Freedom@Work readers are aware that President Barack Obama has routinely paid back the one billion dollar debt he and other forced unionism proponents owe to union bosses for their record political spending spree in the 2008 election cycle.  From blacklisting workers who exercise their right to refrain from union membership to rolling back union boss disclosure requirements, Obama has gladly used his executive power to return the favor. 

As reported previously, several high-profile Obama nominees to key positions with the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board are longtime Big Labor lobbyists and compulsory unionism hardliners, most notably Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis (who was treasurer of the Big Labor lobby American Rights at Work while serving as a member of Congress) and NLRB member-nominee Craig Becker (whose views on union organizing are radical even by Big Labor’s standards).

Conveniently, and without irony, the AFL-CIO’s blog features an extensive list of other union bigwigs Obama has named to key labor positions, including:

Julia Clark, general counsel for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), and Ernie DuBester, a former AFL-CIO Legislative Affairs staff member, were nominated by President Obama last week to serve on the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA)—the federal workers’ version of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

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Ron Bloom, United Steelworkers’ (USW’s) director of corporate research, was appointed senior adviser on the auto bailout team.

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Mary Beth Maxwell, the former executive director of American Rights at Work, was appointed senior adviser to Solis at the Labor Department. In addition, the former Housing Investment Trust (HIT) lawyer, Helen Karnovsky, is now general counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development; former United Food and Commerical Workers attorney Carol Clifford is labor liaison at the Department of Agrictulture; and Naomi Walker, assistant director for Legislative Affairs, is now associate deputy secretary of labor.

What happened to Obama’s supposed strident ethics policy or keeping his appointees out of areas where they regulate or otherwise deal with their former employers?  Another special privilege for union bosses.