LaborPains.org

The National Labor Relations Board finds itself in awkward position–having been ordered multiple times by the Federal Labor Relations Authority to bargain with its own employees. According to the NLRB Union, the NLRB has yet to bargain in good faith. Employees of the National Labor Relation Board, seeing what unionization has done to for so many others, decided to organize into one bargaining unit in 2005.   Since then, the dispute has festered between the NLRB leadership and what seems to be about 1000 employees nationwide at 30 regional offices.

A shout out to LaborUnionReport.com for reporting on how the NLRB’s own union is picketing the new chairman of the NLRB, Wilma Liedman. She recently attended a luncheon recently in San Francisco, only to be yelled at greeted by her own employees. But this wasn’t the first time.

Here’s another press release reporting their picketing in September of 2007, where they picketed the last Chairman of the Board. And here is the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s judgment against the NLRB in favor of the NLRBU, ordering them to “negotiate in good faith,” from November 2007.

If you’d like to see some photos of the union bashing the NLRB, take a look on their website here.  My favorite acrostic of NLRB is “No Longer Really Bargaining.”

Next Wednesday, the Senate will likely vote on “three long stalled nominees” to join the 5-person, 3-man-down National Labor Relation Board. It’s been a problem that only 2 of the 5 positions are filled, but maybe there would be fewer issues if more ‘mainstream’ nominees were selected [read: not in organized labor's pocket].  Craig Becker, who has until now served as Associate General Counsel to the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, is nominated to one of the positions.

While we are certain this gives Becker an intimate view of modern labor, his long association with paychecks from labor unions, the now infamous piece he wrote for the Minnesota Law Review in 1993 (which has little kind to say about employers), and even his implied connections to Blagojevich have given groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce something to fret about for months.

From the Wall Street Journal blog on Friday:

The Chamber says Becker’s prolific writings on labor law reflect a position that is “well outside the mainstream,” and the group is concerned that he would interpret the law to put employers at a disadvantage. The NLRB interprets and enforces the National Labor Relations Act; a large part of its job is to supervise union elections and referee disputes between employers and employees.

If approved by the HELP Committee and confirmed by the full Senate, Becker and the two other nominees to the five-member board would tip the scales toward a Democratic majority for the first time in eight years. One of the nominees, Mark Pearce, a Democrat, also has a labor-side legal background. The other, Brian Hayes, is a Republican who has represented management clients.

Any doubt of Craig Becker’s loyalty?  Check out his profile from The White House:

Craig Becker currently serves as Associate General Counsel to both the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations.

If you were flipping through the Washington Post this week and caught a glimpse of the union-driven ads against health care, you should have noticed a name missing from the signatories—President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa.

Many unions have pushed back on the health care bill because of the missing public option; others are upset because of the Cadillac tax on many union health plans.  But Jimmy Hoffa still supports the plan. Despite no public option, and crippling taxes, he supports the health care reform plan. And not just any plan—the House version.

Why? Because if the bill fails, frankly, more than any other union, the Teamsters have the most to lose.

The health care bill bails out failing union pension funds to the tune of $10 billion, and the Teamsters pension funds are some of the worst of the worst, crippled by masses of closed trucking companies no longer contributing to the fund. Unions had something to do with this. Jimmy Hoffa wrote a pleading piece in The Detroit News on Wednesday bemoaning the “crisis in retirement security.”  He says that critics “will complain about bailouts for unions.”

Damn right.

I can’t imagine why—when union pension funds perpetually under perform, and tax payers would pay the price.

The specific part of the bill [H.R.3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009] that bails out the Teamsters pension fund is under Title 1:[Protections and Standards for qualified health benefits], Subtitle B [Standards Guaranteeing Affordable Coverage]—SEC. 164. Reinsurance Program for Retirees. You can read it here on OpenCongress.

Have fun. It’s light reading. Here are some excerpts:

For funding percentages on the failing pension plans:

(2) PROGRAM PAYMENTS AND LIMIT- If the Secretary determines that a participating employment-based plan has submitted a valid claim under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall reimburse such plan for 80 percent of that portion of the costs attributable to such claim that exceeds $15,000, but is less than $90,000. Such amounts shall be adjusted each year based on the percentage increase in the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index (rounded to the nearest multiple of $1,000) for the year involved.

Total funding:

(B) FUNDING- There are hereby appropriated to the Trust Fund, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, an amount requested by the Secretary as necessary to carry out this section, except that the total of all such amounts requested shall not exceed $10,000,000,000.

The subhead of the health care bill is:

To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.

Jimmy Hoffa weeps for these “other purposes.”

Last week, labor leaders passed among themselves a set of ads aimed at highlighting their distaste for the current shape of health care legislation. For some reason they don’t like the part where “cadillac” coverage is taxed to pay for everybody else’s coverage.  The missing public option is also a major point of contention.

Since “cadillac” coverage taxes would be a huge financial burden for unions, on Wednesday, a group of unions ran ads in Washington papers.  Mind you, labors leaders hope everyone will think that all they care about is the public option– you know, which helps everyone.  Labor leaders prefer that you ignore their ulterior motives.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Labor groups criticized the Senate Finance Committee’s health-care plan Wednesday as “deeply flawed” for its lack of a government-run option and its tax on expensive health-insurance plans. In ads in major newspapers, unions said a government-run plan is needed to provide competition for big insurers and keep costs down. The unions oppose taxing health-care benefits because they fear the expense will be passed on to members who have forgone higher wages in return for richer health-care packages.

“Unless the bill that goes to the floor of the U.S. Senate makes substantial progress to address the concerns of working men and women, we will oppose it,” said an ad that appeared in the Washington Post and Capitol Hill newspapers.

While the Teamsters say that the lack of a public option will not keep them from supporting the bill (pension fund assistance, anyone?), the AFL-CIO and AFSCME are insistent that the bills change. They’ve done the math. Hence the ads.

I know this isn’t news, but a Teamster, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (55,000 members) has been arrested for accepting bribes.

The AP reports:

Edward Rodzwicz, who heads the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, is accused of soliciting and accepting $20,000 in bribes from a St. Louis lawyer. In exchange, prosecutors say, Rodzwicz allowed the lawyer to remain on a list of attorneys approved to handle injury cases for union members. That attorney was supposed to be removed from the list due to alleged ethical violations. [...]

The complaint alleges that Rodzwicz accepted a $10,000 cash payment from the attorney on April 28 in Las Vegas. After sending a letter allowing the attorney to keep the designation, Rodzwicz accepted a second $10,000 payment in Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 16, according to prosecutors. Federal agents arrested Rodzwicz on Tuesday at his home in Avon, Ohio.

If Rodwicz is convicted, he faces a possible fine of $500,000 and up to 15 years in prison.

If this were actually news, I would say something about how a lot of things “stay in Vegas.”  If this were actually news, I would say that accepting bribes when you are the head of a 55,000 person union is not one of those things. But this isn’t news. I mean, its just a Teamster getting arrested.

Image courtesy of mightymoss.

It was an epic showdown.  Words were said. Rumors were spread. There was much yelling and releasing of press statements.

The day of the fight was, however, a lot less interesting than the hype. California’s Columbus Day has been a point of much contention for months.  Lincoln’s Birthday and Columbus Day might as well be the birthright of every state worker in California, many of whom are part of the SEIU Local 1000.  It is one of 14 state holidays that Californians honor, while the average state only has 11. So Governor Schwarzenegger, in an effort to save the perpetually bankrupt state $26 million dollars, eliminated these two most holiest of holidays. State unions were wildly furious upset, and called on state workers to stay home in protest.

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Several DMV offices closed, but state government escaped largely unscathed Monday from a Columbus Day contract dispute that had union leaders threatening to shut down operations. Government officials said the day was largely uneventful. “Of our 168 field offices, 164 opened and stayed open,” said DMV spokesman Mike Marando. While some offices in San Francisco scaled back services, he said, “This was largely a non-event.” Service Employees International Union Local 1000 offered a different assessment, saying eight Department of Motor Vehicles offices in Southern California and the Bay Area were closed. They said an additional 45 statewide opened late because of staffing shortages created by the union’s call for employees to take Columbus Day off. “It’s a victory,” Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker said.

While most state offices will not report how many people were absent until later in the month, the DMV estimated that about 560 of the DMV’s 4,300 employees were no shows, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. A handful of people had to wait in line longer at the DMV and were frustrated, but most people are frustrated at the DMV anyway.

Someday, California union-beleaguered citizenry will catch a break.  Unions are making sure that day is along time coming.

Image courtesy of Paulmorriss.

Teamsters is proud to announce today that they have unionized almost every single dockworker and freight driver with UPS. Jimmy Hoffa himself made the announcement.

There are 12,600 workers with UPS, and, thanks to recent drives in Nebraska, Maryland, and Kansas, all but 100 UPS workers are unionized (reminds me of the Alamo).  In November of 2008, they reached 12,400 unionized workers, and it has taken almost a year to unionize the most recent set of 100.

UPS and Teamsters have a card-check agreement dating from December 2007. It certainly hasn’t hurt Teamster’s chances of unionizing all things UPS.

Image courtesy of J. Star.

The new golden age of the American labor movement was supposed to heralded into being by the hopeful force that is President Obama. . . and control of both the House and Senate.  But months have passed [almost a year], and labor unions have little to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars they poured into the last election cycle.

For the labor leaders, the lack of attention and progress on labor’s prized legislation (EFCA) and other legislative priorities (like keeping their Cadillac health insurance untaxed) is breaking unions hearts. The Boston Globe reports:

“It’s beyond belief to me,” said Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. While Obama and Congress inherited “a big mess” from Bush, Haynes said, “there aren’t any excuses anymore. If you can’t deliver health care, and you can’t deliver jobs, and if you can’t deliver [card check legislation], and you can’t figure out how to take care of the working people of this great city and country, you don’t deserve to stay in office.”

Why are they so far down on the agenda? The Globe continues:

The poor economy and the attention demanded by such issues as health care, Afghanistan, climate change, and the pending closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison have put labor unions’ concerns far down on the list in Washington, analysts and lawmakers say.

The White House wants to send its assurances of its continued affection.

“We’ve been able to make tremendous progress on issues important to the labor community,’’ said White House spokesman Bill Burton. “We have a good partnership, and we’re going to continue to work hard on issues important to the labor community.’’

These overtures are enough to assuage the wrath of American labor in the short run, but it seems unlikely that they will continue to stomach being ignored (at least legislatively) forever.