Big Labor
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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What Happened to That ACORN Investigation Jerry Brown Promised?
by Derrick RoachCalifornia Attorney General Jerry Brown seems to be getting a lot of reminders from his gubernatorial challengers Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman about his failed governorship of the state from 1975-1983 when Californian’s endured high unemployment, home foreclosures, large scale labor strikes and fuel shortages at the gas station. Recognizing the failed policies of then Governor Brown, California voters revolted and passed Proposition 13 which is a landmark initiative that limited politician’s ability to arbitrarily raise taxes on California residents.
Over a week ago, Attorney General Jerry Brown got yet another reminder, this time coming from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The report “Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies” focuses public attention on AG Brown’s failed investigation of ACORN. While some of Brown’s gubernatorial challengers talk of the need for a California Governor to have a spine of steel, AG Brown has instead crumpled like an aluminum can cowardly hiding behind state bureaucrats and a wall of state agencies.
On October 1, 2009, Jerry Brown publicly announced that an investigation had been opened concerning undercover videos that were obtained by citizen journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles who videotaped ACORN employees at two California offices. ACORN employees were filmed providing advice regarding tax evasion, prostitution and human smuggling of underage girls. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was informed by AG Brown in a letter that he had “opened an investigation of both ACORN and the circumstances under which ACORN employees were videotaped.” Since that announcement, AG Brown has found himself at the center of a controversy surrounding the mismanagement of the investigation as well as a potential scandal due to a double standard involving one of his own state employees secretly recording conversations with reporters.
Shortly after ACORN had been alerted to the immanent investigation as a result of AG Brown’s public announcement, ACORN employees at the San Diego, CA office were caught engaging in a massive document dump on October 9, 2009. Those records were retrieved from an unsecured shared public dumpster where they had been thrown revealing sensitive personal, financial and banking information for both clients and employees in addition to revelations about the political inner workings of ACORN’s relationship with major U.S. banks and labor unions.
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Buy American, Eh?
by Bret JacobsonYou remember the iconic call by American labor to “look for the union label” (and ignore the price tag)? Well, U.S. union officials have turned to a new slogan, calling for “Buy American” provisions of bailout and stimulus legislation.
In fact, the AFL-CIO labor federation is highlighting its new website, which it says “gives workers, people who have lost their jobs and activists a chance to take action, share their stories, find resources and, most importantly, be part of a grassroots movement to help the nation climb out of its 10-million jobs hole created by the recession.”
But what if those people lost their jobs to Canada? Perhaps it would be best if union bosses stopped being hosers and checked their own Internet host, where the IP address resolves to our brothers in the Great White North (Oh Canada!). We ran this trace from Washington, D.C. to the AFL-CIO’s website:
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Who Wants to Work for the Labor Union Industry?
by Veronique de RugyBased on this data , I am thinking that the good life starts the day one gets a job as an employee of your local Labor Union and in fact those overpaid financial sector people might want to change jobs!
This table, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows the changes in the wages in three sectors: the private sector, the Labor Union industry and the financial industry. According to the BLS, the Labor Union industry “comprises establishments primarily engaged in promoting the interests of organized labor and union employees.” That’s basically all the guys who work in a Union. The financial industry is “The Finance and Insurance sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in financial transactions (transactions involving the creation, liquidation, or change in ownership of financial assets) and/or in facilitating financial transactions.” So the Goldman Sacks, AIG and others.
As one can see clearly here since the beginning of the recession, private sector employees have seen their wages grown by 3.3 percent (roughly the rate of inflation.) The financial sector employees have been slightly better off with wages growing at a 4.1 percent rate.
Meanwhile, wages in the labor unions have continued to increase. And not by 5 percent or 7 percent but by over 24.9 percent!!!
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View of Unions ‘Plummeted’ Since 07
by Bret JacobsonAccording to Pew, “Favorable views of labor unions have plummeted since 2007, amid growing public skepticism about unions’ purpose and power.”
(click here for more polls on union officials)
One hates to surmise, but it seems probable such a shift comes from such little things as crippling the Big 3, pushing card check on working Americans, cutting disgusting deals to exempt their members from a new tax on healthcare plans, pimping ACORN, and just being all-around-un-swell guys.
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Nation’s Schools Should Follow Rhode Island Superintendent Gallo’s Example
by Kyle OlsonThe Education Action Group Foundation will support Central Falls, Rhode Island school Superintendent Frances Gallo with a billboard dedicated to this public school patriot, smack dab in the middle of downtown Central Falls.
Gallo’s recent decision to push past teachers union obstruction and do what’s best for the district’s struggling high school students is a prime example of the bold actions needed to turn around the nation’s failing schools.
Gallo recommended firing all 74 Central Falls High School teachers after the local teachers union refused to sign off on long overdue reforms needed to save the chronically failing school, which has been on the state’s list of underperforming schools for seven years. Less than half of Central Falls High School’s students graduate and only seven percent are proficient in math, state data shows.
Gallo offered to pay teachers $30 an hour for some of the additional duties, and expected them to kick in a bit of their own time to improve instruction.
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More On My Public Sector Fat Cat Obsession
by Veronique de RugyOkay, I will admit that I am obsessed with this one particular truth: The stimulus bill and all the stops that the federal government pulled to save the economy and create jobs didn’t not help the private sector employees. On the other hand, it did show support for its own employees.
Encouraged by Reason Magazine’s founder Manny Klausner, I made this chart this morning based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data that shows the change in employment in the private and the public sectors during the last two years.
Warning: the number of public employees is on the right hand-side of the chart and the private employees are on the left.
Warning 2: This chart is not claiming that public employment was ever higher than private employment.
However, it is showing without a doubt that during the last two year the number of public employees has increased from 22.3 million in January 2008 to 22.4 million in January 2010, after peaking at 22.6 million in July 2009. Not that impressive you will say. Well, excuse me but it certainly beats being a private employee during that same period of time. The number of private jobs decreased from 115.5 million in January 2008 to 107 million. That’s a lose of 8.7 million jobs in the private sector while the public sector gained almost 100,000 jobs.
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Meet Captain Obvious: Joe Biden
by Kyle OlsonYesterday, Vice President Joe Biden visited CBS’ “Early Show” for a “wide-ranging interview” during which he said, “We understand why people are angry…We get it.”
Um, no you don’t. Because if you did, Mr. Vice President, we wouldn’t keep hearing stories about the executive branch seeking ways to act unilaterally on domestic issues it can’t seem to get passed in the lopsided, Democrat-controlled Congress.
And we wouldn’t keep reading about SEIU and other bankrollers of the Obama campaign demanding swifter action on agenda items that are in their interest.
Vice Captain Obvious also had this observation: “Washington right now is broken.” Help me out, Joe. Your party controls 59 seats in the Senate. You have a huge majority in the House. Yet Washington is “broken?” Under whom is it broken, Joe?
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Toyota and the Union-Backed, Government-Led Witch Hunt
by Brian JohnsonToyota, which employs over 35,000 workers in the United States with factories in eight states, is the target of a government-led and union-supported attack due to recent recalls.
In the U.S., it is estimated that 15,000 Lexus HS250h and 133,000 Prius models will be recalled due to gas pedal issues, with another 500,000 Prius and other gasoline-electric hybrids needing anti-brake software modification. As unfortunate and inconvenient as recalls can be, this not the first, or last time an automobile will need to be brought back to the shop for a quick fix.
One might think this is the first auto recall in decades from the way government officials and Congressional Committees have pounced on Toyota. However, as recent as last month, Honda announced a recall of 646,000 Fit models (or Jazz in some markets) due to a faulty master switch that could allow water to enter the electrical components resulting in fires. Ford, less than one year ago, was forced to recall more than 4 million cars based on 550 vehicle fires. The recall concerned cruise-control deactivation switches that were installed in 16 million Fords. Part of the recall included nearly 1.1 million 1995-2003 Ford Windstar family van models.
There was no government outcry and no demand for Congressional hearings over these recent recalls. So why has Toyota suddenly become the target of a government-led witch hunt?
Toyota’s U.S. operations are extremely successful, not saturated by inefficient union monopolies, and are in direct competition with the now government-owned General Motors.
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Teachers Unions Spends Dues on Left-Wing Causes AND Ally of Robert Mugabe
by Kyle OlsonCourtesy of Victor Skinner, writing on NEAexposed.com:
A recent study of contributions made by the nation’s two largest teachers unions reveals that both shelled out millions in 2008-09, with a good chunk going to radical and scandal-ridden organizations.
The study, posted online by the Education Intelligence Agency, is further proof that the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers are out of step with their members, which union officials claim are evenly split between Democrat, Republican and Independent parties.
This is what the EIA found:
The AFT gave $46,894 to the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). That organization’s members gave tax evasion advice to pimps and prostitutes, encouraged struggling homeowners to walk away from their mortgages, and championed radical causes like softer immigration regulations and a government takeover of health care.
The AFT’s interest in government-run healthcare is also apparent in its $407,208 donation to the Economic Policy Institute, a union-funded progressive think tank that advocates for the expansion of unionized government jobs, and generally promotes organized labor’s interests.
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Isn’t It Time to Finally Put the Interests of Kids First Rather than Catering to the National Education Association?
by Dan MitchellThe Cato Institute’s Isabel Santa uses school choice as an example of why competition is better than government-imposed monopolies. The video explains that government schools cost more and deliver less, which is exactly what one might expect when there is an inefficient monopoly structure. The evidence about the school-choice systems in Sweden, Chile, and the Netherlands is particularly impressive. Leftists always argue that we should have government-run health care because it’s what exists in other nations. Yet they are conveniently silent about looking overseas when other nations are choosing market-based policies and getting better results.
There are many other reasons to support school choice, including diversity and innovation. There also is no need for fights over school prayer and sex education when parents can choose schools that reflect their values.
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Public Employee Benefit Plans: Up to $1 Trillion in Unfunded Liabilities
by Jonathan WilliamsFor years, employers in the private sector have been moving in the direction of versatile, 401(k) style retirement accounts. However, a vast majority of the 20 million state and local government workers in the U.S. have kept their generous, defined-benefit pension plans.
Despite the lofty promises made by policymakers, public employee retirement plans have been neglected over the years and have become huge liabilities that severely threaten the financial health of many states. If legislators do not properly address the crisis in public pensions, they will make current state budget problems look trivial. In fact, as of 2006, states had accumulated nearly $360 billion in unfunded pension obligations, according to a new 50 state study conducted for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The report entitled “State Pension Funds Fall Off a Cliff,” is co-authored by Dr. Barry Poulson of the University of Colorado and Dr. Arthur P. Hall of the University of Kansas.
Much of the current data regarding liabilities in public employee pensions was taken before the recent economic downturn, and the study’s authors warn the problem is much worse today since stock market losses have not been fully realized in many official government pension statistics. Other estimates with recent data place the unfunded pension liabilities at $1 trillion nationally.
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SEIU’s Shameless Abuse of Olympic Games Tragedy
by Liberty ChickIn the wake of yesterday’s terrible tragedy outside of Vancouver at the Whistler Sliding Center, where Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili sadly lost his life, safety is on the minds of many. Only hours before the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the 21-year old lost control of his sled at 88mph and was catapulted over the track wall into a steel support column. All throughout the week, coaches, commentators, and even other Olympians have questioned the safety of the track, as nearly a dozen other athletes have also crashed during practice runs, including a Romanian women’s slider who was knocked unconscious and defending Olympic luge champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.
The President of the World Luge Federation said the track is too fast and thinks it is a planning mistake, while Australian luger Hannah Campbell-Pegg questioned whether athletes were being treated as “crash test dummies“. The shocking footage of the accident was replayed all throughout the day and evening yesterday, leaving horrified viewers focused on discussion about the safety of the track.
But in all of this shock, horror and sadness over the tragic death of an athlete in his prime and the dangers of the track on which he lost his young life, what has the SEIU focused on?
Food safety. (Translated = unionizing)
Reports of the horrible accident in Vancouver began surfacing in the press as early as 12:30 pm EST Friday. Yet, the SEIU still felt their unionization Food Safety concerns were so paramount that they went ahead and issued a press release anyway, after 5:00 pm EST:
“Sodexo is providing catering services for athletes during this key moment in their sporting careers, and we’re concerned about the food they will be providing,” charged the SEIU in Friday’s press release.
It’s not as though the SEIU could not have known about the tragedy – the story had been broadcast all over the news for at least five hours before SEIU pushed out its attack. If they didn’t know, then they’re even more disconnected from reality than we thought they were.
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Congratulations to the ‘Tea Bashers’
by SFC Steve McQueen (Ret.)As a member of a very successful Tea Party in Quincy, Illinois it is my distinct honor and privilege to offer my thanks and congratulations to this astroturf response to the tea parties. This hard hitting website has taken the MSNBC format to a new level. Hit us again guys, because while you spend never-ending union dollars attacking Tea Parties, we are repairing the change you said we could believe in, one candidate at a time.
This tiny group of Tea Bashers says its mission is “To prevent the Tea Party’s dangerous ideas from gaining legislative traction.” You might want to watch something other than the mainstream media. In case you haven’t heard, we have already gained legislative traction, which I’ll venture a guess that this was the reason for the emergency birth and delivery of your premature website.
We can’t think of a better way for organized labor to spend its time and money. I am so thrilled with your approach I may donate to your cause myself.
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Union Bosses Target 86-Yr Old Volunteer Crossing Guard
by Liberty ChickFirst, they came for the Babysitter. Then, they came for the Eagle Scout. Now, they’ve come for the Crossing Guard.
Warren Eschenbach, an 86-year-old a retired Wausau Water Works employee volunteers his time as a crossing guard at the Riverview Elementary School in Wausau, Wisconsin. After the Wausau School District built an area just outside an intersection at the school’s location for parents to pickup their kids from the school, the intersection became busier than usual for a short time every day. So, Eschenbach did a noble thing. He went over to the school and spoke with parents, kids and administrators, and he volunteered to patrol the area at pickup time to make sure kids got to their parents’ cars and that others crossed the streets safely. After all, he worked for five years as a crossing guard at the Franklin Elementary School up until three years ago. He lives two doors down and it’s for a half hour every day. Who could take issue with that?
Well, apparently union bosses can.
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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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A Formula for Real Economic Growth: Cut Public Employee Pay by 20%
by Morgan Warstler
Slate’s Jacob Weisberg came unhinged on Friday and gave the country the finger.
“Down with the People!” he screams from Bill Gates lap. As Jacob sees it, we the people are demanding two mutually exclusive things: premium government services and tax cuts, and when we can’t have what we want, we become unruly children.
There is of course a third option, and I think it is the voting issue for the 2010 elections. It frankly amazes me that TPM-style Democrats going after Paul Ryan’s Roadmap, don’t see it coming…
You can thank me later, but I just saved the United State of America at least $278,309,600,000.00 PER YEAR. You read that right. $278 BILLION per year. That’s almost entirely what Medicaid will spend this year for children and the disabled. That’s what our normal deficit looks like without TARP and stimulus.
The crazy thing is how easy it was to do. It took me like three minutes. And since I’m a big open source, creative commons guy I’m even posting my magical formula shown here using 2008’s budget:
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Discussing Citizens United, Free Speech, Congressional Corruption, and More With Bill Moyers and Larry Lessig
by Nick GillespieOn Friday, I appeared on Bill Moyers Journal with Harvard law prof and cyberspace theorist Lawrence Lessig to discuss the whys and wherefores of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. From the show’s writeup:
The Supreme Court’s January 2010 decision of the Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission on campaign finance regulations has caused a stir around the political spectrum. A poll from Angus Reid Public Opinion found that 65 percent of people surveyed disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision — 67 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Republicans, and 72 percent of independents.
Libertarian journalist Nick Gillespie says all that worry is misplaced in a much-watched video “Three Reasons Not to Sweat Citizens United.” “If you want to get bent out of shape about something, direct your ire at a massive and constantly growing government that has its hands in virtually every aspect of economic and social life in America,” Says Gillespie.
Harvard legal scholar Lawrence Lessig disagrees, viewing the ruling as a another step in the takeover of democracy by big money. In an article for THE NATION entitled “How to Get Our Democracy Back: If You Want Change, You Have to Change Congress,” Lessig calls for a constitutional convention to make public financing of campaigns the law of the land, “What both sides must come to see is that the reform of neither is possible until we solve our first problem first — the dependency of the Fundraising Congress.”
As you might guess, we didn’t agree on much, but it was a spirited and civil conversation well worth having. A full transcript is available, along with video of the segment and links to related materials, by clicking on the image below.
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