LaborPains.org

Sandwiched in the middle of a bit of NAFTA-hating, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka took the time remind everyone, anyone, who would listen that EFCA is still around. From the Wall Street Journal:

“Mr. Trumka said union leaders did discuss the proposed Employee Free Choice Act with Vice President Biden. The measure is a union-backed bill that would make it easier for unions to organize workers for collective bargaining. The bill is stalled in Congress, opposed by Republicans, conservative Democrats and business groups. Mr. Trumka said Mr. Biden assured labor leaders Wednesday that he and the White House were still committed to the legislation.”

I remember Richard Trumka’s battle cry last month at the UAW conference:

“We won’t quit until the EFCA becomes the law of the land and everyone who wants a union can have a union,” Trumka said.

Or a month before that in The Hill:

“The union leader was bullish on its chances of passage, saying there will be a vote on the bill this year and it will pass.”

Perhaps Mr. Trumka has alarm on his phone that reminds him to bring it up at scheduled intervals?  Like “Note to self: Harp on EFCA today. Be positive and aggressive. Smile.”

You can file this under “Good Luck With That.” After what the Washington Post calls “18 months of floundering” (ouch), the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and labor et al. are looking to the Right for help going further Left:

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, the “tea party” movement must be honored. In an effort to replicate the tea party’s success, 170 liberal and civil rights groups are forming a coalition that they hope will match the movement’s political energy and influence. They promise to “counter the tea party narrative” and help the progressive movement find its voice again after 18 months of foundering.

The large-scale attempt at liberal unity, dubbed “One Nation,” will try to revive themes that energized the progressive grass roots two years ago. In a repurposing of Barack Obama’s former campaign slogan, organizers are demanding “all the change” they voted for — a poke at the White House. [...]

The groups involved represent the core of the first-time voters who backed Obama, including the National Council of La Raza, the Service Employees International Union, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, and the United States Student Association. (The effort is separate from the Democratic Party’s plan to spend $50 million trying to reach those same voters.) Their aha! moment happened after the health-care overhaul passed this spring.

If you are wondering where unions fall in President Obama’s hierarchy of people he needs to stay in contact with and phone calls he needs to return:

The night before Barack Obama became President of the United States he made two phone calls to a man named, Tom Balanoff. Balanoff is the President of SEIU (Service Employees Int’l Union) Local 1 in Chicago. Obama’s first call to Balanoff went unanswered because his number came up as “blocked” on Balanoff’s cell phone. Balanoff was in the middle of a fancy dinner with the former SEIU Int’l President, Andy Stern, at Shaw’s Crab House in downtown Chicago. When Balanoff listened to the voicemail, this is what he heard: “Tom, this is Barack. Give me a call.”

Later that night, Tom Balanoff was filling his car up with gas when he spoke to Barack Obama. Obama told Balanoff he had “two criteria” for the person who would replace him in the US Senate, after Obama got elected President. Today in court, Tom Balanoff testified Obama explained his “two criteria” this way: “One, they must be good for citizens of Illinois and two, the person had to be able to be reelected” (in 2010). Balanoff says, Obama told him there were a “number of good candidates” but Obama said he did not want to get involved in the process. Balanoff says Obama brought up the name of his close friend and campaign advisor, Valerie Jarrett.

This is quite embarrassing. From Politico:

President Barack Obama’s political director failed to disclose that he was slated to receive a nearly $40,000 payout from a large labor union while he was working in the White House.

Patrick Gaspard, who served as the political director for the Service Employees International Union local 1199, received $37,071.46 in “carried over leave and vacation” from the union in 2009, but he did not disclose the agreement to receive the payment on his financial disclosure forms filed with the White House.

In a section on his financial disclosure where agreements or arrangements for payment by a former employer must be disclosed, Gaspard checked a box indicating that he had nothing to report.

As a reminder, Gaspard is one among an honored handful of former union employees who, after the election, found a safe place to land in the White House.

I actually thought this was a joke when I first saw it.

Andy Stern has finally seen the cash and perhaps seen …the light?  He’s apparantly decided to bury the hatchet with an entire industry, and help sell antidotes for biological weapons to the Department of Defense. Again, let me repeat, this is not a joke. From the Wall Street Journal:

“Siga Chief Executive Eric Rose said Stern’s “insight, experience, and leadership, particularly his understanding of how our federal government works, will complement the skill sets” of the existing board. Siga applies viral and bacterial genomics and sophisticated modeling to develop products for the prevention and treatment of serious infectious diseases, with an emphasis on products for biological warfare defense.”

Yes, hilariously, part of the reason they hired Mr. Stern was for his intimate knowledge of how government works. I guess visiting the White House as often as Andy Stern makes all the difference.

Image courtesy of Justin.Scrappers.

While unions will not let their hopes and dreams for the Employee Free Choice Act, or EFCA, go, arguing for the “freest and fairest elections,” they seem quite content to deny taxpayers (the ones footing the bill) the ability to vote on pension reforms. I guess fairness isn’t what EFCA was about after all. From the Silicon Valley Mercury News:

Unions representing Menlo Park city workers are expected to file a lawsuit today in an effort to prevent a pension reform initiative from going before voters on the November ballot. The ballot initiative, spearheaded by Citizens for Fair and Responsible Pension Reform, would reduce pension benefits for new city employees. The organization gathered 2,788 signatures, more than the 1,884 needed to qualify for the ballot. The council in May approved the initiative for the Nov. 2 ballot.

Today at noon, representatives of the local chapters of the Service Employees International Union, which represents non-management city employees, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, along with some residents and city workers, are scheduled to hold a news conference outside Menlo Park City Hall after the lawsuit has been filed. An SEIU representative called the initiative unlawful, but wouldn’t elaborate on the legal grounds for the lawsuit against Menlo Park. In the past, AFSCME representatives have said the ballot measure violates a state law that prohibits amending retirement contracts through initiatives.

Image from Dean Terry.

From ABCNews:

“More than 500 decisions by the leading federal agency that referees disputes between labor and management will have to be reopened after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the five-member board had operated illegally when its membership dwindled to two.

The high court, in a 5-4 ruling in which the court’s leading liberal — retiring Justice John Paul Stevens — sided with the court’s four most conservative members, said the law does not allow the National Labor Relations Board to operate while it is short-staffed because of political arguments. [...]

The decision means that more than 500 of employee-employer cases decided by the NLRB while its membership had dropped to two must now be reopened by the board, which currently has four members.”

Image courtesy of IslesPunkFan.

You cannot make up stories like this. Not if you try, and not in a thousand years.

From the New York Post:

A married, obese former president of a Port Authority union admitted yesterday in court to embezzling nearly $300,000 in member dues and using the cash for tawdry hook-ups with prostitutes, casino trips and lavish meals, sources told The Post. Daniel Hughes, 49, who resigned in disgrace from the local Field Supervisor Association, admitted to Judge Eric Vitaliano in Brooklyn federal court that he stole the cash from January 2005 to last December — bankrupting the account for his 250 members.

“This PA employee took advantage of his position as a president of a union and abused it in a calculated and egregious manner,” said PA Inspector General Robert Van Etten. “Hughes used his union’s funds as his own personal piggy bank,” added PA Deputy Attorney General Michael Nestor, the director of investigations for the IG’s Office.

In addition to paying restaurant bills and at least one trip to Mohegan Sun, Hughes used the union’s ATM card to withdraw cash for nearly a dozen sexual romps with hookers, the sources said. Hughes, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs more than 350 pounds — after recent weight-reduction surgery — used a Queens-based escort service that billed him $400 to $500 an hour, a source said.

“He used an escort service quite often, nine or 10 times,” said the source. “They hooked up in cheap hotels,” the source added, including the Kew Motor Inn along the Grand Central Parkway, which bills itself on its Web site as “the most famous and exotic couples-friendly motel/hotel in Queens!!”

Oh, this post would have had an amazing image of Jabba the Hut were it not for Ben Yakas at Gothamist.com beating me to the punch. So I’ve included this image of the “Cupid’s Room” at the Kew Motor Inn where Hughes spent his time, lost the union’s money, and ruined his reputation.

This certainly reflects poorly on him.

To read the rest of the story, CLICK HERE.