SEIU in Oregon: For the love of the…?
Gov. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon has nominated Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler to the position of State Treasurer, following the death of Ben Westlund on Sunday. Want to know why Wheeler, and not another state representative Greg Macpherson, got the nod? According to The Oregonian: “Kulongoski acknowledged that “part of it” was the opposition that Macpherson would [more...]

Posted Thu, 11 Mar 2010 .

Transparent Hypocrisy at the DOL
This morning the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) emailed me asking for comments and ideas “to help increase transparency, collaboration, and participation within DOL as part of the White House Open Government Initiative.” The OLMS is the same agency that just rescinded a regulation requiring transparency in union slush funds (using the “T-1″ form). In fact, [more...]

Posted Thu, 11 Mar 2010 .

Male, Pale, And Stale - And Hypocritical?

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Union officials pretend to reflect their diverse membership, yet they continue to be overwhelmingly "male, pale, and stale," as Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president Andy Stern has remarked. Of course, even the leadership of Stern's breakaway Change to Win coalition is controlled predominantly by white males. While union officials never cease complaining about the composition of America's business executives, they would do well to look at their own leadership.

Discrimination
The face of the labor movement isn't its only black eye when it comes to diversity. According to documents obtained by the Center for Union Facts from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), labor unions have faced more than 13,000 charges of discrimination since 2000. And unions have had to pay more than $6 million in fines. Those charges include:

Complaints of race discrimination:	4,248
Complaints of age discrimination:	3,386
Complaints of sex discrimination:	1,820
Complaints of disability discrimination:	1,642
Complaints of religious discrimination:	297