Expose Obama » AFL-CIO

Conflict of Interest: Obama Appoints Fmr. SEIU Lawyer to Investigate Union Corruption

Ben — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:41:26 +0000

Don Loos, BigGovernment.com

Has President Barack Obama been deceiving America, with his Ethics Executive Order 13490? It certainly appears that the actions of the Obama Administration are far from his recent statement that he has “put into place the toughest ethics laws of any Administration in history [pause] in history.” A host of Obama’s appointments call into question the President’s commitment to his own Ethics Order. Appointments such as U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Sec. Hilda Solis, DOL Deputy Solicitor Deborah Greenfield, and NLRB Board member Craig Becker undermine Obama’s claim of “toughest ethics.”

Now, the National Right To Work Committee introduces John Lund, Obama’s “overseer” of union financial reporting and disclosure at DOL’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). This Obama appointee is a former director of the now-defunct Pacific Northwest Labor College, a former SEIU union employee , a fomer IUOE union employee, and former director of the University of Wisconsin School for Workers. Lund’s appointment means that he is now in charge of investigating financial mismanagement and irregularities by the very labor union officials he has trained for decades. (click to view the NRTW shocking handout on Lund)

Big Labor Payback Job One for Obama

Even though Obama campaigned on transparency and a focus on ethics, cronies at DOL focused on eliminating basic financial union disclosure and union officials’ conflict-of-interest disclosures requirements.

At DOL, John Lund cut the number of labor union investigators, rescinded disclosure of union officer benefits, eliminated financial reporting for unions like the Wisconsin Education Association Council, and eliminated conflict-of-interest reporting for thousands of union officials. Each of these actions benefits Big Labor Bosses, but undercuts those forced to pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment.

John Lund Conflicts-of-Interest

The Obama Ethics Executive Order requires appointees to pledge that they will refrain from involvement in matters involving their former employer or clients. The AFL-CIO and other unions are former clients of John Lund, and these unions remain clients of his former and current employer, the University of Wisconsin School for Workers (Lund is currently on unpaid leave while at DOL). The Wisconsin School for Workers’ primary mission is to train union officials; the very officials that Lund now purportedly investigates for corruption.

The following highlights are but a few that The National Right To Work Committee has unearthed to illustrate Lund’s conflicts-of-interest….

Biden to Union Thugs: You Keep “Barbarians from the Gate”

Ben — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:25:43 +0000

Obama’s Economic Advisers: International Socialists, Union Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and Campaign Cronies

Ben — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:40:43 +0000

Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com

The media enthused when Barack Obama bloviated during his State of the Union Address, “We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” They now enthuse that the president has appointed members to his new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness allegedly designed to cut down inefficient regulations and unnecessary government burdens. None of the media announced that the appointees are a collection of globalists, media elites at NBC News, union thugs, amnesty activists, employees of Soros-funded think tanks, wealth redistributionists, business failures in the subprime lending industry, and Chicago cronies. Nonetheless, today’s issue of USA Today is already spinning the story under the headline, “Obama Wants Business World’s Best Ideas on Jobs.”

Where he would get those ideas is anyone’s guess.

Richard Trumka is perhaps the most conspicuous choice on this job-creating council. Trumka, who recently admitted to Astroturfing the protests in Wisconsin and around the country, is president of the AFL-CIO and a longtime Big Labor activist with a shady history. Michelle Malkin has noted that Trumka led the United Mine Workers when a non-union worker named Eddie York was shot to death in the midst of a mining strike. The UMW aided all eight union members present at the scene of the crime and disciplined none of them. In a separate incident, Trumka incited a crowd in Illinois to “kick the s–t out of every last” person who crossed the UMW picket line. Working his way up the ranks, as AFL-CIO treasurer he was implicated in two money-laundering scandals involving the Teamsters. He said if he were forced to testify before Congress, he would invoke the Fifth Amendment. Trumka climbed the ladder by gripping the coattails of John Sweeney, the union’s former president and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Sweeney and Trumka saw the union donate more than $200 million in political aid to the Democrats in 2008 and send out more than 250,000 “volunteers,” many of whom worked for Obama in swing states. On February 15, Barack Obama awarded Sweeney the Medal of Freedom.

After succeeding Sweeney as the union’s president in September 2009, Trumka decided to further radicalize the union. Just last fall, Trumka insisted, “We need to fundamentally restructure our economy and re-establish popular control over the private corporations which have distorted our economy and hijacked our government. That’s a long-term job but one we should start now.” To that end, Trumka has worked with European socialists to establish a global tax, a measure that is also a top priority of Obama’s Science Czar John Holdren. Last year, Trumka carried out his threats to go after Democrats who opposed ObamaCare’s “public option,” failing to oust Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln as the Democratic nominee.

The new council position provides no real boost to Trumka; he doesn’t need one. Although certain members of Obama’s Cabinet have not heard from the president after serving two years into his administration, Trumka recently boasted: “I’m at the White House a couple times a week. Two, three times a week. I have conversations everyday with someone in the White House or in the administration. Everyday.”

Trumka is not the only union thug with a seat at the table.

Joseph T. Hansen helps Trumka present the Labor Left’s views. Hansen is president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and chairman of Change to Win, the AFL-CIO’s major union rival (the one formed by SEIU). Like Trumka, Hansen is already a frequent presidential advisor. Hansen serves as a member of Obama’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. Hansen, too, helped elect Obama. UFCW’s political action committee, United Food & Commercial Workers International Union Active Ballot Club, spent $673,309 on Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and $3.5 million on Democratic candidates in 2008 and 2010….

Video of the Day: Union Boss Talks with White House “Everyday”; Cabinet Secretaries, Never

NewsEditor — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:17:55 +0000

This video shows the shocking level to which union bosses influence the Obama administration’s policies. AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka, whom Michelle Malkin describes as a man with a legacy of violence, states he has been in touch with the White House everyday and is present at meetings inside the White House several times a week. On the other hand, at least half-a-dozen members of his own Cabinet say Obama has never spoken with them in the two years of his administration to date. (Former CIA Director James Woolsey had a similar problem with Bill Clinton.) Trumka, who has worked with European socialists for a global tax, is one of a chosen few radicals pulling the strings. So much for the assurances of psuedo-conservatives, who enthused at how “conservative” Obama’s cabinet was, especially his foreign policy choices. Wiser heads knew Obama was committed to imposing socialism at all costs. This video proves the “moderate” left-wingers in his administration are window dressing for a far more sinister agenda, one about which many so-called conservatives are utterly clueless.

Obama Gives Medal of Freedom to Socialist Union Crony

Ben — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:21:33 +0000

Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com

This afternoon President Barack Obama bestowed the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on John J. Sweeney. Sweeney served as president of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009. He is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Although the labor movement has always heavily favored Democrats, Sweeney’s predecessor, the late Lane Kirkland, was an anti-Communist liberal who assisted Poland’s Solidarity movement. Sweeney, on the other hand, repealed the union’s longstanding rule banning Communists from meaningfully participating in the union.

Sweeney, a former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), rose to power because he and handpicked successor Richard Trumka believed Kirkland was too moderate….

Big Labor's Million$ of Reasons to Vote for Obama

Ben — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:32:53 +0000

Kevin Bogardus, The Hill

Unions are joining the air war of radio and television ads surrounding this year’s midterm election.

Over the last week, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) spent at least $200,000 on billboard signs, direct mail and radio ads, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. Those funds were for attacks against Republican opponents of several vulnerable House Democrats as well as against Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who is running for retiring Sen. Kit Bond’s (R-Mo.) seat.

That is about a fifth of SEIU’s spending on campaign ads so far for the general election — now totaling at least $1.3 million since mid-September — according to FEC records filed by Oct. 14…[T]he American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has spent at least $5.2 million on the general election so far…Some Democratic lawmakers whom SEIU has helped out so far include endangered Reps. John Boccieri (Ohio), Phil Hare (Ill.), Tom Perriello (Va.), Mark Schauer (Mich.), Betty Sutton (Ohio) and Dina Titus (Nev.)…The American Federation of Teachers has also started its campaign effort. According to FEC records, the union has spent at least $430,000 on canvassers in support of several Democrats, including Richmond, Reps. John Carney (D-Pa.), Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), as well as a direct mail initiative for Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.).

Obama’s union pals demanding more federal spending

NewsEditor — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:37:00 +0000

Kevin Hall, Examiner.com

Richard Trumpka and other Union Leaders are close to Obama

Unions spent a fortune helping Barack Obama get elected. He owes them. Now, they want their payoff. Union leaders remind Obama of his debt to them on weekly basis. The most frequent visitor to the Obama White House is Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union. Stern visited the White House 22 different times during his first nine months in office. Richard Trumka, the new president of the AFL-CIO, has already visited at least eight times.

These men wield great power over the U.S. President. They tell him what they need, and he delivers. “We’re going to make sure that in every policy, every decision, we don’t lose sight of the folks that brought us to the dance,” Vice President Joe Biden told the AFL-CIO Executive Committee in March. That promise has held true.

The $787 billion stimulus bill, which has failed miserably at stimulating the economy, was a union payoff. Obama issued an executive order tied to the bill that “strongly encourages” hiring union labor for all government contracts. The bill also demands all construction contracts pay union wages. Obama told us Porkulus would create jobs and keep unemployment below 8%. It did not. It rewarded unions, which make up only 12.5% of the workforce.

Other union payoffs include the auto company bailouts and cutting the D.C. school voucher program. The United Steelworkers union demanded he impose a tariff of Chinese tire imports. He complied. The result? Higher prices for U.S. consumers during terrible economic times. The rest of the country be damned, as long as the unions are happy.

Obama Labor Department Ignores Freedom of Information Act

NewsEditor — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:17:00 +0000

By Don Loos, Big Government

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is defiant and combative

On Friday, 20 November 2009, The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation (Foundation) decided enough was enough and filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court demanding that they compel the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to comply with the Foundation’s April 6th Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request.
The Foundation’s FOIA requested:

Records from communications and recorded events where specified Obama appointees and Big Labor official were present
Lists of lawsuits involving the Department of Labor and Deborah Greenfield within the past eight years.

List of any gifts received by Solis in the past 5 years from Big Labor or its officials

Specifically provide in detail (a) notes, (b) agreements, (c) communications, and (d) agendas related to the regulations related to the labor union and officer disclosure rules

Copies of phone logs

Copies of any notes or documents related to any enforcement of any labor laws and any outside groups such as labor unions, American Rights at Work, or ACORN

Obama’s Labor Department Ignores His Transparency Guidance
Remember January 21, 2009, when President Barack Obama proclaimed the new era of more open and transparent government began? This U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy memorandum is a good reminder:

On his first full day in office, January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of all departments and agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The President directed that FOIA “should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Moreover, the President instructed agencies that information should not be withheld merely because “public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

Agencies were directed to respond to requests “promptly and in a spirit of cooperation.”

Obama Presents New Industry Czar on Labor Day

NewsEditor — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:27:46 +0000

by Alex Sundby, CBS News

One day after announcing the resignation of his adviser on green jobs, President Obama will introduce his senior adviser on manufacturing.

CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports that Ron Bloom has traveled with Mr. Obama for his introduction at a manufacturing-friendly audience — the AFL-CIO’s annual Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati.

Bloom isn’t a stranger to unions, and this won’t be his first position in Washington. Knoller reports that Bloom will continue to serve as a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s Auto Industry Task Force. Previously, Bloom served as a legal adviser to the president of the United Steelworkers Union.

Obama Declares National Emergency to Limit Pay Increases to Federal Workers

NewsEditor — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:32:32 +0000

The most subservient and dependable constituency for the Democratic party and Barack Obama has been the unions that represent government workers such as American Federation of Government Employees (AFL-CIO).

Richard Trumpka Leader of AFL-CIO

Now Obama has repaid their worship by declaring a national emergency for the sole purpose of holding their pay down. Their unwavering support has been repaid with the back of his hand.

Full coverage is in today’s Wall Street Journal:

President Barack Obama blocked large pay raises slated for tens of thousands of federal employees Monday, overriding statutory formulas to hold pay increases to 2% in 2010.

Invoking the “national emergency” declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the president said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that under pay formulas set in 1990, federal employees with pay levels set according to comparable local wages are set for average pay increases of 18.9%.

White House officials say the declaration was routine. Ever since Congress passed the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act in 1990, presidents have been invoking the emergency clause to hold down pay increases due under the formula that mandates wages comparable to local pay levels.

That has created a yawning gulf. If Mr. Obama did nothing, the comparability formula would dictate a 16.5% pay increase, on top of the 2.4% cost of living increase.