Don Loos is Senior Advisor to the President of The National Right To Work.
Don served in the George W. Bush Administration for over seven years at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). At the Labor Department, Don received two Secretary of Labor’s Exceptional Achievement Awards from Sec. Elaine Chao for his significant roles in labor union financial transparency revisions (Form LM-2) and union officer conflict of interest financial disclosure revisions (Form LM-30).
After resigning from DOL on January 20, 2009, Don joined others committed to individual worker freedoms and protections at The National Right To Work (NRTW) located in Springfield, Virginia. NRTW is a single-purpose citizens' organization dedicated to the principle that all Americans must have the right to join a union if they choose, but no one should ever be forced to affiliate with a union in order to get or keep a job. At NRTW, Don has the privilege of being involved in NRTW’s battle against forced unionism.
National Right To Work websites:
Committee: NRTWC.org
YouTube: Right2WorkCommittee
Foundation: NRTW.org
Don Loos
Obama’s Labor Department Is Serious About Ethics…Except When It Isn’t
by Don LoosOn January 8th, BigGovernment.com posted a blog that began, “Outrageously, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis and other DOL Obama appointees appear to have blatantly disregarded the President’s Executive Order #13490 – the Ethics Pledge.”
Somebody at the U.S. Department of Labor must be reading BigGovernment.com because just 11 days after the posting, the DOL ethics officer wrote a letter to The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix and provided copies of signed “EO 13490 ethics pledges.” (See related Foundation ongoing lawsuit against DOL for DOL’s failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.) Each of these newly provided pledges matched the ethics order language (more on this in another post) unlike the self-administered waivers included in the publicly distributed pledges provided to ProPublica.org and referenced in the earlier blog.
In addition, the DOL ethics officer asserted that 51 people at the DOL have signed the ethics pledge and there has been only one (1) ethics waiver issued by DOL and that was for Naomi Walker. Her Job: Big Labor Liaison (an Associate Deputy Secretary position). Her past experience includes a stint as an AFL-CIO lobbyist among others. Walker’s ethics waiver is the subject of this blog.
Walker’s ethics waiver and its accompanying explanatory memo was approved “after consultation with the Counsel to the President” expose The President’s Ethics Executive Order for the joke that it is.
The ethics officer provides a four-page memo (probably written in a large part by the Counsel to the President) to justify the reasons that Walker must be provided an ethics waiver of Obama’s ethics executive order. My summary of the memo follows:
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Obama Radical Big Labor Nominee Loses Vote – Sen. Brown Votes No
by Don Loos
Thanks to numerous BigGovernment.com readers taking action, along with other concerned Americans, several national organizations, and Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) hold on Obama’s NLRB Nominee Craig Becker – several senators changed their positions and voted with the senate’s newest Senator, Scott Brown (R-MA) to continue debate on Becker’s qualifications to serve as one of five National Relations Board Members.
President Barack Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board has failed on a 52-33 vote. The nomination required 60 votes to proceed. (Politico)
The two Democrat Senators who voted against cloture are Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Ben Nelson (D-NE).
CAUTION
Though Craig Becker’s was put on hold as a result of the cloture vote; President Obama may still appoint Becker to national Labor relations Board as a recess appointment to the Board as early as February 15th if congress keeps its current schedule.
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Obama NLRB Nominee Craig Becker’s Smoking Gun?
by Don LoosContact Your Senators NOW and Urge them To Vote No on Radical Craig Becker’s Nomination.
The Senate is scheduled to vote TODAY on the nomination of radical union apologist Craig Beck to the National Labor Relations Board.
It’s vital you contact your Senators IMMEDIATELY to help derail this out of control union lackey from being on this board.
You can find your Senators direct lines through this link.
One recent piece of evidence to add to the growing Becker rap sheet:
In last week’s U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing, Obama nominee Craig Becker clearly tried to put distance between himself and his former client ACORN:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Becker this question:
“Do you perform work for and provide advice to ACORN or ACORN-affiliated groups while employed by your current employers or on a volunteer basis?”
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Obama’s Labor Department Ignores His Executive Order– The Ethics Pledge
by Don LoosOutrageously, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis and other DOL Obama appointees appear to have blatantly disregarded the President’s Executive Order #13490 – the Ethics Pledge.
According to a report by the National Right To Work Committee, Solis and several other appointees gave themselves unilateral waivers on the two-year moratorium in direct conflict with President Obama’s two-year mandate:
Revolving Door Ban [for] All Appointees Entering Government. I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.
Solis’ only publicly available signed ethics pledge is provided by Olga Pierce and Christopher Weaver at Propublica. National Right To Work reviewed it and other ProPublica provided ethics pledges. It is clear that other DOL appointees followed Solis’ lead and granted themselves ethics waivers in conflict with the presidential order. The report identified Deputy Secretary Seth Harris, Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi, Assistant Secretary T. Michael Kerr (SEIU & AFSCME), and Assistant Secretary Jane Oates.
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21.1 Million Reasons Big Labor Pours Money into ObamaCare
by Don LoosThe bosses of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Andy Stern and Gerald McEntee, know that ObamaCare will hurt the very workers that they claim to represent.
But, it appears that they just don’t care!
These two union bosses who stand to gain the most power under ObamaCare are spending hundreds of millions of forced union dues promoting ObamaCare. A government run health insurance program is an SEIU and AFSCME “membership net” designed to eventually complete the capture of 21.1 million forced-dues paying government workers.
It is clear that Big Labor is banking on the probability that all healthcare workers eventually become federal, state, and municipal healthcare employees.
According to SEIU’s numbers submitted to the Obama transition organization (The National Heath Care Workforce Enhancement Initiative, 12/3/2008), public sector labor bosses like Stern and AFSCME’s Gerald McEntee have 21.1 million reasons to support ObamaCare. After the November election, Stern’s SEIU submitted the following health occupation numbers to Rahm Emmanuel et al. at Obama, Inc.:
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ACORN and Big Labor: Two Peas in a Pod
by Don LoosWith the unearthing of a memo detailing an ACORN scheme to use “dirty money hungry lawyers” to force “employers to open up negotiations” and its plan to create “a model for [union] organizing” that “building trades [unions] do not have,” ACORN almost assuredly fits the federal definition of a labor organization under federal law 29 CFR 401.9.
But, the detailed scheme gets even better and closer to the line that makes ACORN a labor union.
ACORN’s bombshell talks about an arrangement to “share dues” with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and opens up a whole new array of issues between these newly discovered Siamese twins.
Add in ACORN’s plans to create union organizing partnerships with other labor unions and Big Labor funded auxiliary organizations, and it becomes a tautology that ACORN is a big part of Big Labor.
These are the details of a scintillating e-mail between ACORN operatives. While ACORN and SEIU big-wigs who are dreaming all this up may pass it off as just wishful thinking; the facts show something different.
Right now, ACORN files labor organization financial reports for SEIU 880 and SEIU 100 with the U.S. Department of Labor. Other exposed relationships like the New York Teachers’ Union bosses – ACORN coordinated organizing effort illustrate an ACORN and Big Labor coordination, and a relationship that may have already crossed the line.
But wait, there is more!
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Senate Sends ACORN’s Rathke Endorsed NLRB Nominee Back to Obama
by Don LoosRather than carryover National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) nominee and current AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union lawyer Craig Becker until next year like most of president Obama’s nominees, the U.S. Senate sent a message back to the President about his nominations. While not a severed horse head in his bed … it is like the canary in the coal-mine.
Right after the Becker nomination, The National Right to Work Committee posted this President Obama Personnel Alert video regarding Becker (link here) along with the Committee’s Becker Alert report (link here).
The report highlights the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Founder Wade Rathke’s ringing endorsement of Obama’s Becker nomination. Rathke wrote, “Here’s a big win no matter how you shake and bake it: Craig Becker being nominated for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)!”
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Obama Gives Big Labor Another Gift in Final Days of 2009
by Don LoosIn November BigGovernment.com, sounded the warning – here’s the update.
As 2009 fades away, President Obama has decided to let disclosure of hundreds of millions of dollars in forced-union-dues disclosure fade away too. Under current law and regulations valid until December 30th, union bosses were supposed to carefully document the billions of dollars they extract from workers as a condition of employment that they in turn pour into front groups and other “funds” each year.
A large part of the billions were about to be made public and reported on a Department of Labor disclosure form known as the Form T-1 Annual Report. But, that won’t happen now!
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Obama’s Labor Department Gives Big Labor and Its Front Groups Another Gift
by Don LoosThursday, the Obama Administration announced that it will rescind rules requiring the disclosure of financial information for Big Labor slush funds and front groups. And, the Obama Administration is giving you only 11 (eleven) days to comment!
At least they are consistent! Just as they did for union conflict-of-interest disclosure reporting that SEIU’s Andy Stern may be ignoring and just as it rescinded union-boss perk disclosures, the Obama Administration continues to rollback union financial disclosures.
It is not surprising that Obama’s Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis would rescind these financial disclosure rules since she is the former treasurer of the Big Labor funded American Rights at Work (ARAW) lobbying and political group. These disclosures would reveal much about the group’s expenditures on behalf Big Labor’s agenda; the very types of expenditures Solis would have signed-off on as ARAW Treasurer.
Union officials have fought these financial disclosures since 2003. One of the AFL-CIO lawyers involved in opposing these disclosure requirements was Deborah Greenfield. Now, Greenfield is the Obama Administration’s Acting Deputy Solicitor of Labor and Director of the Office of the Secretariat. As Deputy Solicitor, Greenfield oversees these regulations.
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Did SEIU’s Andy Stern Violate Federal Conflict of Interest Reporting Laws, the Same Regs that the Obama Labor Department is Repealing?
by Don LoosThe Labor-Management Disclosure and Reporting Act (LMRDA) requires labor union officials to report potential or certain conflict-of-interests they might encounter if they receive gifts or cash payments from employers. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern may be in violation of that requirement since he has not filed a report disclosing $140,000 in advance payments from publisher and service industry employer Simon & Schuster.
In addition to this, documents made public during an intra-union California lawsuit and obtained by a “BigGovernment researcher” (posted on NRTWC.org’s Scribd, seen below) reveal that SEIU Treasurer Anna Burger recommended that the union use general treasury money, much collected from employees as a condition of employment, to promote Stern’s book, A Country that Works.
It’s not as if Stern has never filed a conflict-of-interest disclosure report; in fact, he has filed two in 2004 and one in 2005. But, why has he not filed any reports related to his special book deal?
SEIU President Andy Stern’s Book Advance and Past Conflict of Interest Reports (LM-30s)
Unfortunately for rank and file workers forced to pay dues or fees to the SEIU, rather than spending its resources investigating potential LMRDA violations, the Obama Labor Department (DOL) is busy rescinding conflict-of-interest and other union financial reporting requirements.
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Obama’s Labor Department Ignores Freedom of Information Act
by Don LoosOn Friday, 20 November 2009, The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation (Foundation) decided enough was enough and filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court demanding that they compel the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to comply with the Foundation’s April 6th Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request.
The Foundation’s FOIA requested:
- Records from communications and recorded events where specified Obama appointees and Big Labor official were present
- Lists of lawsuits involving the Department of Labor and Deborah Greenfield within the past eight years.
- List of any gifts received by Solis in the past 5 years from Big Labor or its officials
- Specifically provide in detail (a) notes, (b) agreements, (c) communications, and (d) agendas related to the regulations related to the labor union and officer disclosure rules
- Copies of phone logs
- Copies of any notes or documents related to any enforcement of any labor laws and any outside groups such as labor unions, American Rights at Work, or ACORN
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Ousted Goldman CEO and Ousted NJ Governor Jon Corzine to Head Bank of America?
by Don LoosAs the Bank of America (BofA) CEO, one of the first phone calls that Jon Corzine might receive could come from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President and White House frequent guest Andy Stern asking Corzine to forgive SEIU’s $88 million debt or at least to renegotiate the BofA terms. As former head of the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee and a Democrat governor from New jersey, Corzine knows all too well how much the Democrat party owes SEIU bosses. Corzine as head of Bank of America could create interesting opportunities for Stern.
SEIU Debt Ceiling
Debts are increasing at every level of the SEIU purple conglomerate. SEIU’s national headquarters reported that at the end of 2008, its total liabilities grew to $156 million, a total debt increase of $36 million from the prior year. And, about $60 million of its assets are receivables owed to it by SEIU affiliates.
Even though SEIU’s national headquarters reports receiving $247 million in dues revenue called “per capita taxes”, much coming from workers who would be fired if they did not pay, its combined “Representational,” “Political,” “General Overhead,” “Union Administration,” “Benefits,” and “Gifts” activities cost the union $285 million.
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Teamster Boss Busted in Old Pay-to-Play Bribe Scheme
by Don LoosJust when the Obama Administration eliminates union boss disclosure that exposed union officer perks and self-dealing, a union boss has to get busted for demanding bribes from a trial lawyer. His actions certainly do not argue for the Administration’s ongoing effort to roll back union disclosure.
The Associate Press reports:
The president of a national railroad employees union was arrested at his Ohio home on Tuesday and charged with bribery.
Edward Rodzwicz, who heads the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, is accused of soliciting and accepting $20,000 in bribes from a St. Louis lawyer. In exchange, prosecutors say, Rodzwicz allowed the lawyer to remain on a list of attorneys approved to handle injury cases for union members.
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Obama Labor Department Covers-Up Big Labor Bosses’ Perks
by Don LoosPresident Obama’s Department of Labor just ended disclosure of the lavish perks enjoyed by his Big Labor Boss supporters. But this should come as little surprise as Obama’s Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in a recent speech to the AFL-CIO tacitly acknowledged that she has turned the U.S. Labor Department over to them.
The Obama Labor Department has been positioning themselves to rollback recent changes to the congressionally mandated union financial disclosure reports for unions with receipts of $250,000 plus.
And now they have announced that they are eliminating disclosure designed to protect millions of workers who are forced to pay dues as a condition of employment. The specific disclosures being rescinded, among other things, exposed labor boss perks like John Sweeney’s alleged million dollar payment in 2000. Now, Big Labor Union Bosses who receive special payments can continue to hide these payments from workers who are forced to subsidize them.
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Investigate Chicago SEIU 880’s ACORN-Rathke Connection
by Don LoosIf you have been following the unending revelations about ACORN on BigGovernment.com, then you are likely aware of ACORN’s $1 million embezzlement cover-up which has now grown to an alleged $5 million embezzlement cover-up.
This new $5 million revelation was posted just days after ACORN founder and the embezzler’s brother Wade Rathke nonchalantly explained his reasons for the embezzlement cover-up to Megyn Kelly on Fox News:
“Because we made a decision that between restitution and retribution, that restitution was more in the interest of the [ACORN] organization and that decision was unanimous.”
The only publicly identified ACORN embezzler is Dale Rathke, brother of Wade Rathke. Dale Rathke was handling Chicago’s SEIU Local 880’s books for the year 2000, the year that ACORN executive board learned about his embezzlement.
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Is SEIU’s Purple Brand Fading to Pink?
by Don LoosStern’s New Big Labor Same as the Old Big Labor
For the past four years, the highest profile Big Labor Boss was Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern. Stern has deliberately parlayed his controlling style as that of a New Labor Boss, and he has painstakingly worked on the SEIU “purple brand.” And yet, Stern and the SEIU union have failed to live up to the New Labor Boss identity that he claimed in his New York Times Magazine and CNN/Fortune Magazine articles.
Stern tried to separate himself from the herd of “old-styled” labor bosses in several ways, most noticeably with his dress. He conscientiously wore his beloved SEIU purple with its slight pinkish hue. Apparently, Stern is trying to replicate for his union what brown does for UPS.
Stern’s limitless purple attire led some to refer to him as the Lavender Labor Leader. And recently, SEIU’s Anna Burger looked very chic in her purple suit as Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) grilled her about SEIU’s relationship with ACORN.
Whatever color of scarves, suits, or hats Andy Stern decides to wear, you cannot deny his influence with the White House, U.S. Congressional King Pins, the Democrat National Committee, and ACORN among others. But, has Stern’s smash-mouth organizing and relationship to ACORN begun to turn SEIU’s purple into black and blue? You bet it has!
Clearly, ACORN’s partnerships with SEIU and other Big Labor outfits has begun to drag down SEIU’s image. SEIU has decided, now that ACORN is damaged goods, to cut ties for now. But, that will be very difficult because ACORN and ACORN’s training programs are totally interwoven into the purple fabric that makes up SEIU.
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Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections
by Don LoosEven before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark.
Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion. Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN office exposed on BigGovernment.com. Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) awarded ACORN service contracts.
That’s right; union bosses gave teachers’ forced union dues to the same ACORN that appeared to have no problem facilitating child prostitution. No wonder Solis’ Big Labor friends want to shutdown financial disclosure!
In fact, UnionReports.gov provides detailed union financial reports and is a primary source for many union members, reporters, columnists, bloggers, and researchers. But, the days of disclosure are numbered. Big Labor has commanded Labor Secretary Solis to shut it all down.
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Another Big Labor Operative in White House has ACORN Ties
by Don LoosBigGovernment.com continues to wake-up America to Obama Administration relationships with ACORN and Big Labor. BigGov’s latest story highlights Presidential Advisor Valerie Jarrett’s crew member Buffy Wicks who is the former political director of forced union dues financed WakeupWalmart.com (Wakeup). In the conference call, Wicks highlighted the important role United We Serve (Serve.gov) has in President Obama’s Organizing America strategy. See Dana Loesch’s article about Serve.gov directing volunteers to ACORN.
The Obama campaign boastfully promoted Wick’s moniker, “Buffy the Wal-Mart Slayer” that highlights her community organizing experience with Wakeup’s efforts to increase costs for Wal-Mart and the prices for its customers. However, the Obama White House press release tones down Wicks past position:
Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Wicks has a long history in grassroots organizing and civic engagement. Most recently she was the Director of the Renew America Together effort, the call to service issued by then President-elect Obama. She also served on the Obama for America campaign in a variety of roles, including California Field Director and Missouri State Director, and helped develop the national grassroots field strategy. She has also worked in the labor movement, fighting for better health care and wages for disenfranchised workers. She is originally from California and graduated with a double major in Political Science and History from the University of Washington.
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SEIU: ‘One of the Pillars of the ACORN Family’
by Don LoosPart of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s (ACORN) rotten core includes a very cozy relationship with Big Labor. In fact, in many instances ACORN and Big Labor are one and the same. In 2008, Big Labor funneled ACORN millions of dollars for so-called organizing activity. But, that is only the tip of the Big Labor iceberg.
ACORN controls or significantly dominates several Big Labor unions and organizations. ACORN created and controls SEIU 100 (Gulf Region) and SEIU 880 (a recently expanded SEIU mega-local that covers Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas).
ACORN founder S. Wade Rathke referred to mega-union SEIU 880 as “one of the pillars of the ACORN Family.”
- Wade Rathke: “SEIU Local 880, one of the pillars of the ACORN family of organizations”
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern hand picked ACORN’s Rathke to direct SEIU’s nationwide organizing projects.
In addition to Rathke’s and ACORN’s SEIU involvement, Rathke controlled Louisiana HERE Local 100, was Secretary-Treasurer of a New Orleans based AFL-CIO labor organization, and served on the board of a hotel employees union organizing committee.
A search of financial disclosure reports (UnionReports.gov) filed with the U.S. Department of Labor for the years 2000 and 2006 disclosed the following positions that Rathke held in labor unions while he concurrently served as ACORN’s Chief Organizer:
Wade Rathke DOL Reported Union Positions (2000,2006)
ACORN’s connections extend to several other Big Labor funded organizations such as the Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now (WARN), Site Fighters, and Community Labor Organizing Center (CLOC).
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