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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 .

 Read more at LaborPains.org

Unfair Labor Practices


A History Of Violations
Virtually every U.S. labor union faces allegations of violating labor law. Consider the number of charges filed against these unions between 1998 and 2004:

United Food and Commercial Workers  2,161
Teamsters  6,909
Service Employees International Union  3,910
Steelworkers  1,912

Source: data supplied by the Bureau of National Affairs
"When most people think of violations of labor law, they think first of “Big Business.” But employees, employers, and labor organizations file thousands of charges each year – called Unfair Labor Practices – alleging violations of labor law by union officials.

The National Labor Relations Board's annual report for fiscal year 2005 included the number of Unfair Labor Practices alleged against employers and unions. Once again, union officials faced a disproportionately high number of allegations of wrongdoing, when compared to employers. The worst part: The vast majority of allegations said that members were the ones hurt by the union officials that are supposed to protect them.

    The NLRB reported in 2005 that:
  • Unions faced a total of 6,381 allegations
  • 82% of charges against unions alleged illegal restraint and coercion of employees (by comparison, the leading allegation against employers — at 53% — was for refusal to bargain)
  • 594 charges were for illegal union discrimination against employees

    The NLRB reported in 2004 that:
  • Unions faced a total of 6,917 allegations of wrongdoing
  • 80% of those charges were filed by individuals
  • Unions filed more than 100 charges against other unions
  • 81% of charges alleged illegal restraint and coercion of employees

More than 600 charges alleged illegal discrimination against employees, an increase of about 6 percent from 2003.