union.

When is a picket line not a picket line?  When AFL-CIO officials cross it.  Even we weren't ready for the union execs' shocking hypocrisy:  the hotel where labor leaders are spending their members' money is currently being picketed by a union in a labor dispute!

Unions play Social Security hardball.  Unions are losing members and clout at the bargaining table, but that doesn't mean they aren't still powerful players on the political scene.  Now, Big Labor is trying to stop Social Security reform, even if it hurts union members.

Accusations fly in Teamster race.  When control of one of the country's largest and most influential labor unions is at stake, nothing is left to chance.  So as 1.4 million North American Teamsters decide this month who will be their next president, the campaign rhetoric between incumbent James P. Hoffa and challenger Tom Leedham has rivaled the most heated political election.

Union Leaders Accused of Profiting From Insider Trading:  "These guys got rich, basically, off the workers they're supposed to be protecting," said Dan Cronin, spokesman for NRTW. "This is exactly what Enron did."

Union Sacks Stadium Sign.  The Madison Square Garden-led campaign to halt construction of the West Side stadium project hit a snag when union workers refused to hang a sign opposing the controversial plan, The New York Post has learned.

Single Mother Files Suit After Union Had Her Fired on Mother's Day:  Union officials illegally ordered United Airlines clerk to join union or else.

Union Boss Says Advocates for Spending Cuts are 'Mentally Retarded'.  In a perfect example of why unions are the biggest problem for government budget reform, John Gage, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has just pronounced anyone that wants to cut the overly generous pay, benefits, and pensions of government employees are "mentally retarded."  This is the to-the-hilt fight that the unions will go to, not only to keep their cushy remuneration, but to enlarge it still more all on the backs of the working poor taxpayers that don't have luxurious government jobs.

Will Unions Clip Boeing's Wings?  Can a union that workers voted out and a government agency with an anti-business agenda tell America's largest exporter in which state it can create jobs?  Is this revenge for Wisconsin?

This proves that organized labor is a branch of the Democratic Party.
 Labor Day parade organizers: No Republicans allowed in parade.  Labor Day parade organizers confirm that no Republicans will be allowed to participate in this year's Labor Day Parade.  Council president Randy Radtke says they choose not to invite elected officials who have "openly attacked worker's rights" or did nothing when state public workers lost most of their right to collectively bargain.

Obama's Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps.  Writing back in 2007, Naomi Wolfe catalogued the steps to creating a dictatorship (which she sought to apply to George W. Bush).  Interestingly enough, they apply far more to the man who replaced him.  Wolfe's steps include:  [#1]  Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.  Isn't that precisely what Occupy Wall Street has done with the banks and businesses?  OWS has ties to Obama's friends in ACORN, as well as to SEIU.  Isn't that what was done with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his attempts to save that state from bankruptcy?

Secretive nationwide network gives SEIU new organizing muscle.  The politically aggressive Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has quietly created a national network of at least eight community-organizing groups, some of which function alongside the Occupy Wall Street movement, a Daily Caller investigation shows.  Incorporated by the SEIU as local non-profits, the groups are waging concerted local political campaigns to publicly attack conservative political figures, banks, energy companies and other corporations.

Snyder Signs Bill Limiting Union Dues Collection.  Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a measure Friday [3/16/2012] banning public schools from automatically deducting union dues from the paychecks of teachers and other employees, a move that unions consider another attack on collective bargaining rights.

The Editor says...
 Collecting dues from members' paychecks is not bargaining.


"Catholics vote for Democrats because their parents and grandparents were Democrats.  Democrats are seen as being for the poor and workers, and the Republicans favor the rich.  Labor issues and money trump everything else.  The Democrats have been extremely adept in waging class warfare and exciting jealousy of the rich."

— Rev. Nicholas DeProspero,
Pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church,
Pottstown, PA.


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