LaborPains.org

Gosh, those guys at UNITE HERE and their Change To Win federation have a lot of gall. Just one day after the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s Peter Bronson took the union to school for its failed campaign against laundry company Cintas, the labor groups were back to their propaganda machine. In a post on Change To Win’s blog, “Chris” writes:

On March 6, Eleazar Torres Gomez was working in a Cintas automated washroom in Tulsa. He was caught on a conveyor and dragged into an industrial dryer—where he was trapped in temperatures up to 300 degrees for at least 20 minutes. He died on the scene of trauma and thermal injuries.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that poor fellow worked for a horrible company. But the unions are leaving out some important facts. The Enquirer had already reported:

But Gomez was caught in machinery and pushed into a dryer after he climbed onto a conveyer to clear a logjam of wet laundry – a violation of training and safety rules.

The paper also noted “the Cintas safety record, which is 30 percent better than the industry average.”

It’s pretty bad when union officials are mis-using a person’s death and their own negligence to further a (failed) organizing campaign. No wonder “Chris” doesn’t sign a last name to his posts.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – The state Labor Department has ordered the Montana AFL-CIO to repay more than $35,000 in federal job-training funds.

An audit found that a former coordinator of a union job-training office approved paying out more than $35,000 for his stepdaughter’s college education.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. So is union member money.

You gotta hand it to United Food and Commercial Workers union officials — they can keep a straight face while lobbying for some laughable causes. The most recent is a campaign to increase the value of food stamps given to the poor. Talk about shedding crocodile tears for the very people UFCW’s actions hurt most.

At least the UFCW acknowledges its reasons are self-interested:

Many stores depend on food stamps for revenue, which helps to employ UFCW members all over the nation. In addition, food stamps are used to purchase UFCW processed products.

But here’s the thing: UFCW’s contract demands have played a significant role in raising the costs of food at unionized stores and putting unionized grocers at a competitive disadvantage against non-union companies (think: great prices at Wal-Mart). Now they want the government to help funnel more money to stores with higher prices. UFCW could do a lot more for the poor by making more reasonable contract demands and allowing grocery stores across the nation to pass on the savings to all Americans, including the poor.

Thanks to Employer Report for highlighting this one:

WILMINGTON – The financial secretary of the United Auto Workers local 1516 in Middletown has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 embezzlement charges.

According to prosecutors, Stephen Priest stole over $97,800 from the union that represents 200 employees at Johnson Controls for personal use between Sept. 2005 and May 2006.

That’s the website link you should probably check out, post haste. Apply directly to forehead: http://www.seiuexposed.com/ — apply directly … well, you get it. At the Center for Union Facts’ new website focused solely on misdeeds by officials from the Service Employees International Union, you can learn about:

• SEIU and its allies overloading emergency rooms to pressure hospitals in the middle of labor disputes, threatening care for average people visiting health care facilities
• SEIU’s record of putting its own interest ahead of employees’ interests
• SEIU officials’ hypocritical record of busting union drives by its own employees and funding groups that fight union drives
• SEIU’s record of shady political deals
• SEIU’s record of crime and corruption
• and more

You won’t like what you see — and neither will SEIU’s top brass.

• In Sacramento, union members and fee-payers alike are using the Internet to fight SEIU bosses
• Three more former employees of the union-funded group known as ACORN have pleaded guilty to turning in false voter registration forms in Washington
• The labor federation in Los Angeles has given the Teamsters the finger thumbs up to striking Waste Management
• A top spokesman for the National Labor Relations Board debunks claims by member-starved labor leaders that the government is anti-union and says “We want to find smart ways to jump-start bargaining on the bad actors”
• From the Chicago Tribune (hat tip: The Union News blog): “Takeover urged of Chicago-based Teamsters local”

Steve Greenhouse of The New York Times has a must-see story this morning on the political clout of the Service Employees International Union and its officials. The bottom line: SEIU is big, and SEIU knows it.

First key point from Greenhouse is that when SEIU president Andy Stern says jump, Democratic presidential hopefuls ask “how high?”:

After the union said it would not consider endorsing anyone who did not put forward a plan for universal health coverage, all the leading Democratic candidates produced one. When it demanded that the candidates spend a day in the shoes of a worker, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton did so, all spending a day with a health care worker.

The key to this power, of course, is the money. You can almost hear it: First we get the money, then we get the power, then we get the  White House:

The union has supported Republicans from time to time, sometimes infuriating the Democratic Party in the process. But for the most part, it backs Democrats. The union is expected to collect $40 million for its political action committee, which was the largest in the 2006 campaign. It plans to spend $30 million more in internal funds for getting out the vote and shining a spotlight on lawmakers who have helped thwart its agenda on national issues like expanding the State Child Health Insurance Program.

It’s worth reading the whole thing.

We’ve discussed before the anti-democratic campaign to unionize companies without letting employees vote — in fact, we just had an op-ed published on the subject. Among all union officials, those leading UNITE HERE have to be among the absolute worst offenders when it comes to employee rights. And one of UNITE HERE’s worst campaigns is the one against Cintas, which makes uniforms. Some more details come from the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s Peter Bronson, who reports:

Unite (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) has been trying to wedge a foot in the door at Cintas since 2003. Unable to get enough worker support to force an election, Unite wants to skip the customary secret-ballot and force 17,000 Cintas workers to join the union and pay dues. But Cintas and its workers have said no thanks. 

Bronson also talked to the company’s chief executive, Scott Farmer, and writes:

Unite copied license numbers from Cintas workers in Pennsylvania, to snoop in personal information and harass them at home. The union has been ordered to pay the workers $2,500 each. Unite also published a false press release that caused Cintas stock to drop $300 million, according to a defamation suit by Cintas that is going to trial in Warren County court.

“For four-and-a-half years now our people have heard it all,” Farmer said. “The union is not going anywhere, but I consider it a failed campaign.”

For every “sweatshop” accusation from Unite, there are dozens of Cintas workers who like their jobs and want no part of a union. Many have signed petitions asking Unite to stop harassing them.

It’s worth remembering that this isn’t about Scott Farmer, or Cintas. It’s about the employees and their right to work for a company that the union isn’t trying to shut down. It’s about the employees’ right to vote on whether they want to join the union.