Jerry Brown Urges Unions to ‘Attack’

From today’s LA Times:

Faced with the daunting prospect of being significantly outspent by his Republican opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown spoke to a labor group Tuesday and urged them to go on the offensive.

“We’re going to attack whenever we can, but I’d rather have you attack,” Brown said at a gathering of the California delegation of the Laborers’ International Union of North America in Sacramento. “I’d rather be the nice guy in this race. We’ll leave [the attacks] to … the Democratic Party and others.”

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for GOP candidate Meg Whitman, said Brown’s pitch was unseemly and perhaps even illegal. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Jerry Brown, meg whitman, political campaign, political coordination, union spending
Posted Mar 17th 2010 at 1:37 pm in Big Labor, Politics, State Politics | 91378107 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/17/jerry-brown-urges-unions-to-attack/Jerry+Brown+Urges+Unions+to+%27Attack%272010-03-17+20%3A37%3A50Publius

Unions: Forever War

You’re hoping for another 1994, eh? Well, you’re not going to get it if D.C.’s biggest union bosses have their say — and they don’t just have a say, they have a checkbook to put where their mouths are. And both words and munitions are taking on an overtly combative tone.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

The AFL-CIO plans to roll out its biggest political campaign ever, surpassing the $53 million spent in 2008 to help elect President Barack Obama, to try to avert a repeat of the 1994 midterm election when Democrats lost a majority in Congress.

If that sounds a bit aggressive, that’s nothing compared to the powerful head of the AFSCME public employee union, who is saying “The time has come to draw a line in the sand…Regardless of your party affiliation, if you’re not with us, you are against us.”

(We’re pretty sure we’ve seen other people get hammered for using the same language, but we digress…)

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: AFL-CIO, AFSCME, mid-term elections, political contributions, union dues
Posted Mar 3rd 2010 at 9:01 am in Big Labor | 83210123 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bjacobson/2010/03/03/unions-forever-war/Unions%3A+Forever+War2010-03-03+17%3A01%3A19Bret+Jacobson

Obama Gives Big Labor Another Gift in Final Days of 2009

In 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!

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: closed shop, forced dues, Labor Department, SEIU, union corruption
Posted Jan 1st 2010 at 8:39 am in ACORN, Big Labor | 54134129 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2010/01/01/obama-gives-big-labor-another-gift-in-final-days-of-2009/Obama+Gives+Big+Labor+Another+Gift+in+Final+Days+of+20092010-01-01+16%3A39%3A52Don+Loos

Teachers’ Unions Are Washington’s Fat Cats

We know how liberals, particularly those in the education establishment, like to say that Corporate America dictates public policy through campaign contributions.

A new report, prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, does a good job of dispelling that myth.

As it turns out, the National Education Association was by far the nation’s biggest political contributor during the 2008 election cycle. The NEA dropped a cool $56.3 million on its list of favored liberal candidates at various levels of government, which was about $12 million more than the runner-up contributor spent.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: American Federation of Teachers, campaign donations, Education Intelligence Agency, education reform, fat cat contributors
Posted Dec 18th 2009 at 12:41 pm in Big Labor, Education, Politics, State Politics | 4887460 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/12/18/teachers-unions-are-washingtons-fat-cats/Teachers%27+Unions+Are+Washington%27s+Fat+Cats2009-12-18+20%3A41%3A33Kyle+Olson

Obama’s Labor Department Gives Big Labor and Its Front Groups Another Gift

Thursday, 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.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Americans Rights at Work, Andy Stern, Big Labor, comment period, conflict of interest
Posted Dec 4th 2009 at 6:57 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story | 4090276 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2009/12/04/obamas-labor-department-gives-big-labor-and-its-front-groups-another-gift/Obama%E2%80%99s+Labor+Department+Gives+Big+Labor+and+Its+Front+Groups+Another+Gift2009-12-04+13%3A57%3A55Don+Loos

Cement Shoes for a Website? Union Threatens AFTexposed.com

When we at the Education Action Group Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, non-profit organization, launched AFTexposed.com this fall to examine the agenda, finances and tactics of the American Federation of Teachers, little did we realize we would draw such an immediate, ugly response.

AFT10809letter –

On Friday, October 9, we received a threatening letter from the AFT’s general counsel (which was carbon copied to AFT President Randi Weingarten), demanding we immediately stop using the acronym ‘AFT’ anywhere on the site, effectively neutering it, and turn over the domain registration to the union. [See the letter here.] How can we have a website completely dedicated to analyzing the AFT and its agenda if we aren’t allowed to use the acronym ‘AFT?’

It was an outrageous attempt to squelch our First Amendment rights to voice our opinions, which are based in fact.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, AFT, AFTexposed, American Federation of Teachers, Department of Labor
Posted Oct 19th 2009 at 9:35 am in ACORN, Big Labor, News, Politics | 17174103 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/10/19/cement-shoes-for-a-website-union-threatens-aftexposed-com/Cement+Shoes+for+a+Website%3F+Union+Threatens+AFTexposed.com2009-10-19+16%3A35%3A10Kyle+Olson