Most Freedom@Work readers are already aware of a growing scandal involving the pro-forced unionism Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) in New York, Baltimore, Washington, and now, California. For those who missed it, ACORN representatives were caught on camera giving advice to undercover journalists on how to open an illegal brothel, launder its profits, and commit a host of other illegal activities.

According to The Washington Examiner, teacher union officials have contributed over 1.3 million dollars (in mostly forced union dues) to ACORN since 2005.

We decided to do a little digging into union financial disclosure forms on the Department of Labor’s website. After examining union financial records, it turns out that officials of several high-profile unions diverted large sums of mostly forced union dues dollars to the same ACORN offices in Washington and New York that are implicated in the hidden camera scandal. 

In 2008, for example, the AFL-CIO New York City Teacher Union gave a total of $406,730 to an ACORN office in Brooklyn that was later exposed by undercover journalists at Big Government. This contribution was classified under "representational activities," meaning it was funded by teachers forced to pay dues to teacher union bosses. In states without a Right to Work law like New York, employees who don’t join unions can still be forced to pay union dues if union bosses acquire monopoly bargaining privileges.

The powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has also made financial contributions to ACORN. In 2008, the SEIU transferred $12,500 to ACORN’s Washington, DC office for "consulting fees and expenses." Once again, this was classified under "representational activities." The DC ACORN office is also implicated in the massive hidden camera scandal.

Finally, the NEA union hierarchy made its own significant financial contribution to ACORN in 2008. According to Department of Labor disclosure forms, the NEA bosses transferred $78,000 to ACORN’s Brooklyn office.

Because only the 2008 union disclosure forms are easily searchable, these shady transactions may be the tip of the iceberg. But we shouldn’t be surprised by the Big Labor-ACORN connection: after all, their organizational approaches and ideology are strikingly similar. In 2008, National Review’s Stanley Kurtz described one of ACORN’s favored "organizing" tactics:

Perhaps most mischievously, says Stern, Acorn uses banking regulations to pressure financial institutions into massive “donations” that it uses to finance supposedly non-partisan voter turn-out drives.

Anyone familiar with Big Labor’s corporate campaigns will immediately recognize this strategy. Like ACORN, Big Labor’s operatives frequently threaten non-union companies and workers with harassment, PR broadsides, and union-instigated protests with the goal of forcing them to knuckle under to forced unionism.

These financial connections between Big Labor and ACORN highlight the fundamental injustices of forced unionism. Every day, unwilling workers are forced to pay dues to union bosses or be fired from their jobs while their hard-earned money underwrites corruption and general thuggery.

Union officials are apparently getting inside information from the Administration, and the National Right to Work Foundation is demanding the documents to prove it.

Not long ago, the Foundation filed formal comments opposing the Obama Administration’s attempt to push government contractors into Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), which discriminate against nonunion employees in favor of unionized contractors.

Along with several other concerned organizations, the Foundation submitted its comments within a prescribed window period that ended on August 13. Interestingly enough, the two biggest construction industry unions – the Building & Construction Trades Department union and the Laborers’ Union – evidently failed to submit a response before August 13. After the deadline expired, however, the Administration suddenly announced a special extension to the window period.  Because many organizations who oppose PLAs publicly released their comments after the deadline had passed, this gives union operatives the opportunity to file comments in support of PLAs AFTER reviewing anti-PLA comments from organizations like the National Right to Work Foundation. 

Moreover, officials from the Building & Construction Trades union had the gall to admit to the Bureau of National Affairs that they didn’t plan on filing their PLA comments until mid-September, which strongly implies that key union operatives knew about the extension beforehand. 

Given these questionable circumstances, it seems likely that this move was planned ahead of time to give union operatives a leg-up.

There can be little doubt there is an unethical and incestuous relationship between Big Labor and Obama Administration.  To further prove this fact, the Foundation has filed a formal Freedom of Information Act request to obtain documents showing Big Labor collaborated with the Administration to extend the comment period at the last minute, allowing union bosses to review previously-submitted comments against PLAs.

We’ll keep you updated as this story develops. 

At this week’s AFL-CIO national convention, Richard Trumka is expected to be elected president of the nation’s largest union umbrella organization. The National Right to Work Foundation has prepared a Fact Sheet about Trumka’s record of militancy and disregard for the rule of law.

As president of the United Mine Workers (UMW) union, Trumka led multiple violent strikes. Trumka’s fiery rhetoric often appeared to condone militancy and violence, especially against workers who dared to continue to provide for their families by working during a strike. As a Virginia judge ruled in 1989, "violent activities are being organized, orchestrated and encouraged by the leadership of this union."

Take the murder of Eddie York, a nonunion contractor, who was shot in the back of the head and killed while leaving a worksite in 1993. Trumka and other UMW officials were charged in a $27 million wrongful death suit by Eddie York’s widow. After fighting the suit intensely for four years, UMW lawyers settled suddenly in 1997 — just two days after the judge in the case ruled evidence in the criminal trial would be admitted.

Later, as Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, Trumka pleaded the Fifth Amendment before Congress and a court-appointed election monitor over his role in an illegal fundraising scheme to benefit the Teamsters president Ron Carey’s re-election. Trumka has remained in his position ever since despite an AFL-CIO rule (adopted in 1957) which held that union officials who plead the Fifth have “no right to continue to hold office” in the union umbrella organization.

Read more about Trumka’s history of condoning union violence and corruption in the Foundation’s eye-opening Fact Sheet (PDF).

Foundation President Mark Mix’s latest op-ed takes aim at Obamacare’s forced unionism provisions. From the introduction:

In the heated debates on health-care reform, not enough attention is being paid to the huge financial windfalls ObamaCare will dole out to unions—or to the provisions in the various bills in Congress that will help bring about the forced unionization of the health-care industry.

Tucked away in thousands of pages of complex new rules, regulations and mandates are special privileges and giveaways that could have devastating consequences for the health-care sector and the American economy at large.

Read the whole thing here. For more information, check out Mix’s interview on Lou Dobbs Radio. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below:

Experts from the National Right to Work Foundation and Right to Work Committee took to the airwaves and opinion pages across America to remind us what Labor Day is really about —  the individual worker.

Mark Mix, president of National Right to Work, reminded Americans that "It’s ‘Labor’ Day, Not ‘Union’ Day" in his nationally published op-ed which appeared in over 20 newspapers across the country.  In his article, Mix offers a stouthearted rebuke to the usual union boss propaganda which has become commonplace on Labor Day:

This Labor Day, big labor bosses will dish out their usual Labor Day propaganda about how awful our lives would supposedly be without them.  The reality is that millions of workers and indeed our economy are continuing to suffer greatly under the scourge of compulsory unionism.

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Labor Day should be about honoring the hardworking Americans who make our country’s economy prosper — not union bosses who rely on forced unionism privileges for personal and political gain.

Mark Mix also took to the airwaves, appearing on The Dom Giordano Show, The Martha Zoller Show, and the national CBS radio network.  He also appeared on WFTL Morning News the morning after Labor Day.  Meanwhile, Mix’s Labor Day statement was aired on at least 10 radio stations in Right-to-Work states and forced-unionism states alike. 

Mix was also published in the Detroit News discussing how union boss monopoly bargaining is bankrupting Detroit’s public schools — pointing out the reality that "[t]he Detroit school district would be much better off if state legislators and [Michigan] Gov. Jennifer Granholm repealed or dramatically rolled back state policies promoting union monopoly bargaining in public schools."

Mix also was published on National Review Online exposing the stunning resemblance forced unionism has to the launching of President Barack Obama’s political career:

Why is Obama so comfortable with this coercive approach to workplace organizing? Perhaps because his political career was launched under similar circumstances. Few remember it now, but Obama’s electoral debut came in 1996, when he won a seat in the Illinois state legislature. “Won” is a bit of a misnomer, however, as candidate Obama ruthlessly eliminated his opponents by disqualifying signatures collected for ballot eligibility.

As former National Review political reporter David Freddoso detailed in his 2008 book on Obama, voters’ signatures were thrown out for a variety of spurious reasons, including one woman’s failure to list her married name instead of her maiden name. Other voters were struck from the lists for printing instead of signing their names on the eligibility petitions. Obama not only had his main opponent disqualified, he also succeeded in forcing a protest candidate off the ballot. Obama has personally admitted he felt “uncomfortable” with this hardball political tactic, but success has evidently allayed any guilt. After his opponents were disqualified, Obama won a seat in the state legislature by default.

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In 1996, Obama’s team of political operatives succeeded in bypassing an entire election. President Obama now seeks to end elections in every workplace in the country. He has already issued a series of executive orders designed to pressure government contractors to submit to compulsory unionism. Next up on the administration’s checklist: rolling back basic union financial-disclosure guidelines. Forced unionism via card check may not be far behind.

Under card check, employees would have only one choice: submit to unionization and forced union dues. As some Chicago voters discovered in 1996, having only one choice is not a real choice at all.

The National Right to Work Committee also capitalized on the Labor Day holiday to spread the message of individual liberty.  Committee Vice President Doug Stafford appeared on the Lars Larson Show on the lead up to Labor Day.  Stafford also sat down with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to talk of the dangers of card check forced unionism and Big Labor’s political muscle.

The effort for workplace freedom continues.  National Right to Work will continue to expose the evils of compulsory unionism as we work toward a day in which no American if forced to be a member of, or pay tribute to, an unwanted union.

Right to Work Committee VP Doug Stafford sat down with nationally-syndicated radio host Lars Larson to talk card check, possible Big Labor "compromises" and the newly-revived Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining Bill. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below: