On 10-08-10, BOB KLAHN said to JEFF BINKLEY:



JB> What he fails to realize is how close his rhetoric is to that of
JB> a slave owner.  Odd.


Prior to 1865 Klahn would have been a slave owner.


BK>You lack the moral courage and the intellectual integrity to
BK>address your comments to me.


Tell him to go piss up a rope!


Worker Benefits Mortgaged for Political Contributions? - Katie Gage - Townhall
Conservative


Since the beginning of the 2008 cycle, Big Labor has donated more than
$500 million to political campaigns, with an overwhelming majority of that
going to Members of Congress and candidates for Federal office who support
their job-killing policies. Now, less than one month away from Election Day,
these same union bosses are not backing down from their aggressive commitment
to elect labor-friendly candidates and continue to increase their political
spending, while their own members, many of whom worked the line for decades
paying into pension programs, fail to receive the benefits they were promised
and have earned.


Mismanaged pension plans and poorly run budgets have left workers across the
country struggling to make ends meet, while union officers and bosses are
living high on the hog. Focused on promoting an agenda which results in lost
jobs and bail outs, the goal of Big Labor bosses is clear: line their own
pockets.


Studies have emerged over the past two years showing how grossly under-funded
many union pension plans are, some even falling into critical status under
federal evaluations. Unions like the Service Employees International Union
(SEIU) and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO) that have been the most vocal and public about their
contributions to elect like-minded candidates, and they are some of the very
same ones whose pension plans are struggling the most. Lacking the financial
wherewithal or concern to follow through on their word, bosses are instead
choosing to spend hard-earned dues on posh officer retreats and political
campaigns aimed at making unionization not just easier, but forced.


We've seen how Big Labor has been able to leverage its relationship with the
Obama Administration to finagle pro-union boss and anti-worker rules through
government agencies, most recently with the National Mediation Board's (NMB)
rule change on union elections in airline and railroad industries, which
overturned a 75 year old voting precedent. Also consider Craig Becker,
President Obama's appointee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) who
is a former attorney for the SEIU and AFL-CIO, yet refuses to recuse himself
from cases that involve these two unions.


And as Congress continues to fight off a floor vote on the Employee
"Forced" Choice Act (EFCA), which would strip workers of their right to a
private ballot in the unionization process while exposing them to intimidation
and coercion, Big Labor puts its money into electing candidates who will
advance the job-killing EFCA.


While Americans are struggling to climb out of their own, current economic
situations, we unfortunately are seeing Big Labor bosses spending workers'
pensions on political ads and campaign contributions. By trying to elect
allies who will take their agenda to Washington, D.C., Big Labor hopes to
ultimately gain more union members via forced unionization so they can collect
even more dues to reward their friends and punish their enemies. But if the
past few years are any indication, these bosses are not only short sighted,
but negligent as they are spending money they don’t have in hopes of
receiving payback, while digging a deeper hole in relation to their
liabilities and debts.


As Big Labor's political spending machine rolls on, the American public is
not fooled. They understand these union bosses expect a return on their
investment meaning job-killing legislation, but in the process, they are
mortgaging the hard-earned benefits of their own workers.


Katie Gage is the executive director of the Workforce Fairness institute.





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*Durango b301 #PE*