Far from being a worker's legitimate agent, unions today are nothing more than a coerced political machine.
Inside SEIU president Andy Stern’s culture of corruption
Andy Stern rallied the Illinois delegation to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August 2008 with an impassioned salute to the working man Flanking Stern on stage at the Denver celebration: Chicago political machine kingpins Rahm Emanuel and Richard Daley. Stern roared about “rebalancing power between wealth and work” to “make sure everyone shares in the wealth of a growing economy.” Echoing Obama’s 2007 speech to the SEIU political action conference, union boss Stern condemned the old way of doing business and called on American to “turn the page” on behalf of hard-working Americans and their families.
But just two weeks before Stern and company gathered in the Mile High City to celebrate Obaman’s coronation, the Los Angeles Times published an explosive investigative series about the SEIU ...
[Tyrone Freeman who, like Barack Obama, began his career as an urban community organizer] had piped $600,000 in union contracts to his wife’s video production and entertainment ventures. The local also paid his mother-in-law $8,000 a month to babysit his daughter and other union employees’ children; footed a $13,000 bill for membership at a Beverly Hills cigar club; covered $12,500 in tabs at upscale Morton’s restaurant in Burbank; and forked over $8,000 in union dues to cover expenses for Freeman’s Hawaiian wedding. Freeman’s spending orgy didn’t end there.
* The union spent at least $123,000 more on the fund-raising tournament at the Four Seasons Resort in Carlsbad than it received in reimbursements, according to Labor Department filings and interviews. Freeman said the event made money for the charity. The union’s expenditures included $100,000 in payments to entities associated with former professional football star Eric Dickerson, which have been suspended from doing business in California. The payments were listed as donations to nonprofits, not as fund-raising expenses.
* And a now-defunct minor league basketball team coached by Freeman’s brother-in-law received $16,000 for what the union described as public relations.
Freeman’s local also paid nearly $106,000 to a company called “The Filming Inc.” –— for which the Times could find no state incorporation record or IRS nonprofit listing, no business license, and no legitimate address –— and another $106,000 to Hollywood talent agency William Morris for “advice and counsel” in such areas as media and “membership awareness.”
Even more troubling, Freeman allegedly rigged his own election. In August 2008, the Labor Department began investigating charges from rank-and-file members that Freeman’s union local “made it nearly impossible for candidates not on his slate to qualify for the ballot, according to people familiar with the probe. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office also opened investigations. Former employees of Freeman’s nonprofit charity also alleged that the Stern protégé forced them to work on campaigns of political candidates in violation of federal law.
Michelle Malkin: Inside SEIU president Andy Stern’s culture of corruption
Union fat cats livin' large off the workers coerced dues. Sweet, uh? Who' looking out for the little guy again? Cuz it sure ain't unions!
UAW Boss to Members: 'Shut the F*ck Up, You Motherf*ckers...'
On March 31st, NUMMI, the UAW-represented joint venture between Toyota and General Motors, will be closing its doors in California, throwing another 4,700 United Auto Workers out of work.
With 80% of the UAW members upset with their union, this past Sunday, the Union of Ailing Workplaces (aka UAW) held a membership meeting that turned into a shouting match between rank-and-file members and their union leadership.
At one point, one UAW leader (identified as Javier Contreras) yelled at the crowd, telling them to "...Shut the f*ck up, you motherf*ckers!..."
LaborUnionReport.com: UAW Boss to Members: 'Shut the F*ck Up, You Motherf*ckers...'
The union members wanted the UAW to do what they're supposed to do - represent them! They wanted the union to negotiate severance packages for them ... but instead, the union bosses told them to STFU!
Hey, little girl! Want a lollypop?
I remember my dad telling me horror stories about having to deal with union thugs when he owned his first store. As a new entrepreneur, my dad was so proud that, after years of working for someone else, he was finally going to get the opportunity to own his own business! My dad is an electrical engineer by trade, so he was going to do some wiring to his new place... until union thugs came over and threatened to destroy his business if he didn't allow their slugs to perform the work. If I remember correctly, these lazy pieces of rancid crap took twice as long to perform the work my dad could have done himself in several hours, took several union-mandated work breaks, and cost my dad much more than if he had done the work himself.
Nice.
Not.
Try this guy.
If this guy doesn't look like a child molester, I don't know who does.
Except this particular child molester was a substitute typing teacher in New York, was accused by several kids of being a perverted creep, and he can't be fired. That's right. This scumbag draws a handsome salary sitting on his ass, and he can't be fired. All thanks to unions.
Darling Nicki: Hey, little girl! Want a lollypop?
Millions of good, honest, hard-working folks are in desperate need for a job these days. But the union protects the filth instead. A multi-millionaire piece of filth to boot.
SEIU Executive: Amnesty For Illegals Will Ensure ‘Progressive’ Rule
The Daley Gator: *VIDEO* Obama Adviser/SEIU Executive: Amnesty For Illegals Will Ensure ‘Progressive’ Rule
Represent workers? No. It's all about politics! Today's unions are nothing but giant progressive political machines!
SEIU fatcats behind First Lady’s anti-obesity campaign
Behind every seemingly good deed in the Obama White House, there’s a deep-pocketed, left-wing special interest. Take First Lady Michelle Obama’s crusade against childhood obesity. Who really benefits from the ostensible push for improved nutrition in the schools? Think purple – as in the purple-shirted army of the Service Employees International Union. Big Labor bigwigs don’t care about slimming your kids’ waistlines. They care about beefing up their membership rolls and fattening their coffers.
Mrs. Obama earned a State of the Union Address shout-out from her hubby for taking on the weighty public policy issue of students’ physical fitness ... part of the Obama administration’s self-proclaimed “cradle-to-career” agenda for America’s youth.
What’s in it for Big Labor? SEIU Executive Vice President Mitch Ackerman explains: “A more robust expansion of school lunch, breakfast, summer feeding, child care and WIC [the federal Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program] is critical to reducing hunger, ending childhood obesity, and providing fair wages and healthcare for front line food service workers (emphasis added).” There are 400,000 workers who prepare and serve lunch to American schoolchildren. SEIU represents tens of thousands of those workers and is trying to unionize many more. “More robust expansion” of the federal school lunch law means a mandate for higher wages, increased benefits, and government-guaranteed health insurance coverage (the more luxurious the better now that SEIU has negotiated its Cadillac Tax exemption from the Democrats’ health care takeover bill).
Michelle Malkin: SEIU fatcats behind First Lady’s anti-obesity campaign
Workers? Nope. The White House. Politics my friends ... Unions are all about politics.
We don't need no stinkin' private sector
It's now official: In 2009 the number of unionized workers who work for the government surpassed those in the private economy for the first time. This milestone explains a lot about modern American politics, in particular the paradox that union clout with Democrats has increased even as fewer workers belong to unions overall.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that 51.4% of America's 15.4 million union members, or about 7.91 million workers, were employed by the government in 2009. As recently as 1980, there were more than twice as many private as public union members. But private union membership has continued to decline, even as unions have organized more public employees.
Overall unionism keeps declining, however, with the loss of 771,000 union jobs amid last year's recession. Only one in eight workers (12.3%) now belongs to a union, with private union employment hitting a record low of 7.2% of all jobs, down from 7.6% in 2008. Only one in 13 U.S. workers in the private economy pays union dues. In government, by contrast, the union employee share rose to 37.4% from 36.8% the year before.
The Union News: We don't need no stinkin' private sector
Yep. Despite their shrinking memberships, unions are taking over the government!
Unions are political machines.
UPDATE:
Obama’s Purpleshirt goon squads are taking the offensive in his War on America
Organized labor may be putting their dollars behind an online effort to take down Tea Party groups and their “radical ideas.”
A new Web site, TheTeaPartyIsOver.org, has connections to unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
So look for the beatings to continue, I guess. And be ready to swing back at Il Douche’s jackbooted commie thugs ...
Cold Fury: Let’s roll
Like I said, unions are all about politics ... They're progressive political machines!
Great post CL. These folks are clearly dangerous. But, they are working under the old paradigm that they can act like thugs, and no one will see or hear of it. Those days are over. The more they act like thugs, the more people will see it. The more corruption they try to cover, the more we’ll expose them. Let them flex their muscles, their time is coming. They’ll get their justice in the end, before a judge.
The only thing that worries me, is that they’re in bed with the government. Nobody seems willing to investigate or do anything about these progressive thugs. This is how progressivism works. All I know is … Let them come by my house … and they’ll quickly find I’m not the modern, effeminate man they’re used to pushing around.