LaborPains.org

A little late, but better than never. From a Seattle Times blog: “SEIU tries to kill budget when it can’t get its way.”

As an Oregonian, I can tell you that the state’s government may as well be officially run by union bosses. Yesterday, Eugene’s Register-Guard ran a lengthy piece demonstrating just how firmly Oregon’s political machine sits in the pocket of labor officials. The situation has left one state senator saying, “I never would have believed the depth to which the government could be co-opted into a labor government.” But seeing – or reading – is believing.

Union bosses gained their power through their members’ forced dues money. The paper broke down the numbers:

They were among the triumphant Democrats’ most deep-pocketed contributors, furnishing nearly $3 million – about 21 percent of the campaign money contributed – to successful Democratic legislative candidates and fellow Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

And labor officials have managed to put their own in places of power in both the legislative and executive branches:

Consider the makeup of the House Business and Labor Committee, where many of the union-backed bills are being worked. Of the four Democrats, Chairman Mike Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, was once in a laborers’ union. Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, worked as a union representative of the Pacific Northwest Carpenters. Before becoming a legislator, Rep. Diane Rosenbaum used to work as a union lobbyist. Then she spent her interims strapping on a tool belt and working as a unionized technician for Qwest …

Labor’s critics point not just to the legislative session but also to the governor’s own staff as proof of its political clout. After the November election, Kulongoski reorganized his staff, naming the Oregon Education Association’s top lobbyist, Chip Terhune, as his chief of staff, and the former president of the AFL-CIO Oregon, Tim Nesbitt, as a deputy chief of staff.

One taxpayer advocate said: “From our perspective, the public employee unions are running this state and Ted Kulongoski is merely their pawn.”

Of course, the first legislative item on Big Labor’s agenda is a package that “lets union organizers collect signatures on cards or petitions rather than allowing employers to require a workplace campaign followed by an election on whether to form a union. The bill is part of a package that includes a ban on employers’ use of taxpayer dollars to influence workers about unionization … and the legal right for workers to skip employer-ordered meetings to promote management’s views on politics, unions and religion.”

Except for some politicians looking for a helping hand from Big Labor, few people like the attempt to end secret ballot elections for employees deciding whether to join a union. Former New York City mayor and current presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani weighed in when he stopped by CNBC’s Kudlow & Company on March 26. Here’s an excerpt of the interview:

MR. KUDLOW: Another quick regulatory issue — the union movement now wants to end the secret ballot for organizing companies and put in its place a card check program. Mr. Jack Welch was on this show, who’s very much against it. He said it would enormously damage American competitiveness. Your thoughts on this card check.

MR. GIULIANI: I find it very, very hard when I listen to Democrats, you know, talking about their interest in democracy and the right to vote, and they want to take away this sacred right from employees in making a decision about whether they should be members of the union. Well, why shouldn’t they have a right to a secret ballot? That’s probably the most honest, that’s the most traditional way of doing it. That’s the way we do it when we elect public officials. And if they want to have a union, God bless them. If they want to have a union, that should be their free choice. If they don’t want to have a union, that should be their free choice. And there should be no intimidation involved in it where it has to be done publicly where people can pressure them, and people can put a lot of undue pressure on them.

A federal judge in New York is allowing construction company ALR to proceed with its racketeering lawsuit against Laborers Local 78, in spite of the union’s argument that a Supreme Court decision, United States v. Enmons, protects the local from extortion prosecution. Incredibly, that’s not an incredible argument — Enmons really does protect labor unions from being prosecuted for racketeering conducted in the course of a strike.

But this time, according to the Daily Labor Report (subscription required), activities like the following …

ALR alleged that over the course of almost two years, Local 78 business manager Edison Severino, union members, and unknown persons engaged in a campaign of violence and extortion aimed at forcing the corporation and its President George Kourkounakis to enter a collective bargaining agreement with the local.

ALR and its president alleged that one union member broke Kourkounakis’s hand, and that others attempted to run over Kourkounakis with a car. ALR’s vans and employees’ vehicles were vandalized, the company alleged, and an employee was menaced with a vehicle on a New York expressway. Kourkounakis’s house was hit with spray paint and bricks, the company alleged.

Evidence showed that the violence was aimed at forcing a union contract on the company, the plaintiffs alleged, citing threatening statements such as: “You should join the union” and “You just crossed the line by calling the police; I will investigate where you live and break your windows.”

… are not protected under Enmons because they weren’t part of a strike. Got that? You can break a man’s hand and attempt to run people over with no fear of an extortion charge … as long as it’s part of a strike.

Yesterday blogger Jim Geraghty caught an interesting proposal from would-be President Hillary Clinton, speaking at the legislative conference of the AFL-CIO’s Building & Construction Trades Department: “With Rob Andrews, Democratic Congressman from New Jersey, Hillary announces she’s introducing legislation that would allow labor unions to access contractor payrolls – and the crowd goes wild.”

If this idea becomes law, expect gentlemen like this one (Warning: some “earthy” language inside the link) to make a lot more home visits. And if the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law, requiring employers to recognize unions via “card check”, the incentive for organizers to follow employees home gets even stronger. Click here to read some stories about intimidation under card check.

Uh-oh, looks like the bureaucracy is back:

The Change to Win union federation that broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005 faces internal divisions that could threaten its future, the Los Angeles Times reported. United Food and Commercial Workers union President Joseph Hansen wrote in a letter sent to the six other Change to Win union leaders last month that he was “concerned that there is an increasing drift away from our growth partnership into one more bureaucratic and similar to the autocratic and less productive aspects of the AFL-CIO.”

• The Boston Globe: Patrick aide accused of meddling in labor cases
•  The Nation blasts SEIU president Andy Stern for saying he will work with an employer on healthcare
• SEIU officials in Oregon are lobbying the state for more power in collective bargaining

Check it out at the Employer Report’s blog.