Gov. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon has nominated Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler to the position of State Treasurer, following the death of Ben Westlund on Sunday.

Want to know why Wheeler, and not another state representative Greg Macpherson, got the nod? According to The Oregonian:

“Kulongoski acknowledged that “part of it” was the opposition that Macpherson would face among the state’s public employee unions. Macpherson worked with Kulongoski on a 2003 bill aimed at reducing the costs of the Public Employees Retirement System that angered many public employees.

When Macpherson ran for attorney general in 2008, Service Employees International Union, the largest of the state employee unions, gave more than $300,000 to his Democratic primary opponent, John Kroger. The unprecedented union contribution to an attorney general’s race helped power Kroger to victory over Macpherson.

But see, it wouldn’t be classy to say that unions didn’t like MacPherson (who is actually a friend of the governor) because he wanted to reform the pension system. The reason that SEIU local gives for the reason that Kroger (see image) was so flagrantly funded and MacPherson so not? The Oregonian explains in another article:

Arthur Towers, political director for the SEIU local in Salem, wasn’t making any big pronouncements about his union spending heavily against Macpherson if he got in the treasurer’s race.  He  insisted that a big reason the union gave so much in the attorney general’s  race is that the “members fell in love with Kroger,” and that candidates don’t come along like that often.

That’s right. Far from some political agenda, it was love.

But hey, Oregon is a unique place. In January, at the behest of their public sector unions, Oregon voted to increase their taxes for the first time since 1931. During the lead up to the tax bill’s passage, it is interesting to note that the leading anti-tax politician was indicted by none other than John Kroger.

From ABCNews:

The Oregon Department of Justice said Monday that Sizemore and his wife, Cindy Sizemore, are each charged with three counts of evading Oregon personal income taxes. Each count carries a maximum punishment of five years and a $125,000 fine. [...] Bill Sizemore called the charges a “political attack” by public employee unions and state Attorney General John Kroger, a Democrat who had union support.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The battle over EFCA has become less a battle about EFCA, and more a proxy battle in a larger conflict about political sway, public opinion, and economic ideology.

In the Huffington Post on Friday, third-generation union organizer Mike Elk asked “If EFCA is DOA, Why is the Chamber Still Lobbying Against It?”  He wrote:

“For months now in Washington, it has been known that the Employee Free Choice Act won’t ever see a vote. However, this hasn’t stopped the Chamber of Commerce to continue flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists against a dead bill.

He continues by goading the them:

“[I]t’s important that we not give up the Employee Free Choice Act. If we don’t keep fighting, Big Business will just start pushing more aggressive assaults on labor and weaken the political position of labor. Remember the best defense is always a strong offense.”

I find it a wee bit ironic that while he is crying fowl about the Chamber not laying down their swords. Even after EFCA died, labor leaders are continuing to harp on EFCA weekly, acting as if indeed EFCA were not DOA.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and Director of Organizing at the AFL-CIO, Stewart Acuff have called for its passage, among others. Even Vice President Biden is calling for EFCA. And everyone has certainly been calling for Craig Becker to be approved to the National Labor Relations Board, a man whose position could make him the very personification of card check legislation.

Bottom line: EFCA is now a beleaguered placeholder in the middle of a proxy war.  Is it also a shorthand way of showing one’s hand–hence Blanche Lincoln’s trouble in Arkansas.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that despite the 3-1 strike-authorization vote by the Teamsters, Mayor Daley is vowing to keep the airports open no matter what.

“You know what? There’d be 50,000 people applying for these jobs,” Daley said. “I mean, there’s so many people out of work. If you were ever to open employment, there’d be 50,000. These are good-paying jobs. Everybody would like to not work and get two hours’ pay.

“I don’t know how they can strike,” the mayor said. “My argument is that, if there’s no work to be done and they’re getting two hours’ pay, they should be very thankful to taxpayers that they’re getting two hours’ pay.” [...] Since Dec. 15, dozens of pool drivers have been sent home when there is no snow to remove and none forecast. [...]

“In good times, they would hire the Teamsters … and pay ’em [for] eight hours” whether or not there was snow to be removed, Daley said.”But this is such an economic crisis that you can’t sit there and not do work and be paid for eight hours … You can’t plow if there’s no snow and you can’t put salt down. So, appropriately then, after two hours, you have ’em go home. Usuually, they’d be laid off for four months completely.”

With unemployment remaining at 9.7%, it’s not hard to see why Mayor Daley thinks he has the higher ground.

If I told you that SEIU president Andy Stern calls corporations who encourage their employees not to unionize “communists”, would you be waiting for a punch line?

Here’s the quote from the Cornell Daily Sun:

Sun: Despite the concern, why has America’s unionization rate been falling for the past several decades?

A.S.: It’s a combination of three factors. […]The private sector has decided that they want to give people a communist choice, which is no union. That’s all they really want on their ballot, and anyone who really tries to buck the domination and tyranny of the employer will pay a price.

Sun: What do you mean by a communist choice?

A.S.: I’m just saying that in the communist countries when they have elections, there’s really only one choice. What employers want is to make it very clear there’s only one choice as far as they’re concerned, which is no union.

I’d say Andy Stern understands hyperbole, but perhaps he lacks judgment when it comes to metaphors. Let me share with you a favorite Andy Stern quote:

“What we’re working towards is building a global organization because “Workers of the world, unite!” — it’s not just a slogan anymore. It’s a way we have to do our work.”

The National Union of Healthcare Workers released the following video last week of an incident on February 25th in Garden Grove, CA.

You don’t have to watch the whole thing.  Feel free to skip to :43– right about the point when the SEIU worker strikes the cameraman.

The SEIU has good reason to be scared in California, but that’s no reason for them to slip into their well-worn M.O. Seriously, SEIU.  Can’t they come up with something more creative than physical violence?

You heard that right. Somehow SEIU President Andy Stern passed the vetting to be nominated for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsiblity and Reform, so-named so that it can be declared a success without actually reducing any deficits.

He has gleefully accepted. From the SEIU release:

“I am honored to have been asked to serve on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and thank President Obama for ensuring that the voice of ordinary working Americans will be heard. “I have talked to thousands of our members, many low-wage workers, who have to make hard choices everyday to make ends meet, while never losing sight of their dreams — to provide a more prosperous future for their families.”

The Daily Caller hailed the move as par for the course for the Administration. Hot Air exclaimed that perhaps President Obama was getting tired on Stern and saw the commission as a perhaps opportunity to get him out of Obama’s hair. The Atlantic pointed out he’s not the only SEIU-er on a high level panel; SEIU’s Anna Burger sits on the Middle Class Task Force and the President’s Economic Recovery Board.

The Atlantic continues that “oddly enough” Stern opposed the commission when it was being considered in the Senate.

Maybe the difference is that the Senate commission possibly would have had some teeth.  The labor-laced presidential commission on the deficit is practically guaranteed to have nothing of the sort.  For Stern this means access to his favorite house (The White House) and clout. Stern likely will have little meaningful to say about deficit reduction–unless you count his own experience spending flagrant amounts of other people’s money, all while being millions in debt.

Image courtesy of Squeaky Marmot.

What’s that old Chinese proverb?

“There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.”

No matter whether the Administration does it through a jobs bill, by reanimating a very dead EFCA, by NLRB rule changes, or executive orders, they have to find a way to give something to their loyal big labor constituants.  The Administration is currently considering something known at the “High Road Procurement Policy.” And for your information, it doesn’t take the proverbial “high road” on it’s way to handouts for big labor–and it gets labor unions exactly what they want.

From the New York Times:

The Obama administration is planning to use the government’s enormous buying power to prod private companies to improve wages and benefits for millions of workers, according to White House officials and several interest groups briefed on the plan. [...]

Although the details are still being worked out, the outline of the plan is drawing fierce opposition from business groups and Republican lawmakers. They see it as a gift to organized labor and say it would drive up costs for the government in the face of a $1.3 trillion budget deficit. [...]

The Daily Caller, a conservative Web site, reported Feb. 4 that the plan would “heavily favor government contractors that implement policies designed by organized labor.”

From the AP:

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show the plan under consideration would examine the wages and benefits — such as health insurance, retirement benefits and paid leave — a company pays its employees as a factor in the contract award process.

Image courtesy of Jakob Montrasio.

Yesterday, SEIU Local 26 became the latest local in the country to create a local protest, highlighting big bank’s profits.

From the SEIU blog yesterday:

“To symbolize this loss, 14,000 little monopoly houses were dropped by “Mr. Moneybags” at the action site. [...] Both actions are part of a continued effort to demand that big bank executives–like US Bancorp and Wells Fargo–do the right thing to fulfill their responsibility to the taxpayers that bailed them out by supporting better jobs and a green future, and helping keep working Americans in their homes.”

So you can watch the video here, but otherwise, trust me when I tell you that the image to the right is the floor of the Wells Fargo once the protesters were done with the place. They throw monopoly game piece houses everywhere and printed up thousands of “Minneapoly” bills which were thrown out of money bags. Here’s their self-congratulatory post today on SEIU.org.

I hope no small children walked in during the protest given the choking hazard of those little houses. The SEIU should have a sign: “SEIU Protests and Rallies: Unsuitable for employers and children under the age of 8.”

I find this whole thing ironic because while they probably don’t mind that they created work for their SEIU compatriots who clean Minneapolis, the amount of trash they created–littering with paper and little plastic houses– doesn’t really gel with the SEIU’s other major agenda point in Minneapolis: Being environmentally friendly. Did you catch the “green future” quote?

It should not come a s surprise that the SEIU’s “green” agenda is more about additional things to hold against employers during negotiations and less about actually caring for the environment.

In December, I wrote that “[c]aring about the environment and conservation is great (a nice change from how unions used to be), and workers safety is paramount, but for the SEIU, it is also a REALLY convenient thing to use as a trump card in negotiations.”

I have a problem with a protest trashing a place of business, but like I said, I imagine unionized workers actually did have to clean up the mess. If the 300 janitors who marched in December for greener work places want to speak out for the environment, maybe they should say something about yesterday’s protest.