Arkansas’ Senate seat is just one battle ground against moderate Democrats who have not lived up to Big Labor’s EFCA expectations. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter released a press statement detailing more than $500,000 in campaign contributions by labor groups to Blanche Lincoln.

The same release calls Blanche’s accusations that Halter’s debt has been paid off to be “lies.” This was in retaliation for Lincoln’s statements that Halter’s previous campaign debt had been retired by the unions.

According to the AP in December:

“The Service Employees International Union said it is soliciting contributions to retire the debt along with the help of other labor unions. Halter reported in October that his campaign still owed him more than $444,000 that he had loaned it. SEIU has met with Bill Halter, and finds him to be a great voice for working families with an extremely bright political future,” said Jon Youngdahl, the union’s national political director. “That’s why we’ve solicited contributions to retire his campaign debt and support his re-election campaign.”"

The amount retired by the SEIU is nowhere near $444,000 thanks to a legal cap of $6,000, according to blogger Tolbert Report, but their “solicitation” of more aid hasn’t hurt at all.

In fact, maybe Halter has a “bright political future” because “Several unions and the liberal grassroots group MoveOn.org this week have pledged more than $3 million to Halter’s campaign, greatly boosting his ability to compete with Lincoln, who had $5 million in campaign cash at the end of December,” according to the Arkansas News.

Three million is well more that $444,000….and more than Blanche’s $500,0oo. I find amusing that union backing is being used as a weapon on both sides.

Anyway, labor’s promise to get very involved in Democratic primaries is proving to be very amusing. As I am sure will be the next two months in Arkansas leading up to the May 18th primary vote.

Pennsylvania is such a union stronghold, it naturally caught my eye when Chester County guards voted down the union by a wide margin. The “Chester County Corrections Officers Independent Union” would have been associated with the Teamsters Local 312, who was “ecstatic” and “anxious” at the prospect of the guards forming a union.  From The Mercury:

“Efforts to organize Chester County Prison corrections officers into a union bargaining unit have failed, a union representative confirmed. In a vote last week, officers at the prison voted overwhelmingly against forming the Chester County Corrections Officers Independent Union, which would be allied with the Teamsters.  The tally against organizing was 155-35…“

Far from some conspiratorial explanation being thrown around as an explanation (think California’s NUHW VS. SEIU fight), turns out it’s was old fashioned boots on the ground by one employee who opposed the union. From The Mercury:

Unlike during past campaigns to form bargaining units among county employees, this effort apparently did not prompt extensive lobbying efforts against unionization by county administrators. [...] The prison source who identified the vote tally said the commissioners had not sent any mailings urging a “no” vote, although one officer who opposed the move took it upon himself to contact workers. The county’s administration “pretty much stayed out of it,” the source said.

Image courtesy of Ritscent.

Amusingly, this SEIU funded web-widget is not that far from the truth.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon has nominated Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler to the position of State Treasurer, following the death of Ben Westlund on Sunday.

Want to know why Wheeler, and not another state representative Greg Macpherson, got the nod? According to The Oregonian:

“Kulongoski acknowledged that “part of it” was the opposition that Macpherson would face among the state’s public employee unions. Macpherson worked with Kulongoski on a 2003 bill aimed at reducing the costs of the Public Employees Retirement System that angered many public employees.

When Macpherson ran for attorney general in 2008, Service Employees International Union, the largest of the state employee unions, gave more than $300,000 to his Democratic primary opponent, John Kroger. The unprecedented union contribution to an attorney general’s race helped power Kroger to victory over Macpherson.

But see, it wouldn’t be classy to say that unions didn’t like MacPherson (who is actually a friend of the governor) because he wanted to reform the pension system. The reason that SEIU local gives for the reason that Kroger (see image) was so flagrantly funded and MacPherson so not? The Oregonian explains in another article:

Arthur Towers, political director for the SEIU local in Salem, wasn’t making any big pronouncements about his union spending heavily against Macpherson if he got in the treasurer’s race.  He  insisted that a big reason the union gave so much in the attorney general’s  race is that the “members fell in love with Kroger,” and that candidates don’t come along like that often.

That’s right. Far from some political agenda, it was love.

But hey, Oregon is a unique place. In January, at the behest of their public sector unions, Oregon voted to increase their taxes for the first time since 1931. During the lead up to the tax bill’s passage, it is interesting to note that the leading anti-tax politician was indicted by none other than John Kroger.

From ABCNews:

The Oregon Department of Justice said Monday that Sizemore and his wife, Cindy Sizemore, are each charged with three counts of evading Oregon personal income taxes. Each count carries a maximum punishment of five years and a $125,000 fine. [...] Bill Sizemore called the charges a “political attack” by public employee unions and state Attorney General John Kroger, a Democrat who had union support.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

This morning the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) emailed me asking for comments and ideas “to help increase transparency, collaboration, and participation within DOL as part of the White House Open Government Initiative.”

The OLMS is the same agency that just rescinded a regulation requiring transparency in union slush funds (using the “T-1″ form). In fact, OLMS was so concerned that unions would be forced to file their first T-1 this month that they promulgated an emergency rule to eliminate the regulation. The result is that unions members and others will never get a chance to see how much money unions have in their rainy-day accounts or where it is.

So here’s my idea. The DOL wants to be collaborative. They’ve set up an “open” forum asking for ideas until March 19th.

I think your voice should be heard.

Image courtesy of the U.S Chamber of Commerce. The above document is the result of the Chamber’s request for information from the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The battle over EFCA has become less a battle about EFCA, and more a proxy battle in a larger conflict about political sway, public opinion, and economic ideology.

In the Huffington Post on Friday, third-generation union organizer Mike Elk asked “If EFCA is DOA, Why is the Chamber Still Lobbying Against It?”  He wrote:

“For months now in Washington, it has been known that the Employee Free Choice Act won’t ever see a vote. However, this hasn’t stopped the Chamber of Commerce to continue flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists against a dead bill.

He continues by goading the them:

“[I]t’s important that we not give up the Employee Free Choice Act. If we don’t keep fighting, Big Business will just start pushing more aggressive assaults on labor and weaken the political position of labor. Remember the best defense is always a strong offense.”

I find it a wee bit ironic that while he is crying fowl about the Chamber not laying down their swords. Even after EFCA died, labor leaders are continuing to harp on EFCA weekly, acting as if indeed EFCA were not DOA.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and Director of Organizing at the AFL-CIO, Stewart Acuff have called for its passage, among others. Even Vice President Biden is calling for EFCA. And everyone has certainly been calling for Craig Becker to be approved to the National Labor Relations Board, a man whose position could make him the very personification of card check legislation.

Bottom line: EFCA is now a beleaguered placeholder in the middle of a proxy war.  Is it also a shorthand way of showing one’s hand–hence Blanche Lincoln’s trouble in Arkansas.

Roger Smith, the CEO of American Income Life Insurance Company, that’s who.

Then again, insurance CEOs aren’t usually on anyone’s top-ten lists these days, that is, except for unions’.

Every time the unions need a CEO to embarrass other CEOs, they trot out Roger Smith.

• Need someone to shill for the Employee Free Choice Act? There’s a CEO for that.

• Need someone to shill for health care reform? There’s a CEO for that.

• Need someone to shill for just about any union-backed cause because he insures more than 9 million union members (and stands to gain many more after they are forced into the union and have to buy insurance from him)? There’s a CEO for that, too.

• Need someone who touts their business as being “All-Union, Wall-to-Wall,” but then hires independent contractors, who report working 80 hour work weeks without so much as a health insurance “allowance”

So I guess it is no surprise that the unions’ favorite CEO didn’t make President Obama’s cut.

Do you know who did make Obama’s list of most admired CEOs? It’s a different Smith, FedEx’s Fred Smith, who has been battling UPS and the Teamster’s attempts to unionize his company by bringing it under the auspices of the National Labor Relations Act.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that despite the 3-1 strike-authorization vote by the Teamsters, Mayor Daley is vowing to keep the airports open no matter what.

“You know what? There’d be 50,000 people applying for these jobs,” Daley said. “I mean, there’s so many people out of work. If you were ever to open employment, there’d be 50,000. These are good-paying jobs. Everybody would like to not work and get two hours’ pay.

“I don’t know how they can strike,” the mayor said. “My argument is that, if there’s no work to be done and they’re getting two hours’ pay, they should be very thankful to taxpayers that they’re getting two hours’ pay.” [...] Since Dec. 15, dozens of pool drivers have been sent home when there is no snow to remove and none forecast. [...]

“In good times, they would hire the Teamsters … and pay ’em [for] eight hours” whether or not there was snow to be removed, Daley said.”But this is such an economic crisis that you can’t sit there and not do work and be paid for eight hours … You can’t plow if there’s no snow and you can’t put salt down. So, appropriately then, after two hours, you have ’em go home. Usuually, they’d be laid off for four months completely.”

With unemployment remaining at 9.7%, it’s not hard to see why Mayor Daley thinks he has the higher ground.