Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind (44 page)

14
Katie Fretland, “John McCain vs. Baby in Anti-War Ad,”
The Swamp
, June 18, 2008,
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/06/john_mccain_vs_baby_in_antiwar.html
, accessed December 2011.

15
Connie Cass, “Big Donors All around White House,” Associated Press, February 24, 1997.

16
Michael O’Brien, “Video seizes on union leader’s boast of daily contact with the White House,”
The Hill
, March 9, 2011,
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/148323-video-seizes-on-trumkas-boast-of-daily-contact-with-white-house
, accessed May 2012.

17
Guest List for the First Lady’s Box at the President’s Address to Congress, White House press release, September 8, 2011,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/08/guest-list-first-ladys-box-president-s-address-congress
, accessed February 2012.

18
Lynn Sweet, “Obama’s First State Dinner: The Guest List,”
Politics Daily
, November 24, 2009,
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/24/obamas-first-state-dinner-the-guest-list/
, accessed May 2012. Anna Burger also served as the chair of the labor union federation, Change to Win, but retired from her posts with both the SEIU and Change to Win in 2010. Steven Greenhouse, “After a life in labor, a union leader retires, frustrated by the movement’s troubles,”
New York Times
, September 4, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/us/05labor.html
, accessed April 2012.

19
Carol E. Lee, “State Dinner Guest List: 2012 in Mind?”
Washington Wire
(blog),
Wall Street Journal
, June 7, 2011,
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/06/07/state-dinner-guest-list-2012-in-mind/
, accessed February 2012.

20
“Guest List for the White House State Dinner,”
Washington Wire
(blog),
Wall Street Journal
,
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/03/14/guest-list-for-the-white-house-state-dinner/
, accessed April 2012.

21
Jeff Zeleny, “White House Visitor Log Lists Stars and C.E.O.’s,”
New York Times
, October 30, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/politics/31visitor.html
, accessed January 2012; Carl Horowitz, “SEIU President Andrew Stern Is Frequent White House Visitor; May Have Violated Lobbying Laws,” National Legal and Policy Center, November 18, 2009,
http://nlpc.org/stories/2009/11/18/seiu-president-andrew-stern-frequent-white-house-visitor-may-have-violated-lobbyi
, accessed January 2012.

22
“Union Leader Says Green Buildings Training Cost-Effective Way to Reduce CO2 Emissions,” 32BJ SEIU, press release, November 18, 2009,
http://www.seiu32bj.org/au/PR_2009_1118.asp
, accessed January 2012.

23
“Federal Grant to Expand Union’s ‘Green Supers’ Program,” 32BJ SEIU, press release, January 7, 2010,
http://www.seiu32bj.org/au/PR_2010_0107.asp
, accessed January 2012.

24
Ibid.

25
Nick Prigo, “Recovery Act Grants Help SEIU Grow Green Training Programs,” SEIU, January 12, 2010,
http://www.seiu.org/2010/01/recovery-act-grants-help-seiu-grow-green-training-programs.php
, accessed December 2011.

26
Ibid.

27
“SEIU 721, Worker Education & Resource Center (WERC) Win $1.2 Million in Funding for Job Training,” SEIU721, February 12, 2010,
http://www.seiu721.org/2010/02/seiu-721-worker-education-resource-cente.php
, accessed December 2011.

28
Daniel Stone, “What Green Jobs?”
Newsweek
, July 27, 2009,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/07/27/what-green-jobs.html
, accessed December 2011.

29
John M. Broder, “White House Official Resigns After G.O.P. Criticism,”
New York Times
, September 6, 2009,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/us/politics/07vanjones.html
, accessed April 2012; “Obama and the Left: The Lesson of the Rise and Fall of Van Jones,”
Wall Street Journal
, Review and Outlook, September 8, 2009,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574399452969175732.html
, accessed April 2012.

30
“The Working for America Institute,”
WorkingforAmerica.org
,
http://www.workingforamerica.org/documents/waibrochure.htm
, accessed December 2011.

31
Each of these grants is documented at
www.recovery.gov
.

32
“Crony Contacts: Want Federal Business? Better Be a Union Shop,”
Wall Street Journal
, April 14, 2010,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303695604575182333308913608.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
, accessed February 2012.

33
Executive Order 13,202, February 17, 2001.

34
Vince Vasquez, Dale Glaser, W. Erik Bruvold, “Measuring the Costs of Project Labor Agreements on School Construction in California,” National University System Institute for Policy Research, July 2011; Paul Bachman, David Tuerck, “Project Labor Agreements and Public Construction Costs in NY State, Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, April 2006; Paul Bachman, Jonathan Haughton, David G. Tuerck, “Project Labor Agreements and the Cost of Public School Construction in Connecticut,” Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, September 2004.

35
Rider, Levett, Bucknall, “Project Labor Agreements—Impact Study for the Department of Veteran Affairs,” June 2009, p. 35,
http://www.thetruthaboutplas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/PLAs-Impact-Study-for-the-Department-of-Veterans-Affairs-Rider-Levett-Bucknall-060209.pdf
, accessed May 2012; David G. Tuerck, Sarah Glassman, Paul Bachman, “Project Labor Agreements on Federal Construction Projects: A Costly Solution in Search of a Problem,” Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, August 2009.

36
Daniel Massey, “Ruling: Some WTC Workers Can’t Strike,”
Crain’s New York Business,
August 3, 2011,
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110803/REAL_ESTATE/110809961
, accessed January 2012. Joseph De Avila, “WTC Work Stoppage Continues for Third Day,”
Wall Street Journal
, August 3, 2011. In addition to construction delays from work stoppages, some reports show that projects with Project Labor Agreements in place take longer to complete that non-PLA projects. “Annual Report to the Governor and Legislature, use of Project Labor Agreements in Public Works Building Projects in Fiscal Year 2008,” New Jersey Department of Labor, October 2010 (concluding PLA projects have a longer duration than non-PLA projects).

37
To an audience of building and construction union members, President Obama stated, “I believe our economy is stronger when workers are getting paid good wages and good benefits… that’s why we’ve reversed the ban on Project Labor Agreements. As long as I serve as your President, I’m going to keep it up.” “Remarks of President Obama at Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, April 30, 2012,”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/30/1087528/-Remarks-of-President-Obama-at-Building-and-Construction-Trades-Department-AFL-CIO-April-30-2012
, accessed May 2012.

38
Steven Greenhut,
Plunder!
(Santa Ana, Calif.: Forum Press, 2009), p. 73.

39
Michelle McNeil, “Education stimulus maintained jobs, didn’t grow them,”
Edmoney.org
(blog), January 28, 2011,
http://edmoney.org/blog/2011/jan/28/jobs/
, accessed January 2012. Assuming that education workers pay an average of $600 a year in union dues, and that 75% of the jobs saved are union jobs (based on the percent of teachers that are unionized), then the stimulus preserves $165 million in teachers union dues annually. And the stimulus bill wasn’t the end of channeling money to the teachers unions, of course. In August
2010, Obama pushed through a second stimulus bill, this time focused on education: the Keep Our Educators Working Act, which cost “only” $23 billion.

40
Alyson Klein, “States: Come Get Your EduJobs Money,”
Education Week
, August 13, 2010,
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/08/edujobs_guidance_is_available.html
, accessed January 2012.

41
Kyle Olson, “Will Third Teachers’ Union Bailout Fund Obama’s Re-Election?”
BigGovernment.com
, September 13, 2011,
http://biggovernment.com/kolson/2011/09/13/will-third-teachers-union-bailout-fund-obamas-re-election/
, accessed December 2011.

42
“Federal Grant Supports Union Initiative,”
American Teacher
, October/November 2010, p. 2,
http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americanteacher/at_octnov10.pdf
, accessed December 2011.

43
Tamar Lewin, “Obama Wades into Issue of Raising Dropout Age,”
New York Times
, January 25, 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/education/obama-wades-into-issue-of-raising-dropout-age.html
, accessed January 2012.

44
See “The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools,” Issue Brief, Alliance for Excellent Education, November 2011,
http://www.all4ed.org/files/HighCost.pdf
, accessed March 2012.

45
This calculation is based on the current student/school worker ratio of 1:8.

46
“NEA’s 12-Point Action Plan for Reducing the School Dropout Rate,” National Education Association,
http://www.nea.org/home/18106.htm
, accessed February 2012.

47
See Rennie Center for Education and Research Policy, “Raise the Age, Lower the Drop Out Rate? Considerations for Policy Makers,” April 9, 2009,
http://renniecenter.issuelab.org/research/listing/raise_the_age_lower_the_dropout_rate_considerations_for_policymakers
, accessed February 2012; and “Raise the Bar, Not the Age,” Spotlight no. 321, John Locke Foundation, May 31, 2007,
http://www.johnlocke.org/acrobat/spotlights/spotlight_321-compulsiveed.pdf
, accessed February 2012.

48
This two-step process of card collection, followed by secret-ballot election, is set forth in the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 159(c) (
http://www.nlrb.gov/national-labor-relations-act
). Currently, if over 50 percent of the employees in a bargaining unit sign a card requesting a union, the employer can voluntarily choose to waive the secret-ballot election process and recognize the union. The Employee Free Choice Act—the card check legislation—would replace the provision requiring a secret-ballot election with the following provision: “If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative… the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative.” Employee Free Choice Act of 2009, H.R. 1409, 111th Cong. (2009),
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr1409/text
, accessed April 2012.

49
“Union-Controlled NLRB Approves Union Thuggery in Union Elections,” RedState, March 13, 2011,
http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/
03/13/union-controlled-nlrb-approves-union-thuggery-in-union-elections/, accessed December 2011.

50
James Sherk, “Workers Reject Card Checks, Favor Private Ballots in Union Organizing,” WebMemo #1363, Heritage Foundation, February 16, 2007,
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/02/workers-reject-card-checks-favor-private-ballots-in-union-organizing
, accessed December 2011.

51
Kris Maher, “President Tells Unions Organizing Act Will Pass,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 4, 2009,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123611995496723249.html
, accessed December 2011.

52
Sam Stein, “Obama’s Remarks On Employee Free Choice Act Make Labor ‘Very Pleased,’ ”
Huffington Post
, March 15, 2009,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/12/obamas-remarks-on-employe_n_166345.html
, accessed December 2011.

53
Kyle Olson, “Wisconsin Unions Insurance Scam at Stake in Collective Bargaining Reform,”
BigGovernment.com
, February 23, 2011,
http://biggovernment.com/kolson/2011/02/23/wisconsin-unions-insurance-scam-at-stake-in-collective-bargaining-reform/
, accessed January 2012.

54
Kimberley A. Strassel, “Union Power for Thee, But Not for Me,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 25, 2011,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703530504576164822561737348.html
, accessed December 2011.

55
“SEIU: Building a New American Health Care System,”
http://www.seiu.org/SEIUHCstory/SEIU%20healthcare%20reform%20booklet.pdf
; Mandy Nagy, “SEIU: Building a New American Health Care Empire?”
BigGovernment.com
, November 16, 2009,
http://biggovernment.com/libertychick/2009/11/16/seiu-building-a-new-american-health-care-empire/
, accessed December 2011.

56
Don Loos, “21.1 Million Reasons Big Labor Pours Money into ObamaCare,”
BigGovernment.com
, January 7, 2010,
http://biggovernment.com/dloos/2010/01/07/21-1-million-reasons-big-labor-pours-money-into-obamacare/
, accessed December 2011.

57
SEIU, “The National Health Care Workforce Enhancement Initiative,” December 9, 2008,
http://otrans.3cdn.net/eaad856a6456eb4795_i2m6bxlyz.pdf
, accessed April 2012. The memo represents proposed stimulus spending initiatives for health-care worker training prepared by the SEIU, and states, “$10 billion in federal funds will be available over two years through the economic stimulus package for use in the health care workforce development initiatives… Priority would be given to joint labor-management training and job placement initiatives, and consortiums involving nursing school, community colleges and worker organizations [i.e., labor unions].” The cover letter from SEIU health-care chair Dennis Rivera states, “We look forward to working closely with you to reform health care in 2009.”