LaborPains.org

This falls under the “You can’t make this stuff up” catagory. From the Detroit Free Press:

City officials said that as many as a dozen rats were set loose in the [Yonkers] City Council chambers on Tuesday night, when union workers showed up to protest looming layoffs – a showdown that ultimately included expletive-filled taunts and squealing, scurrying rats. […] The incident came as dozens of Teamsters and other union members gathered outside City Hall to demonstrate against job cuts and included the appearance of a giant inflatable rat that is common at union rallies. Union members protested the cuts during the public comment portions of a council budget meeting and a subsequent regular board meeting.

Calls at Local 456 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters were not returned. Murtagh said he accepts assurances from union leaders who told him that they had no involvement in the release of the rats, an act he called “outrageous conduct by anyone, most especially employees of the city.” But he also said the incident raised questions about the union leadership. “If you take them at their word, then that shows to me that they have a complete lack of control over their membership, and indeed that their membership has a complete lack of respect for their leadership,” he said.

Image courtesy of Unknown User.

The Teamsters are contemplating a strike at funeral homes in Chicago, and I wish the good people of Chicago well. From the Chicago Sun Times:

The Teamsters and a funeral home chain are coming down to the wire in contract negotiations, raising the specter of a strike by funeral directors and drivers at 17 Chicago-area sites. The three-year contract between Chicago’s Teamsters Local 727 and Houston-based Service Corporation International expires at the end of the day June 30, and union officials said the two sides remain far apart on economics.

Now I won’t speak ill of the dead….but the Teamsters…..

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.

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?”