Mobbed-up union boss sentenced to 57 months of hard time
Last week ATU Local 1181 former president Salvatore “Hotdogs” Battaglia—I couldn’t make up a better name if I tried—was sentenced to 57 months in jail for “racketeering based on the extortion of money from companies operating school buses under contract with the New York City department of Education.” The North Country Gazette reports that Mr. Hotdogs was [more...]

Posted Tue, 01 Jul 2008 .

Tink Fills His Tank With Special Interest Money
Congressional Candidate Elwyn Tinklenberg (MN-6) is making the usual end-of-quarter pitch to raise more money for his campaign. As of this morning he was only a few thousand dollars short of his goal. It’s a safe bet that union special interests have gone a long way toward helping him meet his fundraising goals. What [more...]

Posted Tue, 01 Jul 2008 .

Democracy Deficit

Unions vs. Elections
Legal recognition of a union has traditionally been achieved through secret ballot elections, in which each worker decides whether or not to support a union in the privacy of the voting booth -- just like a person votes for the President or a Senator. But unions frequently lose secret ballot elections. So they often bring intense pressure on companies to agree to a “card check” system instead of a secret election.
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(Card) Check Democracy at the Door
Welcome to the new world of union organizing, where union officials, desperate to stave off declining membership numbers, are increasingly turning to undemocratic “card check campaigns” to organize and collect dues from employees.
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Poor Election Records
Bruce Raynor, president of the union UNITE HERE, explains: “There's no reason to subject the workers to an election.” One SEIU local leader has flatly admitted, “We don't do elections.” And no wonder. Employees have chosen no representation at all in more than 2,000 elections over a two-year period.
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We don't do elections.

— SEIU Local 32BJ leader Mike Fishman