LaborPains.org

From the Miami Herald:

Ninety-seven percent of the 16,000 nurses and other healthcare workers of SEIU Healthcare Florida have voted to merge with the 350,000 members of Local 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the union announced. Local 1199 represents healthcare workers throughout New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

“The voices of Florida’s healthcare workers to advocate for their patients and professions just grew 30 times more powerful,” said Monica Russo, president of the Florida union.  The merger goes into effect July 1. It does not effect the SEIU local for Jackson Health System employees.

To Ms. Russo’s point, she may feel 30 times more powerful, but I am pretty sure that their voices are now 30 times more diluted. They are a drop in the very large bucket known as the SEIU.

Image courtesy of J. Weissmahr.

It’s summer time, and that means it’s time for America’s children to get to their summer reading!

That is, unless you live in Santa Cruz, California, where the SEIU’s negotiations with the city may shut down local libraries for three months:

“All but one county library could close for three months, smaller branches could be shuttered permanently or hours at all branches slashed further if managers and union workers do not reach an agreement to save money on this year’s budget. [...] Basically we’re coming up with plan B or C or D,” said Library Director Teresa Landers. “We have our fingers crossed that the city and SEIU will be able to come to an agreement.”

“Library leaders find themselves in a unique position because while the Joint Powers Board governs 10 branches from Santa Cruz to La Selva Beach, library workers belong to the city of Santa Cruz chapter of SEIU. Therefore employees negotiate their contracts with city leaders, not library leaders. As a result, Landers said, issues that hold up talks at the city level affect the libraries, too. Santa Cruz is in talks with SEIU to help save $3.7 million from next year’s city budget.

“Landers said she and board members are hoping that SEIU agrees to continue concessions made to save money last year, which include postponing 5 percent raises and taking an unpaid day off each week. The library’s budget next year is just under $11 million, a drop from $11.3 million.”

Given what happened in Palo Alto in the fall when another library closed due to a strike, I recommend that California’s children save themselves and horde books. Perhaps they could pick up my Grandfather’s book, “Unions–Who Needs Them?”

When I see quotes like this from politicians and labor leaders, I think that this is less like the resurrection of EFCA (Frankenstein style) and more like a haunting that just won’t go away. Which do you think is more apropos?

Pretending like EFCA isn’t dead will not make it less dead.

From Richard Trumka over the weekend at the UAW conference, as reported by the Detroit Free Press:

Trumka also called on UAW members to intensify phone calls, letter writing and other lobbying of their congressional representatives and senators to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill, which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and most companies vigorously oppose, would simplify the process for workers to call for union representation and limit certain tactics employers now use to discourage workers from voting in a union.

“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.

Rep. John Lewis seconded that:

During a speech to UAW delegates at Cobo Center this afternoon, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., urged the union to continue to fight for labor law reforms, such as the Employee Free Choice Act.

“I do not understand it. … We control the White House. We control the Senate. We control the House of Representatives,” Lewis said. “Let’s pass it and pass it now.” Lewis, also a civil rights leader, applauded the UAW for its past history of supporting civil rights struggles.

Image courtesy of Stephen G.

Ever since Blanche Lincoln forced Bill Halter’s rout on Tuesday, I’ve wanted to hear what newly-elected, baby-out-with-the-bathwater, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry had to say. I was not disappointed. From Politico:

“SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, who last month replaced Obama ally Andy Stern, shrugged off the suggestion that the movement lost prestige by throwing so much money at a losing candidate in such a high-profile race.

“We’d do it again in a heartbeat,” she told POLITICO. “This isn’t about the White House, and it isn’t about us. This race was about working people all around this country who’ve lost jobs or watched their paychecks shrink.” On Thursday, in another assertion of independence from the Obama-led Democratic establishment, the SEIU plans to deliver 30,000 signatures on behalf of an independent challenger to Kissell, a freshman who voted against health care reform.

Shrinking paychecks? As a reminder, not all paychecks are created equal. Perhaps that is why the SEIU has their purple eyes set on the public sector?

According to new numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “[t]otal employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $27.73 per hour worked in March 2010.  Total employer compensation costs for State and local government workers averaged $39.81 per hour worked in March 2010.”

And we wonder why state budget’s are in the red.

In what is being described by CNN as a landslide by women, Blanche Lincoln managed to hold off labor-backed Bill Halter in the hotly (and nastily) contested Democratic primary race in Arkansas. The AFL-CIO called the loss a “tremendous victory” for working families, and SEIU stood by their man as well. If this is what a “tremendous victory” looks like and feels like, I hope that labor unions get “tremendous victories” more often. Reminds me of how they called losing to Scott Brown a “victory”. I see a pattern.

Labor groups poured about $10 million dollars into the primary run off after the May primary results. They spent the last few weeks hemorrhaging cash. The Hill ran through cash and boots by numbers yesterday:

“The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has spent more than $3 million on the race, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, while the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has spent more than $1.5 million. Labor groups are also putting activists in the field for what is expected to be a close election. The AFL-CIO has sent staff from its Washington office to help Halter supporters get to the polls, as has Working America, its community affiliate.

Working America’s 41 paid organizers in Arkansas have made 315,000 phone calls and knocked on 120,000 doors, canvassing voters in 27 cities and 17 counties in the state, according to spokeswoman Alison Omens. The group has also spent more than $1.3 million on ads…”

Politico’s Ben Smith got the most damning quote of ‘em all from the Lincoln-backing White House:

“Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

Sorry. No matter how many times these unions burn through their coffers, lose, and call it a “victory,” I don’t think that Lenin’s “A lie told often enough becomes the truth” applies. If I want to see some real victory, I think I’ll just watch the World Cup.

–The SEIU sees blood in Arizona, and a chance to cash in. They put together a hotline for anyone traveling to Arizona to call in and get travel advisories. The hotline, if set up by anyone not far left of center, would result in pejoratives being hurled at them by ….everyone.  But because the SEIU is in a category of scandal all its own, nothing has come of their activities….yet. Want to see how uncomfortable the hotline is? Call it at 1 (800) 958-5068 or just read the text here. Oh, I almost forgot to mention:  Call the hotline number from the cellphone of a coworker you hate.  The SEIU is using the hotline to collect phone numbers.

–Organized Labor has been particularly laborious and organized this primary season. Need a primer on today’s primaries? Check out the Daily Caller’s here. Pay attention to Arkansas.

–The SEIU has abandoned the “legalize pot” campaign [I-1068] in Washington State, and the head of the campaign had some terrible colorful things to say about the SEIU:

“F*** them all,” he said of the three groups his campaign is now directly or partially blaming. “I don’t know what happened or why they (SEIU) walked away,” he added. “But in the end… they’re afraid to support us because they’re either politically afraid or because they’re mommies will find out they smoke weed. A bunch of chickensh** rich people.”

–The SEIU workers who have been picketing the Red Cross have ended their 5-day work stoppage. Yay for sick people.

–Ohio’s home care and child care workers were effectively unionized by gubernatorial order. Now some workers aren’t so happy that dues are coming out of their pay checks:

“…some workers are not happy about joining a union, and other critics say Strickland is helping the Service Employees International Union and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees collect millions of dollars in dues and fees that can be used to support the governor’s re-election bid and other Democratic Party campaigns.

Patricia Griggs, a nurse from Loveland in Hamilton County, said she doesn’t want union representation, nor does she want money withheld from her paycheck for union fees to be used to support candidates or causes she might oppose. “I’m self-employed. Why do I want to be (in) a union?” Griggs asked. “The state will begin to take (union fees) out of our checks without us signing anything. … It’s stealing.” [...]

Griggs said she will pay $12 a week. Even though she hasn’t joined the SEIU, Griggs is covered by the union contract and must pay an assessment to the union.

Tomorrow, a number of unions will find out if their blood, sweat, tears, and cash–lots of it– paid off in Arkansas when Blanche Lincoln faces off to labor backed Bill Halter. According to the New York Times, labor in Arkansas has “knocked on 170,000 doors, made 700,000 phone calls, sent 2.7 million pieces of mail and spent almost $6 million on television and radio advertising.”

If you are still not convinced of how serious they are, here’s a round up of quotes from some major unions:

Communication Workers of America in the New York Times:

“We’re sending a message here,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America. “Our members have had it — not just in Arkansas, they have had it across this country.”

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees president Gerald McEntee in the Wall Street Journal:

“We go out and work like hell” to elect Democrats in 2008, “and yet we’re getting screwed,” said Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Mr. McEntee said he was especially unhappy to see Mr. Clinton, who benefited from labor support in the past, attacking unions in the Lincoln ad. “To see him in full form in Arkansas bleeding us out, we felt was a disgrace,” Mr. McEntee said.

A state level A.F.L.-C.I.O worker says that the level of mobilization is extreme:

“This is pretty new for Arkansas,” said Justin Nickels, the communications director for the state A.F.L.-C.I.O. “It’s sort of like we’ve been thrown into the N.F.L.”

And the SEIU, who’s pumped millions into a state where they have a mere 1,000 members, is running ads that will make any voter who pays attention to the news…..blanch.

Here’s the first thing you need to know about Senator Casey’s event on March 22, 2010, introducing the Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act of 2010, is who was in attendance at the announcement:

“Senator Casey was joined at the event in Carlisle by representatives from YRC Transportation, ABF Freight Systems and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.”

Folks these days know that if you put the phrase “Create Jobs” at the beginning of a piece of legislation, its easier to yell at your opponents about how they opposed a “jobs bill.” There are about one hundred cliches, mores, and epithets that would work  right about now, but I think sticking with the old favorite “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.”

Borrowing from the Wall Street Journal, the bill would better be entitled “The Union Pension Bailout.” Because that’s what it is. During the health care legislation reform debacle, part of the bill was section 164 that bailed out failing pension funds to the tune of $10 billion USD.  It passed in the final version of the bill relatively unnoticed, giving Jimmy Hoffa a taste of sweet, sweet success.

Ten billion dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to how much money this legislation would cost. From the Wall Street Journal:

“Mr. Casey is claiming his multi-employer-bailout scheme will cost a mere $8 billion, but Moody’s estimated last year that multi-employer plans were $165 billion underfunded.”

“The tab is likely to be much higher given the moral hazard Mr. Casey would create. As Hudson Institute economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth notes, the bill creates “a vicious circle. Once PGBC took over some plans, other employers would want to declare bankruptcy, unload plans on the PGBC, and reorganize under another name. The incentives to do this would be enormous.” [...]

Union chiefs prefer the power that comes with managing huge pension investments—even if they’re failing. They are now counting on Mr. Casey to preserve their power by making taxpayers pick up the tab for years of pension mismanagement. With the union priority of “card check” stalled, word is that the Casey bailout is Big Labor’s consolation prize. Taxpayers should let Congress know they don’t want to pay.”

If Hoffa wins this one, perhaps it will be enough to fend off the attacks from within his own ranks. Vice President Fred Gegare is vying for the number one spot, according to reports, in the upcoming election in 2011. Interestingly enough, the reason Fred Gegare cites for breaking ranks with Hoffa is all about pension funds:

Gegare especially points to the decision to let UPS out of the Central States Pension Fund, saying that move has led to employers “lined up” to get out of the pension fund, with Central States losing two-thirds of its participants. Gegare is the union chair of the Central States Pension Fund. He also alleges that the union is experience financial difficulties because of some Hoffa decisions. “I cannot understand some of your decisions in the last four years regarding some of your expenditure that you were questioned about,” he writes.