From Accuracy in Media’s Benjamin Johnson and Logan Churchwell:

Now that the holidays and winter weather are upon us, it will be a critical time for the Occupy Movement. Will they continue to slum in public (and private) parks illegally, or do they go back to their parent’s house? But more important, will unions of all kinds dedicate work days and member dues to pick up the slack? Accuracy in Media has found lately that the AFL-CIO, CWA, SEIU and others are more than willing to co-opt the movement.

Accuracy in Media has documented and captured additional footage of unions looking to take advantage of the movement, but this is the most blatant collusion to date. The combined efforts of labor, churches and academia have reminded us all what an AstroTurf movement looks like; despite the conventional media narrative.

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Asks Bill Frezza over at RealClearMarkets:

Things sure turned ugly fast in the recent Verizon strike. The Associated Press reported 70 acts of sabotage in the first week. A New Jersey judge had to issue an injunction banning members of the Communications Workers of America from “Dropping, spreading, throwing, placing or otherwise causing nails, glass, cinder block, spikes, feces, clubs, rocks, screws, or puncture devices of any kind, or other object or debris to be thrown or strewn in, on, or about Verizon’s driveways, parking lots, entrances, exits, vehicles and adjoining roads to any of Verizon’s property or at any work site.” Investigative reporters may be nowhere to be seen, but thanks to cell phone cameras some nasty videos are beginning to pop up on the web.

According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research there have been 4,400 recorded acts of labor violence since 1991. The Teamsters lead the pack with 454, as one would expect from an organization once infiltrated by organized crime. The Teamsters have plenty of company, yet few offenders are called to account. In the Homestead tradition, law enforcement tends to melt away when a union goes on a rampage. Barely three percent of violent crimes committed by union members lead to an arrest or conviction.

This can only happen due to public acceptance.

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After two weeks of striking, it appears that the red shirts at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) are heading back to work without a contract in hand.

According to the CWA’s website:

Members of CWA and IBEW at Verizon Communications will return to work on Tuesday, Aug. 23, at which time the contract will be back in force for an indefinite period.

We have reached agreement with Verizon on how bargaining will proceed and how it will be restructured. The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed.

We appreciate the unity of our members and the support of so many in the greater community. Now we will focus on bargaining fairly and moving forward.

CWA and IBEW represent 45,000 workers at Verizon covered by this contract from Virginia to New England.

This back to work agreement comes just before the CWA would begin paying up to $300 per week in strike benefits to its striking members, saving the union up to $10 million per week out of its union treasury. (more…)

As the CWA picketing of Verizon continues it seems some of the union leadership is becoming more and more unhinged. Apparently one member of the union leadership went so far as to instruct his members, by way of publicly accessible telephone hotline, that it is now “open season” on “managers and scabs”. The thug went on to say that union members should “follow them” and “torture them, torture them with chants and noise”. (h/t Moon Bat Tracker)

The best part of WSYR’s report, though, has to be when they call another union boss to ask them about the ridiculous instructions and the guy basically says they’re cool with it. According to him there’s nothing wrong with “militancy”. How insane can you get? Is it any wonder that unions have such a terrible reputation anymore? Have they not earned it?

The sad thing, as the Verizon rep WSYR interviewed alluded to, is most union members aren’t violent nuts. Most of them just want to go to work, make a living, and support their families. It’s thugs like this that give them all a bad name.

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Since the union strike against Verizon began a little more than a week ago, incidents of sabotage and property damage have been reported, homes of company executives swarmed upon by union protesters, and injunctions issued.

While the unions, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) are trying to insist their strike against the telecommunications giant is a “fight for middle class jobs,” an e-mail purportedly sent by a CWA boss in Pennsylvania sheds some insight into the tactics the unions are deploying.

Within days after the strike began, an e-mail surfaced allegedly sent by Jon Remington, Unit 44 President of CWA Local 13000 (which covers much of Pennsylvania). In the e-mail, Remington shares the union strategy of bending the interpretation of an injunction, picketing Verizon Wireless stores to keep customers out and decrease company profits, as well as jamming Verizon’s repair lines.

While recipients’ names and Verizon numbers have been removed, here is the e-mail (with emphasis added): (more…)

….Well, actually, it’s feces and other objects like “nails, glass, cinder block, spikes, feces, clubs, rocks, screws, or puncture devices of any kind, or other object or debris…”

On Friday, a judge in New Jersey granted Verizon some relief from its striking unions by granting an injunction against International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 827–one of the two unions that has pulled 45,000 union members out on strike.

While injunctions are often issued during strikes when there are instances of mass picketing and the blocking of entrances and exits, the New Jersey injunction is somewhat unusual in that it also specified the aforementioned feces.

According to the Toms River News, NJ Supreme Court Justice Marybeth Rogers ordered that there should be no vandalism, violence, harassment, obstruction, intimidating, threatening, blocking, or trespassing. (more…)

It’s only been a few days since 45,000 CWA and IBEW members walked off their jobs at Verizon, however, incidents of harassment, sabotage, and illegal picketing have already begun to pile up.

On Tuesday, Verizon obtained an injunction in Pennsylvania and filed for one in Delaware “to prevent ‘illegal’ and ‘reprehensible’ strike activities such as keeping managers out of buildings.”

In one deplorable incident, a foul-mouthed IBEW member in New Jersey put his young daughter in front of a Verizon truck turning into a driveway as he berated the driver using expletives.

[Language Warning]

[Note: After this video of an IBEW striker using his daughter as a roadblock was posted and began circulating the internet, it was removed by the user.]
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The media reform cabal is at it again.  The same professional Soros-funded astroturfers who brought us Van Jones to demand “media justice” and SaveTheInternet and Net Neutrality have been focused on a new target.  For months now, Free Press, Media Access Project, Public Knowledge, Consumers Union, and the New America Foundation have been thwarting the proposed merger of cell phone providers AT&T and T-Mobile, saying the move would raise prices for consumers and cost jobs.  As the deal sits with the FCC, which just this week temporarily halted its review of the proposal, AT&T and T-Mobile have tried to reassure consumers and activists that the merger would lower prices, increase access to service in rural areas and give consumers better choices.  The AFL-CIO, which represents 42,000 AT&T workers through the CWA, agrees with AT&T and T-Mobile.  Ironically, that puts the country’s most powerful labor federation on the opposite side of its progressive media reform allies.

But as these supposed media reformers actively work with community groups and state and federal agencies to oppose corporate interests on behalf of consumers, they fail to divulge their own ties to competitive corporate interests. And now, there are reports that a state commission may also have played a role in helping the competition.

As Amanda Carey has detailed at The Daily Caller, these Net Neutrality advocates have a long history of opposing these very companies, with the support of corporate competitors.

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The election results of last week’s special election in NY-26 were 47%-D 43%-R 9%-Tea and 1%-Green. A disappointment for the GOP, of course, that has made the Left gleeful in their gloating over their victory, even going so far as calling it a ‘political earthquake.’ However, in looking at it from afar, it’s natural to see how Republican Jane Corwin lost the race and her loss has more to do with what the Left did—and what the Republicans did not do—than it was an earthquake, tsunami, or wave.

It is true that the Democrats have out-messaged Republicans on the Medicare issue [it is, apparently, far more effective showing grandma being pushed over a cliff than kids eating cat food because the country is broke--grandmas vote and kids don't, after all]. However, there was more to losing NY 26 than mere messaging.

For example, there was the third-party candidate, faux Tea Party guy Jack Davis, that sucked some of the votes from Jane Corwin. However, beyond the messaging and third-party candidate, as is often the case, it was the Left’s ground game left the Right’s in the dust and, quite frankly, it is the ground game that will make or break 2012 for Republican candidates—if the GOP, or individuals who do not want to see America overrun by Marxist union bosses, can learn from the NY-26 loss. (more…)

From The Washington Times:

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka addressed Communication Workers of America (CWA) union members on a conference call Tuesday evening and relayed his concern about the current battle across the United States over union collective bargaining power, immigration, and education among other issues:

“See, the fact is the fight for workers’ rights and immigrant rights are cut out of the same cloth, because the politicians and their CEO backers are targeting all of us… all working people. They’re targeting immigrants. They’re targeting our collective bargaining rights. They’re targeting professors…trying to silence them if they dare teach something right or a progressive value. They’re going after the poor, trying to take away their voting rights by passing legislation that would say you have to have a driver’s license in order to be able to vote, like the old poll taxes did to us. They’re targeting every progressive group out there to promote their corporate backed political agenda and to continue a power grab.”

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It seems Arianna Huffington has something in common with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: They’ve both incurred the wrath of the Left. You may remember barely a month ago when, following Arianna Huffington’s $315 million sale of her website to AOL, a group of unpaid artists demanded their “fair share” of the pie. Arianna refused to negotiate—wouldn’t budge, in fact—so, the artists went on strike. Shortly afterward, the Writers Guild (an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America) called on the (paid and unpaid) writers and bloggers at Huffington Post to honor the e-picket line by withholding their work.

Well, the e-strike Huffington Post has failed—miserably.  Progressive bloggers have refused to honor their union brethren’s picket line. Apparently, “solidarity(!)” only goes so far outside of Madison’s city limits, which Ms. Huffington clearly knew when she dared progs to follow the union’s lead and honor the e-picketline:

“The idea of going on strike when no one really notices,” Huffington said. “Go ahead, go on strike.”

At first, it seemed as though Huffington and her fellow capitalists corporate heads had the union and the unpaid bloggers beat. However, on Tuesday, the unpaid bloggers did something that so many Americans do when they feel aggrieved…they filed a lawsuit. (more…)

There’s an internal war going on in one of the Communications Workers of America’s largest locals, New York City’s Local 1101.  Accusations of poor, absentee leadership has caused a group of rank and file stewards and chief stewards to start a campaign to reform the local. Now, the issues have involved the CWA International in Washington, which has placed a monitor over the local due to an investigation’s findings that revealed the local’s union bosses have been fattening themselves on their members’ dues.

CWA Local 1101 has nearly 7,000 members—most of whom work for telecom giant Verizon, as well as a handful of other companies. In 2010, local 1101 took in over $5.3 million in dues and agency fees. In addition, because New York is not a right to work state, Local 1101 is legally permitted to charge its members 1.9% of their pay as a condition of employment. If they don’t pay, the union can order them to be fired. As such, some members pay over $1400 per year in union dues to enable the local’s officers to rake in over $150,000 a year in compensation.

This is, perhaps, one of the reasons the local membership is up in arms over the alleged financial improprieties of a number of the local’s officers [via Labor Notes]: (more…)

Last summer, unions spent an estimated $10 million on the Democratic primary in Arkansas in a failed attempt to defeat then-Senator Blanche Lincoln. It was $10 million worth of their members’ dues that was wasted.  Unions did not waste their members’ money because Blanche Lincoln opposed higher wages or better benefits. Union bosses wasted their members’ money because Blanche Lincoln fell out of union bosses’ favor for not by backing the job-killing Employee Free Choice Act (aka card-check).

On the mid-terms, unions spent hundreds of millions on voter registration, campaign donations, TV ads, manpower and GOTV efforts. Nearly all of that money went to union-bought Democrats.

In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that union members who object to having their union dues spent on politics can get a refund for the portion of their dues used for politics. Since then, however, many union members have found the process of getting their dues refunds an burdensome process.

This week, at CPAC, Republican Saul Anuzis (a former member of the Teamsters) announced the launch of a new website specifically designed to give union members assistance in getting refunds for the portion of their dues used on politics.  It is not “anti-union,” it is a site with one purpose—to help union members who do NOT want their dues money used on politics, regardless of party.

The site is UnionRefund.org

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It looks like Matt Damon’s been overdosing on Kool-Aid again.  He’s apparently doing the bidding now for the ACORN spawn, Working Families Party.  Watch as he asks you for his birthday present.

I’m about to celebrate a very important birthday myself, Matt.  On November 13^th, I turn 41 ! I know, I can’t believe it either.

If there’s something you want to give me for my birthday that’s going to really cheer me up, please tell the recently departing Working Families Party co-chair Bertha Lewis to stop referring to constitutional conservatism as “McCarthyism”.  And while you’re at it, could you please ask your friend, President Obama not to call American citizens “enemies” simply for not belonging to his political party?

I think maybe it’s time to step away from Soroswood and start paying attention to the real world.

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Contact 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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