On Wednesday, after Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed into the Right To Work law, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow squirmed in her chair with excitement as she showed the Super Bowl Village being invaded by Big Labor activists. [see update at bottom of post]

Rather than seeing the Super Bowl as a big event for Indiana, Maddow’s guest, Indiana State Rep. Scott Pelath, sees it as a “national platform” for Big Labor “education” through disruption.

Indiana AFL-CIO union boss Nancy Guyott pulls no punches describing the chaos she intends to create; she has declared war on Super Bowl spectators. From Sterling Wong at Minyanville.com:

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Big Labor backed Indiana Senate Democrats shrilly-repeated inaccurate talking points as they made last efforts to let union bosses know that they tried their best to stop worker freedom from coming to Indiana.  But, they failed.  Indiana passed Right To Work – union bosses will no longer be able to force most private sector employees to pay them without their willful consent.

From the National Right To Work Committee release:

Today, Mark Mix, President of the 2.6 million-member National Right to Work Committee, praised the Indiana House and Senate for passage of the Indiana Right to Work Law.

Mr. Mix said, “This is a great day for Indiana’s workers and taxpayers.

“After a ten-year struggle involving hundreds of thousands of mobilized Hoosiers, Indiana will finally be able to enjoy all the benefits of a Right to Work law,” said Mr. Mix.

“Today, the Indiana Senate passed the Right to Work Bill by a vote of 28 to 22. The bill has already passed the House, so it now goes straight to Governor Daniels, who has vowed to sign it, making Indiana America’s 23rd Right to Work state,” continued Mix.

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Recently, former-SEIU Radio Voice, current-MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow and Indiana State Rep. Scott Pelath appeared eager to see Big Labor’s anticipated disruption of Super Bowl Week in Indianapolis, site of the 2012 event.  Threats of using the Super Bowl to intimidate lawmakers have been increasing over the past weeks.  From the Associate Press:

Facing a legislative vote that would make Indiana a right-to-work state … Labor activists are deciding whether to go ahead with protests that could include Teamsters clogging city streets with trucks and electricians staging a slowdown at the convention center site of the NFL village.

“The last thing the city needs is a black eye,” said Jeff Combs, organizing director for Teamsters Local 135.  [But, apparently Combs is willing to give it one.]

“You can tell them we’ll take the Super Bowl and shove it,” said Combs, the Teamsters organizer. Teamsters gathered at the Statehouse Wednesday wearing T-shirts with the roman numerals 46, referring to the Super Bowl, crossed out on the back.  He said truckers would be willing to risk arrest by causing traffic jams.

Why does Big Labor from across the USA plan to converge on Indianapolis?  Union bosses fear ‘Voluntary Unionism’ and the freedom that Right To Work will bring to Hoosiers.  Without ‘Compulsory Unionism,’ currently imposed in Indiana, union bosses will have to create reasons for employees to join their union; and, that is a lot more work that state-sanctioned compulsion. (more…)

The National Right To Work (NRTW) joined by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), and Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) took off the legal gloves and are forcing the Obama Administration to defend its unconstitutional appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).   Some say that President Barack Obama is creating a serious constitutional crisis.

This is the first legal challenge regarding these NLRB Board appointees who Obama appointed without a U.S. Senate confirmation process; but, more are expected.

From the NRTW release:

Washington, DC (January 13, 2012) – Today, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys filed a motion in federal court challenging the legality of President Barack Obama’s recent purported recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The legal challenge is part of a larger case attacking controversial new NLRB rules that require every employer to post incomplete information about employee rights online and in the workplace, even if they’ve never violated or been accused of breaking federal law. The NLRB’s posting rules do not require union officials to issue information about workers’ rights to refrain from union membership or opt out of union dues. Currently employers can only be required to post notices if the Board has ruled that a violation of labor law occurred.

The Foundation’s case has been consolidated with other legal challenges to the biased NLRB notice posting rules brought by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), and two small businesses. Those parties filed the joint motion today raising the issue of the NLRB’s lack of authority to implement the rule given the unprecedented recess appointments.

The new filings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia case comes after NLRB lawyers notified the court that President Obama’s recent recess appointees were now parties in the ongoing legal battle. Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s New Process Steel decision, the NLRB needs three members to act. However three of the five current NLRB members were installed by unilateral Presidential appointment earlier this year, despite the fact that the Senate was not in a self-declared recess.

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Big Labor has another opportunity to show employers and employees their level of control over the state of Indiana. And, apparently the show starts this week as union officials promise to bring union activists by forced-dues-financed busloads into Indianapolis to intimidate, disrupt, and generally throw a collective tantrum against the simple notion that Hoosiers should no longer be forced to pay tributes to union bosses in order to get or keep a job.

The nation will watch as Big Labor Democrats will likely flee to Illinois again in 2012 rather than allow their constituents the right to pay or not pay union fees without the threat of losing their jobs.

And employers from Illinois to Ohio will be watching to decide if they can stay in the Midwest or even remain in the U.S.

Indiana is located at one of the crossroads of America, and it has the opportunity to become a free state where workers can no longer be forced into union servitude. Indiana has the opportunity to become the anchor that saves Midwest economic viability.

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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) internal document excerpted below supports the allegation that Obama appointee John Lund has told union officials to ignore federal investigators and deal with him personally.  His actions irreversibly taint criminal investigations and subvert employee protections in favor of union bosses, while raising the prestige of his labor consultant team in Wisconsin.

Above is the internal OLMS Regional Director meeting minutes that confirm what my source has been telling me. (PGHDO = Pittsburgh District Office)  What Lund is doing, is much more than fixing parking tickets; he is interfering with potentially serious criminal charges.

As Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) Director, Lund heads the office primarily responsible for criminal investigations regarding union embezzlement. A union’s failure to file its union financial disclosure report in a timely manner automatically prompts a series of actions taken by the DOL personnel. A financial report delinquent more than 90 days is usually followed-up personally by DOL investigators.  But, ‘former’ labor union consultant Lund has short-circuited normal procedures; he is literally telling union officials “not to deal with OLMS investigators” and “send the reports directly to” him.

The office Lund heads is responsible for investigating and reviewing union financial reports and union official conflict-of-interest disclosures. The office functions somewhat similar to the   Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) but for unions rather than businesses.

If you will, imagine Lund as an SEC Director, giving corporations the same instructions do “not to deal with SEC investigators, just deal with me directly.”   Congress and the Inspector General would rush to investigate, and the media would provide full coverage of every detail.  Speculation would be rife within the media, and generate frequent headlines.  The union officials who went see Lund would be under the microscope as well as their unions. Their financial records for the past decade would be reviewed and each questionable trip to Las Vegas or Australia would be questioned.

More importantly, union members and those forced to pay dues to these unions would likely be painted as victims that they are.  Perhaps the press would even look back at the last three years of union disclosure elimination that John Lund has orchestrated that has no benefit for the rank-and-file.  No, Lund has been systematically dismantling union financial disclosure and union boss conflict-of-interest reporting to the benefit of his union boss clients. (more…)

On the 26th of October, DOL rescinded the 2007 Form LM-30 (conflicts-of-interests reports) and ignored statutory language to eliminate thousands of union officials from disclosing potential conflicts-of-interests when it created the 2011 Form LM-30.  DOL’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) continued to lower standards by creating new exclusions and loopholes for ethically-challenged union officials to hide their activities.

As previously noted on BigGovernment.com, Obama’s OLMS Director John Lund has his own conflict-of-interest problems since he arrived at the U.S. Department of Labor regarding his Big Labor clients.  Lund has teamed up with similarly-conflicted former AFL-CIO lawyer, and now DOL’s Deputy Solicitor of Labor Deborah Greenfield.  (Greenfield was suing DOL to try to eliminate 2007 Form LM-30 disclosure reports, the one’s that the Solicitor of Labor’s office just approved eliminating.)   It is not surprising with these two at DOL, that it has chosen to promulgate a rule that guts union officer conflicts-of-interest reporting.

John Lund’s union clients and Deborah Greenfield’s AFL-CIO comrades will directly benefit from DOL’s new rule, and under their advice will accomplish what Greenfield’s AFL-CIO lawsuit couldn’t accomplish through the courts.

Even though 'Jobs' is supposed to be the Obama Administration's #1 priority, it appears that the U.S. Labor Department's focus is on regs that will only help union bosses.

The Labor Department has even become so bold that it does not appear to care what it writes as justification for its actions.   For example, the LM-30 final rule describes an obvious potential for a conflict-of-interest even as it states there is no potential for conflict-of-interest.

“Employers have historically agreed to compensate stewards, safety and health committee representatives, and others for such work because they see it as adding value to their organizations. …Having employees serve on employee assistance programs and wellness committees is also seen as a cost-effective business decision by many employers. The Department concurs with those commenters who stated that union leave and no docking arrangements increase the speed of grievance adjustments, and otherwise benefit labor-management relations. The Department does not view the section 202 reporting provisions as requiring the reporting of such mutually beneficial arrangements between employers and employees.”

It is bizarre.

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In April we exposed Obama’s overseer of union financial disclosure and his personal conflicts-of-interest.  Now we have well-sourced evidence that Director John Lund is telling union officials to bypass Department of Labor investigators and work with him personally.  Imagine if U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Mary Schapiro invited delinquent reporting corporate presidents and treasurers to deal with her directly and ignore SEC personnel. Lund is the Office of Labor-Management Standards Director who oversees investigations and audits of union financial records and union officials’ conflicts-of-interest reporting, and he is using his new position to benefit his old clients form Big Labor. From the previous BigGovernment post:

John Lund’s Conflicts-of-Interest

The Obama Ethics Executive Order requires appointees to pledge that they will refrain from involvement in matters involving their former employer or clients.  The AFL-CIO and other unions are former clients of John Lund , and these unions remain clients of his former and current employer, the University of Wisconsin School for Workers (Lund is currently on unpaid leave while at DOL).  The Wisconsin School for Workers’ primary mission is to train union officials; the very officials that Lund now purportedly investigates for corruption.

Lund currently attends conferences and union training meetings like he did while he was the School for Workers director — a U.S. Government employee on the taxpayers’ dime.  While at the conferences and meetings, he hands out business cards like candy to those he has federally-granted power over.  He tells these Big Labor bosses “If you have a problem come to me, and ignore the field investigators.” Why?  Because by going to Lund, union bosses can work out deals to avoid jail time or criminal charges.  He can personally advise them how to “clean up” their reports to avoid consequences.  On the other hand, if pesky Department of Labor investigators get involved, then government investigative records will be made, facts will be verified, and falsehoods will be documented.

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The simple proposition that no one should be forced to pay tributes to labor bosses or they will lose their job, is not a conspiracy.  It is freedom from tyranny.  Using forced dues to finance politicians who vote to force citizens against their will to pay union bosses in order to keep their own jobs, is a conspiracy.

The fact is, until 1935, the United States Government did not force people to pay tributes to union bosses in order to get or keep a job.  If there was a conspiracy, it was between the AFL, CIO, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a Democrat Congress passed the Wagner Act, selling the concept as “workers rights.”  The Wagner Act foisted union servitude on millions of working Americans overnight.  We see the AFL-CIO, the president, and Congress attempting the same scam today.

The only workers who can escape from Wagner Act compulsion work in the 22-states which chose a Right to Work law to protect their citizens from this tyranny.  This Wagner Act forced-dues tyranny can be clearly blamed on Big Labor Bosses.

Then-A.F.L. president William Green boasted of Big Labor’s role in the Wagner Act in Liberty Magazine: “We helped write it. We thought of it as ‘Our Baby’.”  And at a union convention Green said, “The A.F.L. is wholly and fully responsible for the Wagner Labor Relations Act.”

Mr. Hoffa, freedom is no conspiracy.  Freedom is an ideal that both men and women aspire to obtain.

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Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is holding little back as he compares his state’s model for success to Washington’s big government corporate socialism and big labor cronyism. In a recent letter, Gov. McDonnell writes, “we are unapologetic supporters of Virginia’s Right To Work laws.”  But, McDonnell doesn’t stop there.  He pulls no punches when he compares Richmond to Washington, DC and boasts about Virginia’s success.

From Gov. McDonnell’s letter:

There’s much more separating Richmond and Washington than just 100 miles of interstate.

It’s a Tale of Two Cities.

In Washington they’re bogged down in red ink, spiraling debt, expanding government and overspending – all while the difficult decisions are left to future generations.

Here in Richmond, for the second straight year, we’ve reached the end of our fiscal year in the black —with a surplus this year of more than $500 million.

What does it take to create jobs and bring economic development to Virginia?

It’s really common sense and a focus on getting results, something that is in short supply in Washington.

Businesses want consistency and a level playing field, low taxes, reasonable regulation, good schools and a world-class transportation system.

We are unapologetic supporters of Virginia’s Right-to-Work laws and fighting off the union excesses that is hurting businessmen across the United States.

We’ve kept taxes low on businesses in Virginia.

We’ve worked to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses here in the Commonwealth.

Contrast that with how Washington does businesses.

In Washington, the Administration is using unelected people in appointed boards to do what Congress can’t, like using the NLRB to prohibit companies like Boeing from relocating some of their workforce to Right To Work states.

In Washington, a national healthcare plan was passed which explodes the cost of healthcare that employers must pay, and places an estimated $2.2 billion unfunded mandate on Virginia over the next 10 years.

In Washington, the Democrats beat the redistribution drums for increased taxes on job creators and wealth generators.

What business wants more than anything else from government is to make sure there is certainty and a level playing field —and then get out of the way.

When we took office in January, 2010, we were greeted by a massive budget shortfall, our rest stops were closed, and we were facing outgoing Governor Tim Kaine’s proposal for a job-killing $2 billion tax increase to solve our shortfall.

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You may have seen the 10-minute video clip of U.S. Rep. John Lewis‘ unsuccessful attempt to address the ‘Occupy Atlanta’ crowd, but did you notice the self-proclaimed “Teamsters Union Thug” apparently from the Jimmy Hoffa’s army Division.  Is this really why congress and FDR gave union’s the power to force people to pay tributes to union bosses in order to get or keep a job?

As noted in a previous BigGovernment posting, the Obama NLRB has literally chosen to shred secret ballots and thus democracy in the workplace. In what clearly was a gift to Big Labor and its collusive agreements with certain employers, the NLRB took away the right for employees to have a secret ballot election immediately following a coercive union ‘card check’ drive. In addition, it retroactively took action and cancelled secret ballots that had already been cast or were set to be cast.

Barbara Ivey of the forced unionism state of Oregon and her co-workers were victims of the totalitarian NLRB actions. On August 26^th, as Big Labor Attorney and NLRB Chair Wilma Liebman’s term expired and she slinked back to her Big Labor law practice, the NLRB voted to repeal “DANA rights” in its Lamons Gasket decision.

Mrs. Ivey was invited by the Education & Workforce Committee to testify about her shock that the U.S. government took away her right to a secret ballot, especially since the NLRB had earlier said she had the right and had scheduled the vote only days after the fateful Lamons Gasket decision. She and her fellow employees never got a chance for a secret ballot to vote, and now she will be forced to pay tribute to an SEIU union boss in order to keep her job.

The video above is taken from the Education & Workforce Committee hearing where the Obama NLRB usurpation of power and destruction of individual liberty is on display. Because of this decision numerous secret ballots that have already cast in workplaces across the country will never be counted. The ballots reportedly are currently stored at NLRB, then will eventually be shredded or disposed of in another manner.

To borrow from the Wisconsin union thugs, “This is what DEMOCRACY looks like” in an Obama Administration! (more…)

During Thursday’s House Education & Workforce hearing, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) described the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) actions as creating a hostile environment for business. Wilson claimed that the pro-Big Labor Obama NLRB created an unintended consequence for Big Labor.

Rep. Wilson said that the NLRB’s actions have turned the 28 force-unionism states into “Roach Motels” that will trap employers with the help of the NLRB, and prevent them from ever leaving or expanding outside these states’ borders.

Wilson said that the NLRB actions translate into only one option for employers if they are going to locate in the United States, and that is to build and locate in at least one of the 22 Right To Work states.

Wilson emphatically said, “In fact, you must locate in a Right to Work state.”

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The Wall Street Journal recently published a piece that USA incomes have fallen for the past three years and are now at 1996 household income levels.  The National Institute of Labor Relations Research looked at Texas and Illinois to see how far those states have fallen.  And, what probably comes as no surprise to most, Texas has not fallen while Illinois significantly dropped.  Illinois takes a dive (-7.3%) as Texans’ income rose (3.7%) when compared to 1996 household incomes.

The Teamsters union has been mired in the mob underworld even before Jimmy Hoffa. Jr.’s dad took over the union. During a congressional hearing, Robert F. Kennedy* said, “I told [Jimmy Hoffa, Sr.] frankly that I did not think he was tough enough to rid his union of the gangsters and hoodlums he had put in power.”

Even today, when any legitimate business interest would have been put out of business by the federal government, the Teamsters remain under federal court ordered oversight for its organized crime connections:

WHEREAS, the International Union entered into a Consent Decree with the United States on March 14, 1989 to resolve a civil lawsuit titled United States v. Teamsters, and WHEREAS, in entering into the Consent Decree, the International Union acknowledged allegations of past problems of organized crime corruption in various elements of the IBT [Teamsters]…

When Hoffa tells his army to take someone out, it is a serious matter. In one particular case, the National Labor Relations Board required the Teamsters union to post a sign to remind Hoffa’s army of what not to do. Here’s a small part of the four-page document:

WE WILL NOT threaten to kill or inflict bodily harm, make throat slashing motions, make gun pointing motions, challenge or threaten to fight or assault employees, threaten to sexually assault non-striking employees or their family members, threaten to follow non-striking employees to their homes, use racial epithets or obscene gestures at non-striking employees or otherwise threaten unspecified reprisals on any non-striking employee of Overnite or any member of his or her family or any employee of a neutral employee doing business with Overnite … (more…)

Outgoing NLRB Chair Wilma Liebman and the of the Obama Appointed NLRB Board members, Craig Becker & Mark Pearce, voted to eliminate secret ballot election protections.  Now, when employers make secrets deals with a union bosses agreeing to recognize a union without allowing his employees a secret ballot vote;  employees no longer have the right to force an NLRB secret ballot election and allow workers to decide if they want the union or not.

Unable to pass EFCA, Card Check Forced Unionism,  through a Democrat-controlled congress, Obama is paying off Big Labor through his handpicked NLRB Board.  He is doing all this at the expense of worker freedoms and worker paychecks. And, the NLRB Decision is applied retroactively to bar even elections that have already been held but not counted.

Employees can now be forced to pay for an undisclosed arrangement between employers and labor union bosses without having the right to put it to a secret ballot election.

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As reported in the Boston Globe and as seen in the New Hampshire debate video, both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich believe it is perfectly okay for the federal government to mandate that every private sector worker in the United States pay forced-dues to labor unions as a condition of getting or keeping a job. Attention Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich: Right To Work is not a states’ rights issue, it is a freedom issue. The Federal government should not mandate compulsory unionism.

Mitt Romney from the Boston Globe, “Pressed by John Kalb, executive director of New England Citizens for Right to Work, about whether he would actively advocate for a federal law, Romney responded, ‘I’m a Tenth Amendment guy. I’d like the states to be the place we carry out this path.’”

It appears that Forced Unionism is a Big Government idea that Newt & Mitt embrace. In fact, it was the brain child of our Biggest Big Government president, before Obama. Franklin Roosevelt’s 1935 Wagoner Act used, for the first time, federal powers to force every working man and woman to pay a third party, Big Labor bosses, in order to get or keep a job. It was wrong then, and it is outrageous now. Why would Gingrich and Romney embrace it?

In 1947, the American public had become so exasperated with Big Labor abuses of power that Congress made a half-hearted effort to fix the problem and passed the Taft-Hartley Act over President Harry Truman’s veto. (Truman’s presidential campaign had been heavily financed by forced-union dues.)

The Act gave states the right to opt out of federal forced-unionism created under the Wagoner Act. But, the platform for federally imposed compulsion remains in-effect today. Essentially 50 states had forced-unionism for twelve years before their citizens had an opportunity to opt out of it.

Americans are forced to fight the forced-union dues financed Big Labor political machine to obtain Right To Work freedom. Though freedom is a Big idea, Big Labor “taxes” employees to create political machines that spent, by their own admission, over $1.1 Billion in the 2010 election cycle to prop-up legislators who support forced unionism.

It’s hardly been a fair fight, but thanks to millions of members of the National Right To Work Committee and others there are currently 22 Right To Work states. (more…)

Any day now, the U.S. Department of Labor, under former Big Labor treasurer and now Obama’s current Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, intends to announce a new definition for the term “Employer” that will protect her union boss friends.

When the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) passed, Congress defined the term “Employer” very broadly as “any employer or any group or association of employers engaged in an industry affecting commerce … an employer within the meaning of any law of the United States relating to the employment of any employees.” (Emphasis added)

Pretty broad definition: “any law of the United States;” and yet, John Lund, the union labor consultant who heads OLMS, intends to exclude all labor unions from the definition of employer, no matter how many employees the union has.  There is one exception to DOL’s proposed rule, and that is that if the union is trying to organize employees of another union or influence its own employees, then the word “Employer” would pertain to union bosses.

Why the change? Because John Lund wants to exclude himself and other union labor consultants from the onerous new “Employer” and “Labor Consultants” regulations that DOL is currently proposing.  If union bosses were covered by the ‘Employer’ definition, then Big Labor law firms like the NEA’s Bredhoff & Kaiser would be required to file the new reports in order to comply with its new regulations. This Employer definition change will effectively eliminate union bosses from ever having to disclose timely details of their payments to Justice for Janitors, Interfaith Worker Justice, or any other Big Labor front groups participating in their labor persuader activities.

So while Obama’s Labor Department claims to want employees to be made aware of who is trying to influence them, they are actually helping hiding this very type of information from employees regarding all of Big Labor band of rogues who create chaos at the work site, for vendors, City Halls, and Capitol Buildings. (more…)

Dr. Moe: “If you stand up for kids, you have to oppose this [collective bargaining]  Schools get organized by the adults on the basis of interests and concerns that have nothing to do with kids. So, why would you expect that system to work?”

As students head back to school, it is a good time to reflect on why education is failing and continues to fail.  Terry Moe, Chairman of the Political Science Department at Stanford, provides a dispassionate and extensively researched book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools, which should become a useful and effective tool for any passionate education reformers.  Dr. Moe states and backs it up with 500 pages of text that teacher unions are the biggest impediment to permanent and effective education reform.

Dr. Moe’s research unquestionably shows that America’s children are risk because of their very own teachers’ allegiance to the NEA and AFT unions rather than education. And, until Big Labor’s influence over education is diminished, reform remains elusive.

In his presentation at the Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism’s (CEAFU) 36^th Annual Conference, Dr. Moe stated that his research concludes that it is impossible for any effective education reform to occur with teacher unions as partners in reform.  He said that unions have been and will inherently remain the well-financed opposition to education reform.  Professor Moe added that in our political system it is easier to block reform than to bring about reform, giving teachers unions an additional edge in preventing changes. (more…)

The chart below represents dollars flowing to politicians from the “Top-100” special interest donors over the last 20 years.

The blue skyscraper on the left of the chart is the money spent by Big Labor – it exceeds all other special interests combined.

Further investigation reveals that the money represented on this chart is only the tip of the iceberg.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Big Labor spent $2.2 Billion on political activities during the 2008 & 2010 election cycles alone — eclipsing by four times the 20-year $1/2 Billion from the chart.

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