The Big-Labor backed Walker Recall coalition says they’ve turned in a million signatures today, well in excess of the 540,000 necessary to trigger a recall later this year. Our report:

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The joke was on the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) this week. On Tuesday, a fake press release claimed SEIU had voted to revoke their endorsement of President Obama. The Washington Post reported the fake release quoted SEIU President Mary Kay Henry as saying, “Our members gave $60.7 million dollars to the Obama campaign in 2008 and fought hard for his election because we were promised change. We’re still waiting.”

The Post also reported, “The email was sent by Mark McCullough, spokesman for the SEIU. But if you looked closely at his email address, it was missing a ‘c,’ and emails to that address bounced back.” While the release was meant as a prank, the payoff that unions expect from their political backing to the Democrats and Obama is no laughing matter.

Also on Tuesday, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) voted to endorse the president’s reelection bid. AFSCME vowed to spend $100 million to help his campaign. That was no joke, and neither are the massive budget deficits which states and localities across the country face due to the unsustainable contracts and pension obligations negotiated by AFCME’s affiliates.

Why the extravagant spending using the forced dues of workers? In his book Democracy Denied, Phil Kerpen details how the Obama Administration gives favors to Big Labor while making an end run around congress.

The unions expected that enormous investment to pay dividends, and Obama did not intend to disappoint them. While the public has mostly focused on the high-profile fights raging in Congress, the key implementer of the union agenda is a relatively obscure federal agency called the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Now stacked with SEIU lawyers who are Obama’s ideological fellow travelers, the  board is poised to grant union bosses vast new powers without so much as a vote in Congress.

Kerpen writes how much the President owes to the unions and SEIU.

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In Wisconsin, where Big Labor is circulating petitions to trigger the recall of Republican Governor Scott Walker, the state agency that monitors and administers elections is known as the G.A.B.

The ‘A’ is supposed to stand for accountability. But, in reality, not so much.

Yesterday we reported that the GAB would not comb through the petitions to disqualify duplicate signatures.

Today, we find out it is much worse than that.

[Madison, Wisc…] Duplicate signatures are not the only point of contention in the ongoing recall drives in Wisconsin. The board that oversees the state’s elections admits they will not check the validity of any of the signatures or addresses contained on the recall petitions expected to be submitted in January.

For $625,699 the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board will make sure all the blanks are properly filled out on petitions to recall Governor Scott Walker, but that’s all.

Meanwhile, news reports around the state have raised the questions about ineligible individuals signing the forms. At least one liberal group is encouraging voters to sign multiple times.

The GAB will not be checking for fraud, but will rule on challenges brought forth by the subjects of the recalls, should they find evidence of fraud.

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Welcome to Wisconsin. Home of recallmania.

As the unions strike back against the governor who forced them to ask permission to collect dues from public employees, controversy over the ongoing recall process is emerging. One liberal organization is saying people have a right to sign more than one recall petition. The state regulators admit it’s true, they have that right and although only one signature per eligible voter is supposed to be counted as vaild, their temporary workers won’t be accountable for finding duplicates.

Huh?

This MacIver News’ report provides the details.

The state board overseeing the potential recall election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker tells the MacIver News Service that they will rely upon temporary workers to scrutinize recall petitions and those individuals will not be expected to catch any duplicate signatures submitted by recall organizers.

This revelation comes as one statewide liberal group is actively promoting the collection of duplicate signatures, paving the way for a lengthy process wherein Walker supporters will challenge the validity of the recall petitions.

One Wisconsin Now, a liberal non-profit, posted on its website “you can circulate or sign a recall petition even if you have already signed another recall petition.”

This advice, however, will complicate the signature challenge process and runs counter to the advice of nonpartisan state election regulators.

“While it is not illegal to sign more than once, we do not suggest people sign a second time unless they have good reason to believe the first petition they signed was somehow fraudulent,” Reid Magney, GAB Spokesman.

One Wisconsin Now follows their advice with this disclaimer: “[N]ote, however, that only one signature per person will be counted,”

That is not necessarily true.

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Greece is about to default on its public debt or ruin the European Union, or both. The Greeks are destroying themselves today much as they did during the Peloponnesian War. This looks like the inevitable result of the welfare statism and entitlement mentality that is destroying the entire Western world. We see similar forces of anarchy at work in the “Occupy” movements in American cities.

An important factor in these movements is the fundamentally anarcho-syndicalist tenor of the union movement, which demands an ever greater share of national income. Public-sector unions like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have been prominent in the “occupy” movement. Wisconsin AFSCME proudly sent pizzas “in solidarity” with the Wall Street occupiers.

Rutgers University labor economist Leo Troy calls public-sector unionism “the new socialism.” The old socialism was based on state ownership of the means of production. The new socialism involves the transfer of an ever greater share of the economy to the public sector. Government at all levels took about 5% of GDP a century ago and 13% on the eve of the Great Depression. The New Deal increased the proportion to one-third by 1960. We are in the forty percent range now, and the full nationalization of health care will put us over half.

Unions have been a primary force in the expansion of state power. Even the reputedly “conservative” American Federation of Labor called for “the abolition of the wage system.” A.F.L. President Samuel Gompers put organized labor’s goal as simply “more” — exactly what Johnny Rocco, the Al Capone-like figure portrayed by Edward G. Robinson in the 1939 film “Key Largo,” explained as his ultimate end. The New Deal’s expansion of state power was based principally on private-sector unionism that began with the “occupy Flint” sit-down strikes of 1936.

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Union bosses in Ohio and Washington, D.C. are – oddly enough – opposed to the sensible government union reforms in Ohio’s Senate Bill 5. Exactly how opposed? Combine yesterday’s cash and in-kind numbers from the Ohio Secretary of State with the figures from July, and you’ll see that unions have sunk more than $28 million into the campaign against Issue 2.

Out of $30.5 million dollars given to We Are Ohio since the union front group was created this spring, the overwhelming majority is directly from union bosses standing to lose power over Ohio taxpayers when Issue 2 passes. It’s been expensive convincing Ohioans that government union reform will destroy the middle class and return Ohio to the days of Jim Crow laws. Who has contributed the most to “We Are Ohio’s” dishonest smear campaign?

• Ohio Education Association (state NEA affiliate): $5.87 million
• AFSCME (D.C.) $3 million
• National Labor Table (D.C.): $3 million
  
• AFSCME Local 11: $1.94 million
• National Education Association  (D.C.): $2 million
• Communications Workers of America (D.C.): $1.5 million
  
• AFL-CIO (D.C.): $1.5 million
• AFSCME Local 4: $1.46 million
• Ohio Federation of Teachers (state AFT affiliate): $1.26 million
• SEIU 1199 (New York): $1 million
• SEIU 1199 (Ohio): $1 million

It’s also worth noting that more than $100,000 of the non-individual Ohio contributions are from the Ohio Democratic Party, and nearly every individual donor who lists a profession is a union rep. This could prove donors’ selfless dedication to the happiness of Ohio government employees (taxpayers and cruel “mathematics” aside)… but that isn’t what my past few months of Ohio Education Association research would suggest!

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Sigh.

Look what happened when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker dared to go to a successful inner city school to read to a group of young kids.

The event was a perfect storm for the unhinged Left: A chance to combine their absolute hatred of the Republican governor with their complete disdain for the nation’s longest running school choice program.

SEIU, AFSCME and Milwaukee Public School officials combined forces with Students for a Democratic Society, self-professed Hippies and others to march, sing, chant and yell at not only the governor, but the students and staff of Messmer Preparatory School.

The Messmer story is inspiring, and one I’ll tell in greater detail here soon. What’s really striking to me is this obnoxious display of thuggery comes onthe heels of the release of the MacIver Educational Choice Census, which shows that throughout Wisconsin, parents are embracing educational options. In Milwaukee, nearly 4 out of 5 children attend a school other than the one geographically assigned to them by the public school bureaucrats.

The Left and the perpetually offended, who despite spending millions of dollars in national money have been losers now in several consecutive elections and policy debates in Wisconsin, must resort to civil disturbances, vandalism and thuggery.  Their well of vitriol has no bottom, apparently.

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They spent well in excess of $15 million and did not win the majority in the State Senate.  Here’s the updated Money Matrix Graphic we produced at the MacIver Institute, which tracked Big Labor’s fund transfers.

As I write in today’s Washington Examiner:

Wisconsin Democrats’ inability to defeat three Republican incumbent state senators in the recent recall elections here in Wisconsin is a devastating loss for Big Labor. These recalls were Big Labor’s last stand and will have national ramifications for years to come…

…The early results have been staggering. Ninety-three school districts have restructured benefit costs, saving taxpayers more than $150 million. If each of Wisconsin’s school districts achieve this level of savings, statewide savings would cross the $500 million mark.

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Democratic and Working Families Party Governor Dannel Malloy of Connecticut dusted off the speech he had planned to make at the end of June, when state employee unions rejected a $1.6 billion concession package that would close a hole in the state’s budget. Embarrassed that their rank and file members rejected the plan that they agreed to with the first Democratic governor of the state in 20 years, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) agreed to a new vote after changing the bylaws to allow a simple majority of state employees, rather than 80%, to be the required threshold for ratification of contracts. The old bylaws also did not allow for revotes.

Following the governor’s threats of thousands of layoffs, the concession package, as anticipated, was overwhelmingly approved on the second vote on Thursday by 14 of the 15 unions. Ironically, the union representing corrections officers, AFSCME, which had rejected the package originally, approved it wholeheartedly this time, despite the fact that corrections workers have solicited membership in the National Correctional Employees Union (NCEU), charging that they were misrepresented by the vote to change the bylaws.

Upon ratification of the contract, the governor released the following statement:

“We have achieved something the skeptics said was unachievable: we’ve made the relationship between the state and its workforce sustainable. And, unlike in most other states, we did it without going to war with public employees. We’ve shown what’s possible when management and labor work together in a respectful fashion. Sure, this agreement took a few extra months to achieve – but so what? Those extra months are a small price to pay for the billions of dollars that extra time will save taxpayers, the critical services that time will preserve, and the peace of mind that comes from understanding the state now has a sustainable relationship with its employee base…”

The agreement calls for a two-year wage freeze and some changes to pension benefits and healthcare, such as required annual visits to a physician. In exchange, the unions obtained no layoffs for four-years and a pledge they would not be required to take unpaid furlough days. According to Mr. Malloy, the changes will save the state an estimated $1.6 billion over the next two years and $21.5 billion over the next two decades. As of July 1st, the governor’s budget plan called for “shared sacrifice” from taxpayers, who have consequently experienced the largest tax increase in the history of the state, including a hike in the income tax, retroactive to January 1st.

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Despite failing to win a Democratic Majority in the Wisocnsin State Senate, the pulbic employee unions are continuing their rhetorical battle, including in the email boxes of state employees. Clearly unions are in panic mode now that their hope at winning legislative control here at the ballot box has been dashed.

[Madison, Wisc..] Just because state employees can no longer be forced to be members of public employee unions doesn’t mean the unions will refrain from contacting them using their government emails.

Thousands of Wisconsin state employees were met with a highly political email from their union when they came to work Wednesday morning.

“Walker thinks he can cripple our union by making payroll deduction for union dues illegal,” the email solicitation, sent by AFT-Wisconsin Communications Representative Jill Bakken, began. “By re-committing to our union, we are standing strong and sending a message: Walker doesn’t decide whether we have a voice – we do.”

AFT-Wisconsin is a labor union that had 17,000 public employees in the state of as members before the recent labor reforms became law.

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On the morning after Republicans won 4 of 6 recall races and maintained control of the state senate, Governor Walker sat down with the MacIver News Service and shared his thoughts on the Democrats’ failed efforts to win a majority in the State Senate, and what the future holds for his legislative agenda.

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National and state liberal groups, led primarily by public employee labor unions, have pumped well in excess of $14,000,000 into the Wisconsin state senate recall elections, six of which will take place tomorrow.

-Click to Enlarge-

MacIver News’ staff complied this graphic of this unprecedented spending using official reports on file with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board(Totals are accurate as of 8/8/11).

These figures include direct contributions from political action committee to candidates, coordinated independent expenditure campaigns, and individual third party expenditures.

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The MacIver News Service has reported that more than $11 million in labor union money has been shuffled into Wisconsin to fund third party political advertising to benefit the Democratic candidates. Earlier this week we also reported on a Get Out the Vote Scheme that appeared to run afoul of Wisconsin election law. The group, Wisconsin Jobs Now! was offering food and prizes to voters who then hopped in a van and were shuttled to Milwaukee City Hall to vote early via absentee ballot. (The use of ‘walking around money’ and such inducements for voting may be common in other states but they are illegal in Wisconsin.)

After our report, the group began to scrub their internet history to hide their connection to another liberal activist group, Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

Perhaps it’s because their favored candidate in the Miwlaukee area senate race, Democratic State Representative Sandy Pasch, sits on the Board of Directors of Citizen Action, thus providing a direct line relationship between Pasch and the ‘prize give-a-way’ scheme.

Next Tuesday voters in six state senate districts in Wisconsin will determine whether Republicans here will be able to keep their majority in the upper house of the legislature.

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Last Thursday, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees suffered a crushing 116-32 defeat in a bid to unionize the City of Winter Park, Florida’s operational services employees.

According to MyFoxOrlando, AFSCME’s loss at the polls was a setback, as the union claims to have had a majority of employees’ support in April:

“Today Winter Park municipal service employees were unsuccessful in their efforts to organize themselves into a union. This, despite two-thirds of them having petitioned to form their union in April,” reads the [AFSCME] statement.

However, perhaps AFSCME’s undoing had something to do with the way it targeted Winter Park employees during its campaign. Apparently, sticking with its organizing playbook, AFSCME allegedly deployed its organizers to bother employees at their homes. (more…)

First, opponents of Governor Scott Walker’s budget reforms protested a ceremony honoring Special Olympics athletes. The negative publicity that stunt got them did nothing to give them pause. Now, AFSCME and other liberal protesters decided to picket a business that makes a point of hiring people with special needs, on Thursday.  It was to be a day celebrating their success. But to Big Labor, it always has to be about Big Labor.

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Last year, when Larry Scanlon, the Director of Political Operations for one of the nation’s largest government unions, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), stated “the more members coming in, the more dues coming in, the more money we have for politics,” it was symbolic of a system corrupted by union bosses who enrich themselves at the expense of America’s taxpayers.

While AFSCME and other government unions are settling contracts that require members to pay more for their health insurance and retirement, as well as furlough days, to rein in out-of-control budget, with the exception of a few states like Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin, the government-union power structure is being left almost wholly intact.

In fact, in states like California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington government union bosses have been left largely unrestrained to continue expanding their power at the expense of the taxpayers in those states. (more…)

Connecticut state correctional officers and prison employees say they have been misrepresented by their union leaders. The current members of a Connecticut local of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) are actively soliciting membership, instead, in the Massachusetts-based National Correctional Employees Union (NCEU), following their union leaders’ participation in a decision by the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) to change its bylaws. SEBAC voted on the change in order to make good on a $1.6 billion concession package deal struck with Democratic and Working Families Party Governor Dannel Malloy. The AFSCME local’s 4,500 members rejected the original concession package, leading to only a 57% approval vote, when the bylaws required 80% approval by rank and file members. SEBAC has now voted to lower the bar for ratification of contracts to require only a simple majority.

Since the rejection of the concessions package, Governor Malloy has threatened to lay off about 4,300 state workers and put an end to many government services. The governor plans to lay off nearly 900 correctional officers and close several prisons, two of which, Mr. Malloy’s advisor states, will close even if a new labor agreement is achieved.

According to CT News Junkie, correctional officer John Boyle, who will be retiring, said he is very unhappy with both AFSCME and SEBAC, both groups he views as existing only to collect dues from workers. “They’re taking people’s money going behind closed doors and selling them out,” he said. Mr. Boyle is organizing a class-action suit against union leaders.

The Day reports that Christopher Murphy of the NCEU, is helping to gather signatures to begin the process to allow the correctional officers to leave AFSCME. “They feel AFSCME is taking care of its own issues and has its own agenda, and is working very closely or is in bed with the governor.” Mr. Murphy said that SEBAC has overreached its authority by negotiating agreements beyond those related to healthcare and pension provisions. He added that SEBAC violated its own bylaws in the process of changing them and suggested NCEU would fight them with every legal avenue available.

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Government unions are suing the State of Illinois for not issuing what would have been their third round of raises in just seven months. Last week, members of AFSCME took to the street to demand “fair pay.”

Do Illinois state workers suffer from unfair treatment? My group, the Illinois Policy Institute took a closer look at the issue, and found that government workers enjoy generous pay and perks – often far beyond what many outside of the public sector could ever hope to receive. Consider the findings:

• The average compensation for an Illinois state government worker was $69,500 in 2008. The average private sector compensation? Just $56,500.
• In real terms, private sector compensation (wages plus benefits) in Illinois declined 2 percent over the past 15 years, while state worker compensation increased by 17 percent.
• Over a 40-year career, the average Illinois state worker will receive about 510 more paid vacation days than the average private sector worker.

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