LaborPains.org

I’d be hard-pressed to shock readers of this blog with the unsavory actions of union bosses. But union members are often kept in the dark about the true nature of their leadership.

The Chicago Tribune gives an update of an SEIU dispute that is exposing the union’s leaders as the autocrats they are:

Sal Rosselli was bargaining with a company that provides food service workers to a small California hospital several years ago when he threatened to picket on their behalf.

To his surprise, officials from Compass USA told Rosselli that his union, the Service Employees International Union, had a secret deal that barred him from picketing.

More than ever unions are making secret deals as a way to get their foot in the door at companies because without such deals they would not make much organizing headway. Boosting their membership numbers, they add, is a matter of survival.

But such backdoor deals are causing an uproar within the unions themselves. Some unionists believe that the pacts take away workers’ rights to strike, picket or even exercise their freedom of speech and doubt that unions can grow when their hands are tied.”The fundamental dispute is about some leaders making top-down, secret deals that affect workers’ future,” said Rosselli, head of a 150,000-member SEIU local, which is embroiled in a bitter squabble with the leadership of the 1.7 million-member national union.

Finally, some refreshing honesty from union organizers.

Responding to the suggestion that comparing management to Osama bin Laden was inappropriate, union organizer Steve Maritas responded: “Maybe it was a low move. But that’s the way (labor) war is … I’m from the street. If I have to get down and dirty, I’ll do it.”

The Las Vegas Sun reports:

A campaign to organize MGM Mirage security guards has turned ugly, with the union’s lead organizer comparing casino executives to terrorists and threatening to bring homeless people and prostitutes to the picket line to make things unpleasant for the company’s customers.

The hardball tactics come as no surprise to anyone who knows the organizer, Steve Maritas. He was convicted in San Diego of stalking his former girlfriend, who he says tricked him into violating a court order to keep his distance. And he says he learned a lot about the union business from his father, a former president of a 30,000-member carpenters district council in New York City who was indicted on racketeering charges. . .

The union has dubbed security guards at Mandalay Bay the “300 Spartans” (the sacrificial army in Greek history) and plans a massive protest outside the property and other MGM Mirage casinos Memorial Day weekend — complete with a busload of homeless people, “the smellier the better,” Maritas said. “Ten dollars a head. I’ve done it on many occasions.” He said he may deliver prostitutes to the scene, too.

It’s good to know the union bosses are focused like a laser on the issues that affect American workers:

“The handling of cargo at seaports from Southern California to Alaska ground to a halt Thursday as several thousand longshoremen skipped work to protest the war in Iraq.”

“‘The worst part of it seems to be for the truckers. They came down here this morning not knowing what to expect and now most of them are just sitting around waiting.’”

I’m sure many union workers are against the War in Iraq. And I’m sure many are supportive of it. But either way, it’s not a work issue.

The primary function of modern unions is to perpetuate their power and use it for political ends unrelated to the welfare of America’s workers and opposed by huge portions of their membership.