Arkansas’ Senate seat is just one battle ground against moderate Democrats who have not lived up to Big Labor’s EFCA expectations. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter released a press statement detailing more than $500,000 in campaign contributions by labor groups to Blanche Lincoln.
The same release calls Blanche’s accusations that Halter’s debt has been paid off to be “lies.” This was in retaliation for Lincoln’s statements that Halter’s previous campaign debt had been retired by the unions.
“The Service Employees International Union said it is soliciting contributions to retire the debt along with the help of other labor unions. Halter reported in October that his campaign still owed him more than $444,000 that he had loaned it. SEIU has met with Bill Halter, and finds him to be a great voice for working families with an extremely bright political future,” said Jon Youngdahl, the union’s national political director. “That’s why we’ve solicited contributions to retire his campaign debt and support his re-election campaign.”"
The amount retired by the SEIU is nowhere near $444,000 thanks to a legal cap of $6,000, according to blogger Tolbert Report, but their “solicitation” of more aid hasn’t hurt at all.
In fact, maybe Halter has a “bright political future” because “Several unions and the liberal grassroots group MoveOn.org this week have pledged more than $3 million to Halter’s campaign, greatly boosting his ability to compete with Lincoln, who had $5 million in campaign cash at the end of December,” according to the Arkansas News.
Three million is well more that $444,000….and more than Blanche’s $500,0oo. I find amusing that union backing is being used as a weapon on both sides.
Pennsylvania is such a union stronghold, it naturally caught my eye when Chester County guards voted down the union by a wide margin. The “Chester County Corrections Officers Independent Union” would have been associated with the Teamsters Local 312, who was “ecstatic” and “anxious” at the prospect of the guards forming a union. From The Mercury:
“Efforts to organize Chester County Prison corrections officers into a union bargaining unit have failed, a union representative confirmed. In a vote last week, officers at the prison voted overwhelmingly against forming the Chester County Corrections Officers Independent Union, which would be allied with the Teamsters. The tally against organizing was 155-35…“
Far from some conspiratorial explanation being thrown around as an explanation (think California’s NUHW VS. SEIU fight), turns out it’s was old fashioned boots on the ground by one employee who opposed the union. From The Mercury:
Unlike during past campaigns to form bargaining units among county employees, this effort apparently did not prompt extensive lobbying efforts against unionization by county administrators. [...] The prison source who identified the vote tally said the commissioners had not sent any mailings urging a “no” vote, although one officer who opposed the move took it upon himself to contact workers. The county’s administration “pretty much stayed out of it,” the source said.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
This morning, i.e. the day that institutions bury news, the White House released the “Annual Report of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class“, which had some nice things to say about EFCA. Among the pro-labor policies touted in the report on the “Middle Class,” starting on page 23 is a page plus on the importance of EFCA and the values it embodies. The report calling for EFCA does not mean it’s less dead, it’s just that the Administration has a responsibility to stay positive on the party line.
What’s funny is whose cited in the report. The EFCA section of the White House report cites the Economic Policies Institute, a union-founded and funded group. According to the New York Post, it is a “creature of the national AFL-CIO.” What’s even more ridiculous is that it cites a report from EPI by none other than Jared Berstein and friends, entitled “The State of Working America 2008/2009.”
Hallmarks of the middle class that raised millions into the middle class over the last 50 years were basically ignored. “Unions” or “unionization were mentioned 34 times, by my count. By contrast,”small business(es)” were mentioned just 8 times. The word “entrepreneur” is never even mentioned in the report. Heck, even the Great Depression got mentioned twice.
“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.
LaborPains is a joint blog of the Center for Union Facts and the Employee Freedom Action Committee
Disclaimer: While no one is entitled to their own facts, they are
entitled to their own opinions. These opinions originate from their
authors and should not be attributed to the Center for Union Facts or the Employee Freedom Action Committee.
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