Labor Pains: Because Being in a Union can be Painful

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Archive: May 2017

  • Congress Reintroduces the Employee Rights Act

    Posted on May 31, 2017 by LaborPains.org Team

    The Employee Rights Act (ERA) is back. Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN) recently reintroduced the ERA, the most comprehensive update to American labor law since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Last session, 170 members of Congress co-sponsored the legislation, including 33 U.S. senators. (Learn more here.) The ERA protects workers from abusive union leadership with eight pro-employee reforms. Among other provisions, […]

  • Labor Racket Weekly: Cross-Country Corruption Continues

    Posted on May 26, 2017 by LaborPains.org Team

    Corruption. Embezzlement. Allegedly unauthorized cash withdrawals. Here are this week’s best labor rackets: In Arkansas, Jeni May Hughes, former office manager for Plumbers Local 155, pled guilty to embezzling $428,874 in union funds. In Iowa, Curtis Lang, former President of the United Dairy Workers of LeMars, pled guilty to one count of embezzlement. On March 22, 2017, Lang was […]

  • SEIU Members Sue Mary Kay Henry Over Nevada Power Grab

    Posted on May 24, 2017 by LaborPains.org Team

    Union members to Mary Kay Henry: You crossed a line. A group of Nevada union members recently sued Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and other SEIU officials for seizing control of their local union. Last month, Henry removed Cherie Mancini, board member of the Nevada-based SEIU 1107, after Mancini cancelled a […]

  • Labor Racket Weekly: $71,523 in Dues for “Personal Use”

    Posted on May 18, 2017 by LaborPains.org Team

    Union dues are being used for union leaders’ personal benefits, not members’ benefits. Here are this week’s best rackets: In Illinois, Thomas M. Miller, former Secretary-Treasurer of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) Division 815, was charged with embezzling approximately $10,686 in union funds. In Rhode Island, Christopher Hayes, former Rhode Island Police Department Sergeant and former […]

  • Union President Pay Watch, 2017

    Posted on May 17, 2017 by LaborPains.org Team

    The AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of labor unions, recently released its annual Executive Paywatch report. It’s a routine attempt to, as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka puts it, expose the “greed of corporate CEOs.” The report alleges that the average S&P 500 CEO earned $13.1 million in total compensation in 2016, while the typical U.S. rank-and-file worker […]

  • Labor Racket Weekly: Embezzling Galore!

    Posted on May 12, 2017 by LaborPains.org Team

    Another week and another set of union bosses allegedly or actually stealing members’ money. This week’s list of offenders goes from coast to coast. Here are the best rackets: In Pennsylvania, Raymond C. Ventrone, former business manager for International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 154, was charged with one count of embezzling approximately $1,499,000 in union funds and five counts of income […]

  • Yale Students Go On Hunger Strike, Eat When Hungry

    Posted on May 08, 2017 by LaborPains.org Team

    Some Yale University graduate students want to join a union. And they’re willing to starve for it. Well, not really. Eight of the university’s graduate students are now in their second week of a “symbolic” hunger strike, which means that protesters fast on water alone until they “can no longer go on.” At that point, the protesters […]