The Machine

The Moving Picture Institute has produced an new short video titled "The Machine".  The subject is teacher unions, taxes, and politicians.  The run time is 4 minutes 30 seconds.  Watch the video at this link:

http://youtu.be/mVyNlJUKgug

Involuntary servitude

The following article appears in the 5/10/12 issue of the Washington Times:

Labor bosses demand their dues

This article describes some of the battles workers are fighting to free themselves from the corruption of organized labor.  Some of the highlights of this article are:

Labor bosses are fighting to keep people in unions against their will, forcibly collecting dues from unwilling members and using those dues to line their own pockets. In effect, labor leaders have imposed their own system of “involuntary servitude” on recalcitrant union members.

In California, for example, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) bosses in Fresno are engaged in a war to keep disgruntled members from defecting.

For their part, Fresno correctional officers created another union and petitioned for a union election.

Fresno Department of Social Services workers also have petitioned for a decertification vote from SEIU. Kandy Gonzalez, head of the new Fresno County Employees Association, compared cutting ties with SEIU to a “bad divorce.” But SEIU thus far has refused to sign the divorce papers, to Ms. Gonzalez’s dismay. “They’re going to invest whatever money they’re going to invest to keep us in this marriage,” she says. “And what’s sad is they’re probably going to be using our money to fight us. They’ll be using our dues to fight us.”

 Kandy Gonzalez is correct, the union will use dues collected from the members to pay for legal action against those same members.

Indeed, the Fresno correctional officers’ decertification election, which had been scheduled for April, will be delayed for months because of an SEIU complaint with the Civil Service Commission. In the meantime, the workers literally are working for the union bosses against their will.
Even more outrageous, unions are maintaining that free-labor policies are the real perpetrators of modern forced servitude. In Indiana, for example, International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) union bosses have filed a lawsuit charging that the state’s new “right to work” law forces union members into “involuntary servitude.” IUOE claims the law forces unions to negotiate for nonunion (non-dues-paying) workers, violating the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution. But this is merely union chutzpah at its most egregious - IUOE is not obligated to negotiate for exclusive representation.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Union membership should always be voluntary.  Unions are using all legal means to fight their own members to prevent them from leaving.  At the same time unions are filing a lawsuit claiming that giving people the right to choose union membership is a form of slavery.

Recall of the absent Wisconsin State Senators

You have an opportunity to show your support for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in his efforts to limit government employee union influence.  14 democratic state senators have boycotted the state senate chambers and are refusing to vote on the Wisconsin state budget.  Recall efforts are now underway in various districts in Wisconsin to remove the absentee state senators from office.  One of these recall committees have the following website:

http://www.recallwirch.com/

The Consequences of Government Employee Unions

Thomas J. DiLorenzo of the Ludwig von Mises Institute has written a short but comprehensive article about the effects of government employee unions.  The article can be viewed here:

http://mises.org/daily/5072/The-Political-Economy-of-Government-Employee-Unions

I recommend reading the entire article.  Listed below are a few of the highlights:

The main reason why so many state and local governments are bankrupt, or on the verge of bankruptcy, is the combination of government-run monopolies and government-employee unions. Government-employee unions have vastly more power than do private-sector unions because the entities they work for are typically monopolies.

The enormous power of government-employee unions effectively transfers the power to tax from voters to the unions. Because government-employee unions can so easily force elected officials to raise taxes to meet their "demands," it is they (the unions), not the voters, who control the rate of taxation within a political jurisdiction.

Politicians are caught in a political bind by government-employee unions: if they cave in to their wage demands and raise taxes to finance them, then they increase the chances of being kicked out of office themselves in the next election. The "solution" to this dilemma has been to offer government-employee unions moderate wage increases but spectacular pension promises. This allows politicians to pander to the unions but defer the costs to the future, long after the panderers are retired from politics.


As taxpayers in California, Wisconsin, Indiana, and many other states are realizing, the future has arrived. The Wall Street Journal reports that state and local governments in the United States currently have $3.5 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities. They must either raise taxes dramatically to fund these liabilities, as some have already done, or drastically cut back or eliminate government-employee pensions

Every government-employee union is a political machine that lobbies relentlessly for higher taxes, increased government spending, more featherbedding, and more pension promises – while demonizing hesitant taxpayers as uncaring enemies of children, the elderly, and the poor (who are purportedly "served" by the government bureaucrats the unions represent).

How to support the Wisconsin Revolution

You can lend your support to the current efforts in Wisconsin to control government spending and reduce government employee union’s control. A group of Tea Party organizations has formed “American Majority” to support the whose mission is to train and equip a national network of leaders committed to individual freedom through limited government and the free market. Their website is: http://americanmajority.org/

American Majority is organizing a national demonstration of support for Scott Walker and leaders across the country who have the courage to fight the public sector union bosses - on Wednesday, February 23rd. The website dedicated to this effort is: http://www.istandwithwalker.com/

Why the Wisconsin State Employees Unions cannot back down

The following blog news item includes the comment listed below:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/02/20/tea-partier-joins-george-will-great-debate-about-wisconsin-abcs-week#ixzz1EX5JhPae

The following comment was posted by shivas irons redux

Would someone please note that Unions make the great lion's share of their $ from negotiating "benefits", not salaries... or collection of dues.

This is why the decoupling of the Salaries and Benefits so important to Unions in Wisconsin. And why the Union's have countered the way they have. They'll give up Salary and Jobs for Teachers in a second, but they will fight to death for Benefit negotiation position. In another life as an executive in CA, I used to do administration for two Teamster's "Health and Welfare" benefit packages. Do your research, but you'll find I'm correct about motivation of Unions. I also believe that the amount of money kept by Unions will be very interesting to both your viewers, and the tax payers of the US of A. The way it works is that the Unions negotiate with the "Employer" regarding how much money per member/per month they will need to support the benefit options required in Union contract. In the case of WI, they negotiate with each of the 77 counties. Then the Unions negotiate the terms of benefits with "providers"/Ins Co's, etc. They make the lion's share of their money off of what is called the "breakage" created by Employees choosing between plan options, and the administration of the programs. Let me explain with an example: A Union begins by negotiating with the Employer/State. They'll claim their buying leverage will afford Employer significant savings. They'll end up with a 3-tiered cost structure which allows the Union a profit even with the highest benefit option available as Union already has a very good idea about what Providers will be charging. But it gets even more lucrative for Unions at this point. Let's say high-end Blue Cross PPO coverage costs $400 for the Family tier. What a Union will do is require $425 from Employer, plus a loaded in admin fee, as a charge for all Families in the employer group. So far, so fair? But, the Union will also offer a few other plans for Employees to choose from. The Union will also have developed relationships with a few cheaper HMO plans, and lesser PPO benefit structure plans that charge, as an example, $325 and $375, respectively. At an Open House Employees will choose what fits their needs and the Union is in line for the "breakage". The left over breakage is then, to my experience, placed in a fund where only the Union has the checkbook. Cars, Vacations and Condo's, oh my. The Union also makes a "commission" off of things like Pre Legal, Dental and Term Life. As another profit source, the Union also leans on the Administrator for favors I'd rather not list, but usually involving idiocy like buying thousands of dollars of "raffle tickets" and leasing cars for the Union's Business Agents, not entirely above board. Of course I am relating my experience, and what little I know of others who also did Union administration. I'd expect any simple research by an actual reporter would open up a Pandora's box of Slush in the Badger State.

This exposes the Union motivation in opposing the proposed Wisconsin legislation.  If the Unions lose control of the employee benefits they lose the majority of their discretionary funds along with the ability to extort and corrupt the benefit providers.  If you have information to add to this subject please include a comment.  I agree with the comment “I'd expect any simple research by an actual reporter would open up a Pandora's box  of Slush in the Badger State.”

Workers of the world, Unite!

On Saturday 10/2/10 organized labor and left wing political organizations held a rally on the mall in Washington DC.  The title for this rally is “One Nation Working Together”.  The following video highlights some of the “socially progressive” organizations, signs, and literature that were prevalent at this rally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkw7n9Qagu8&feature=player_embedded

Dreams from my public employee unions

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is proposing a 33% tax increase. Some of the details can be found in this Chicago Tribune article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/elections/ct-met-quinn-budget-speech-0311-20100310,0,4512692.story?

Think of the reaction you would receive if you were to ask your employer today for a 33% raise, or if you were to tell your customers that you will be raising your prices or fees by 33%. Only politicians and government employees live in a world where such fantasies could come true. This passage from the article is truly at odds with reality:


“The Illinois Federation of Teachers welcomed Quinn's call for a tax increase, but said it's not large enough to deal with the state's overall money problems.”

So there you have it, the government employees do not think that a 33% tax increase is enough to satisfy their gluttony.

The Governor is selling this outrage to the taxpayers of Illinois in the name of education for the children. It is a minor oversight for the Governor not to mention that the State of Illinois does not pay one dime for education of children in grade school or high school. The state is only responsible for some community colleges and the state university system. The primary education system grades 1 through 12 are paid for by local governments primarily by real estate taxes. The burden on local taxpayers to support primary education is overwhelming. This crushing real estate tax allows the Governor to imply that the state income tax is now low at the 3% level and that he is only proposing an additional 1% increase.

Resist this madness. Just say no to raising taxes.

Cap and Trade

A vote will be held on 6/26/09 to discharge the “Cap and Trade” legislation from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and will send this bill to the House floor for a vote. This bill would enact the largest tax increase in the history of the US. Estimates of the taxes and mandated costs range from $800 billion to $2 trillion dollars over the life of the bill. The official title of this bill is H.R. 2454, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. This bill is also known as the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill.

Raising taxes may be the least damaging aspect of this bill. This law will give the Federal Government the authority to set the level of production across all industries. Socialists have always wanted to set the level of wages and production to control the economy. The bill to repeal union certification elections will allow the government to set wages. Now the cap and trade legislation will provide the means to set production. The USA will finally become a “workers’ paradise”.

This bill also provides a provision which imposes stiff tariffs on our trading partners if they don't adopt aggressive carbon restrictions of their own. Thus solving one of the great dilemmas suffered by organized labor, “how do we eliminate foreign competition?” This is the 21st century equivalent to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The Waxman-Markey will by itself recreate 2 of the 3 policies of the 1930’s that caused the great depression, 1 - raise taxes and 2 - start a trade war. Brilliant!

The following is an enlightening discussion:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10313

The complete wording of the bill is at the following link:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2454ih.txt.pdf

See the cost estimate for this legislation at the Congressional Budget Office website:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/102xx/doc10262/hr2454.pdf

Take action against this bill:

http://ga1.org/campaign/0906capandtradetaxhike

Obama team reverses union transparency

This news article discusses recent changes in regulations made at the Department of Labor:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/27/obama-team-reverses-union-transparency/

The changes reduce the annual filing requirements for labor unions and their officials. The form that labor unions are most opposed to is the LM-30 and can be found at this link:

http://www.dol.gov/esa/olms/regs/compliance/RevisedFormLM30.pdf

This subject is also discussed at the following blog:

http://laborpains.org/index.php/2009/04/27/obama-admin-rolls-back-union-transparency/

Note the list of new appointments to the Department of Labor that have previous employment in labor unions.
Also note this quote from the above blog:

“With the Labor Department itself disclosing that investigations into union corruption yielded over 1,000 indictments, 929 convictions, and more than $93 million in court-ordered restitution from 2001 to 2008, one would expect a need for greater union transparency, not less, right?”

It is clear to me that organized labor has taken over the federal government.

Auto workers union

One of my friends sent me this video:

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/15908257/index.html

The behavior depicted in this video is not unusual for union officials. For more on this subject see the following:

http://www.unionfacts.com/articles/crimeFraud.cfm

Unionfacts.org

To appreciate the debate over the “Employee Free Choice Act” and the influence organized labor exerts over federal, state and local government I recommend the following website:

http://www.unionfacts.org/

I found the ads that they have produced very interesting: http://www.unionfacts.org/ads.cfm . I remember seeing one of these ads (“Thanks union bosses!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAGoBjrCnqc ) on local TV during a trip to Las Vegas. Below is a print ad that is also very concise.

The influence that organized labor holds over elected politicians (staring everyone’s favorite governor) is highlighted on this page:
http://www.unionfacts.org/articles/seiuPayForPlay.cfm

The Employee Free Choice Act

Naming congressional bills has become a marketing ploy. The Employee Free Choice Act is described in the news article below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2009/03/09/daily30.html

The name of the act would lead one to believe that Employees are being given more freedom or protection of existing freedoms. This bill would of course do just the opposite. It eliminates the right of employees to vote for union representation.

This provision is even worse:

“Even more troubling for many businesses: The legislation compels employers to bargain with the newly formed union. If no agreement is reached, a government arbitrator would dictate a binding contract that determines wages, benefits and working conditions at the company.”

This gives socialists the power that they have always desired, the ability for government to dictate wages, benefits and working conditions.

The Service Employees International Union is spending $50 million this year to promote its top legislative issues. The centerpiece is the Employee Free Choice Act. This Union was the single largest contributor to Obama’s campaign.

privatization

Many people have been wondering who holds the most influence over our new president. My opinion is that organized labor commands the real power in the white house.

Labor unions have always opposed outsourcing and privatization of government services. The following article describes the end of a successful outsourcing project at the IRS.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRS_DEBT_COLLECTORS?SITE=WIJAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

I find the following two paragraphs in the above article are most interesting:

“The program brought in more money than it cost to operate, but it had become a political headache for the IRS.”

“At the IRS, Schulman said he expects to hire more than 1,000 workers this year to increase collections. He encouraged workers from private collection agencies to apply.”

A Presidential Memorandum was issued on 3/4/09 tilted: “Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Subject: Government Contracting”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Memorandum-for-the-Heads-of-Executive-Departments-and-Agencies-Subject-Government-Contracting/

There are many sections of this memorandum that on face value would appear to be good policy that will save tax dollars. However the real intent of this memorandum is contained in the following section:

“However, the line between inherently governmental activities that should not be outsourced and commercial activities that may be subject to private sector competition has been blurred and inadequately defined. As a result, contractors may be performing inherently governmental functions. Agencies and departments must operate under clear rules prescribing when outsourcing is and is not appropriate.”

This memorandum will bring about the end of privatization and is a huge victory for organized labor.