LaborPains.org

What is it with the American Red Cross?  Last December, the Teamsters were picketing facilities of the American Red Cross in Philadelphia. This time around, shift one state over–to West Virginia–and now its the SEIU employees striking.

The Red Cross won a court injunction to get them back to work in December. No word yet on whether that will happen this time around, but reports say the strike will end today. From WOWK:

American Red Cross employees around the region say they are picketing due to months of poor management, thus raising concerns of blood and donor safety. From Parkersburg to Huntington, members of the Service Employees International Union District 1199 began striking at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

In a statement released by the SEIU, members say they have finally had enough. “Cutting jobs, slashing wages and benefits of employees and cutting corners are affecting the safety of our blood supply.”

The only person I see affecting the the “safety of our blood supply” is the SEIU, and oh wait, the other unions that are involved:

Stiltner said the strikes are part of a national coalition with work stoppages in five other states. She said there have been stoppages in California, Connecticut, Michigan, Georgia and Buffalo, N. Y. “Our coalition includes the AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), the CWA and Teamsters,” she said. ” This affects 15 workers locally, 32 in Huntington and thousands across the country.”

Their mothers would be so proud. They’ve shut down mobile units in three states for this particular strike:

Because of the strike, the American Red Cross has to close its doors and halt its mobile units in 34 counties:

West Virginia: Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Mingo, Putnam, Roane, Wayne, Wirt and Wood

Kentucky: Boyd, Bracken, Carter, Floyd, Greeup, Johnson, Lawrence, Lewis, Magoffin, Martin, Mason, Pike and Rowan

Ohio: Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pike, Scioto and Washington

Image courtesy of a visual invasion.

A Reuters article entitled “States face hurdles in cutting worker benefits” could have subtitled “Unions made this reporter feel bad for governors”, because that ended up being how it read. Instead, the subheading was:

“State governors working to close yawning deficits are again eyeing a tempting target — the billions of dollars in benefits and wage hikes that public workers won in boom times.”

The article covers Governor vs. Union (and huge budget shortfall) drama in Massachusetts, Maryland, California, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.  The most interesting take on furloughs was from none other than Hawaii’s Governor Linda Lingle:

“Courts in states from Maryland to California have partly blocked unpaid furloughs, although some unions still prefer them to lower pay, as Hawaii’s Republican Governor Linda Lingle found after the teachers’ union spurned graduated pay cuts.

“They said ‘Oh no, we have to treat everybody the same,’” Lingle told Reuters in late April. “I couldn’t get them to accept that a furlough costs a lot more to someone at the bottom of the pay scale.”"

Regardless of who gets hurt the most by cost saving furloughs, many governors are left with the furloughs as their only option. And it’s the only option that public unions seem willing to consider. Forget long term solutions. Those aren’t even to be mentioned.

Image courtesy of kreslik.com.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The rise of the tea party makes Democrats even more dependent on organized labor. In this week’s Pennsylvania special election for the late Jack Murtha’s seat, the AFL-CIO alone sent out 80,000 mailers on behalf of Democrat Mark Critz, along with 100,000 robocalls.

In Arkansas, unions showed their clout by forcing Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a June runoff with labor-backed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Unions decided to make an example of her after she opposed the “card check” bill that limits the use of secret ballots in union elections. Unions, especially the Service Employees International Union, spent more than $3 million against her.

In contrast to the tea party, there has been far too little scrutiny of the SEIU, whose membership of government and health-care workers is the fastest-growing of any union in the country. Andy Stern, the just retired head of the SEIU, was found to be the most frequent guest at the Obama White House last year, stopping by 22 times between January and September, more than all congressional leaders and cabinet members.

The SEIU’s close ties to the discredited group Acorn have largely been ignored. The same is true for the violence perpetrated by some of its members.

Image courtesy of gerlos.

So you may have heard about the anti-Wall Street protests…or is it anti-K Street protests?…. that happened around Washington, DC, not New York City, today. Made up of a hodgepodge of unions, they stormed down a bank, closed a road or two (K and 14th NW), pissed off some pigeons in a park, and got generally wet in the rain. This is after they protested in front of the home of a Bank of America executive yesterday.

I decided to brave the weather–without a union branded poncho, of course– and take a few shots. There were a plethora of union colors, a giants cutout of a K Street “corporate” type which reminded me of another protest puppet, posters calling for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to “protect small businesses”. Riiight.

Gov. Paterson may have gotten mad in January, but he’s finally laying down the law against labor unions in the state. According to the Wall Street Journal, Governor Paterson is considering going all Schwarzenegger on the State of New York:

“In his most aggressive move yet to slash state labor costs, Gov. David A. Paterson on Tuesday presented lawmakers with a choice of either freezing government operations or imposing a one-day furlough without pay for 100,000 unionized state employees. [...]

For months, the administration has tried to extract about $250 million in labor-reduction costs from the largest public employees unions, the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation. Union leaders have refused to relinquish a scheduled 4% raise that went into effect last month.

The governor said the unions “have given us nothing. Everyone is sacrificing. They are basically telling us they shouldn’t take a cut at all.” The governor said the furlough measure would save the state about $30 million, marking the first time the administration has cut costs this fiscal year, as opposed to deferring them.”

As an FYI for Paterson, the unions haven’t made it easy for Gov. Schwarzenegger. At all. But if the Mayor of San Francisco’s victory isn’t proof that standing your ground “works,” I don’t know what is.

Image courtesy of M. Bob in Tokyo.

If you want to know how Big Labor got its claws into California’s taxpayers pockets, then check out “The Beholden State: How public-sector unions broke California” by Steven Malanga.

Here’s a highlight from City Journal:

“Meanwhile, what was once the most prosperous state now suffers from an unemployment rate far steeper than the nation’s and a flood of firms and jobs escaping high taxes and stifling regulations. This toxic combination—high public-sector employee costs and sagging economic fortunes—has produced recurring budget crises in Sacramento and in virtually every municipality in the state.”

“How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country, where the same process is happening in slower motion. The story starts half a century ago, when California public workers won bargaining rights and quickly learned how to elect their own bosses—that is, sympathetic politicians who would grant them outsize pay and benefits in exchange for their support.”

Watch the SEIU threat video below if you want a window into the union’s line of reasoning and sense of entitlement. It’s an oldie, but a goodie.

In Politico:

“We have no intention at the SEIU of making a threat and not doing something about it,” he said. Among the Democrats targeted for retribution are Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, North Carolina Rep. Larry Kissell and Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire. “I think Blanche Lincoln is ‘Example A’ of the frustration we feel about people who we don’t think represented Arkansan workers, Arkansan SEIU members and Arkansans about their issues,” he said. [...]

House and Senate Democratic leaders have appealed to Stern and other SEIU officials to reconsider their tactics, given the already poisonous political atmosphere this cycle. Stern said he understands “that’s their job,” but the union won’t budge. “We’re not lap dogs for a political party. We are watchdogs for our members,”

You did hear him right.

And is other weird news. Andy Stern mentions North Carolina’s Kissell as a target.  Well the local SEIU has taken action in the most realistic way possible. They’ve started their own political party.

You heard that right too.

It’s called “North Carolina First Party”, because I think that “SEIU First Party” was already taken.

Image courtesy of mickeymox.

From the Wall Street Journal:

“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), from 1998 to 2008 public employee compensation grew by 28.6%, compared with 19.3% for private workers. In the recession year of 2009, with almost no inflation and record budget deficits, more than half the states awarded pay raises to their employees. [...]

“By the way, nearly this entire benefits gap is accounted for by unionized public employees. Nonunion public employees are paid roughly what private workers receive. What if government workers earned the average of what private workers earn? States and localities would save $339 billion a year from their more than $2.1 trillion budgets. These savings are larger than the combined estimated deficits for 2010 and 2011 of every state in America.” [...]

These stark statistics bring to light contracts that are a testament to successful efforts by unions and a relic of a different economy where people did not noticed the discrepancy quite so much. That’s not the case anymore. The Economist shed light on this last month. New York finds itself on the brink.  California too. The Wall Street Journal continues:

“So if your state is broke, this is a major reason. Eventually, governors, state legislators and city council members are going to have to decide whether protecting America’s privileged class of government workers is a higher priority than funding such core functions of government as public safety. Something has to give. It’s time to close the biggest pay gap in America.”

Image courtesy of Maury McCown.