Bombshell Report: Top Union Boss Apparently Solicited Bribes To Greenlight Lucrative Pension Fund Deals
A California union boss is under investigation for soliciting bribes from financial firms who wanted to invest in Big Labor’s pet political projects.
Sean Harrigan, a former top official with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFWC) union, was also a board member of California’s massive public pension fund (CalPERS). Instead of working to safeguard workers’ pension plans, however, Harrigan used his position to steer lucrative state investments toward financial firms who agreed to contribute to the UFCW’s political programs:
Financial firms showered nearly $1 million in political cash on the United Food and Commercial Workers union in California while a top union leader sat on the boards of big public pension funds in the state, an analysis of campaign finance records shows.
Sean Harrigan [2], the union’s former executive director, is now under scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has charged several firms and individuals with making improper payments to win investments from pension funds in New York and New Mexico.
Harrigan, 62, stepped down from the board of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension [3] system last month in response to the SEC inquiry into his dealings while at the fund. He was appointed to the LA fund in 2005 after serving as a trustee and board president at CalPERS from 1999 through late 2004.
Whoops. Apparently, appointing corrupt union bosses to oversee millions of public dollars is a bad idea. The Sacramento Bee has a helpful list of Harrigan’s greatest hits:
An examination of campaign contribution records, disclosures CalPERS board members file when they have contacts with money managers and documents outlining approved deals show the UFCW campaign fund received contributions from money managers as their deals were being considered by the CalPERS board.
Among the examples:
• In July 2001, CalPERS closed a $125 million deal with urban developer CIM Group after board members – including Harrigan – initially rejected it.
On March 18, 2003, the board approved up to $280 million with the CIM California Real Estate Fund, supplementing the initial $125 million. Seventeen days later, CIM donated $12,000 to the UFCW union fund, records show.
Harrigan, meanwhile, bought a penthouse apartment at Sky Lofts, one of the CIM projects that CalPERS backed in downtown Los Angeles for $887,500 in 2006, according to property records.
In other words, firms’ investment proposals magically sailed through as long as UFCW bosses got their cut. Adding insult to injury, Harrigan allegedly received a favorable real estate deal from the same firm whose investment fund he’d just approved.
Keep in mind that these are the same union bosses who routinely disburse millions of dollars in compulsory union dues from employees across the country. Harrigan himself was the former Executive Director of the UCFW – do you think he was any more trustworthy with workers’ dues than he was with California’s pension fund?
The answer, of course, is no. Corruption is endemic to Big Labor’s massive political fundraising apparatus, and this sordid incident of corruption is just one more example why union bosses should not be given the power to force workers to pay dues or be fired.
New Right to Work Video: The Truth About Card Check
With all the controversy surrounding card check legislation, it’s worth talking to workers who’ve actually experienced the procedure first-hand. With that in mind, the National Right to Work Foundation interviewed several employees who endured intimidation, harassment and coercion at the hands of union organizers during an actual card check drive. After UAW organizers forced their way into the workplace through the coercive card check scheme, the workers forced a secret ballot decertification vote (using a precedent won by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys) and tossed out the unwanted union.
Here’s the video:
Workers’ Secret Ballot Election Ignored As Company Imposes Unwanted Teamster Union ‘Representation’
Phoenix, AZ (June 15, 2009) – With free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation, three U.S. Foodservice employees have filed unfair labor practice charges against the company and Teamster union officials for illegal collusion.
Company and union officials disregarded the results of a secret ballot election where employees clearly chose not to be represented by the union.
The workers, Felix Alvarado and Emilio Lamar of Phoenix and Dennis Dickey of Casa Grande, turned to staff attorneys at the Foundation after they received a memo from U.S. Foodservice management informing them that the company had accepted Teamsters Local 104 as the monopoly bargaining agent of all drivers, warehouse workers, and mechanics at the Phoenix facility and would soon begin contract negotiations with Teamster union bosses.
But the union lost a secret ballot election run by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in September 2008. Moreover, in July 2008, workers collected petitions from a majority of workers stating that they did not want the union’s “representation.” Without demonstrated support of the union by a majority of workers, it is illegal for the company to recognize and bargain with the union.
Foundation attorneys have filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB and are also seeking immediate injunctive relief to halt the unlawful bargaining. In addition, workers are asking the NLRB to conduct a decertification election to remove Teamsters Local 104 as their monopoly bargaining agent. A prior Foundation-won NLRB precedent determined that workers may demand a secret ballot vote within 45 days of company recognition of a union through the abusive “card check” organizing process.
Because Arizona is one of 22 states with Right to Work laws, no employees at the facility can legally be forced to join or pay any dues or fees to the union as a condition of employment. Federal labor law, however, compels all workers in a bargaining unit to accept the “representation” of a union that the company has recognized with demonstrated support from a majority of the unit’s workers. Under these circumstances, it becomes illegal for individual employees to negotiate terms of employment directly with the company.
“Concerned Americans are increasingly aware of Big Labor’s war on the secret ballot in union certification elections,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The company and the Teamster union should be ashamed of themselves for thumbing their noses at employees’ right to be free of union-boss interference in their workplace lives.”
Union Watchdog Files Disclosure Request after Virginia Turns Over Private Citizens’ Personal Information to Union Operatives
Richmond, VA (June 15, 2009) – The National Right to Work Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) seeking any records related to the department’s decision to provide union bosses with the personal contact information of in-home service providers.
The Foundation fears employees will face intimidation at the hands of union organizers.
On May 27, DMAS director Patrick Finnerty sent a letter to personal care attendants “providing in-home services through any consumer-directed Medicaid home and community-based waiver program” informing them that DMAS has provided the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) with their names, telephone numbers, and addresses.
DMAS turned over the personal information after SEIU union officials filed their own FOIA request seeking information to be used by a union entity called Virginia Association of Personal Care Assistants (VAPCA). The SEIU and VAPCA are attempting to unionize Virginia home-care providers.
In today’s FOIA request, National Right to Work Foundation Vice President and Legal Director Raymond LaJeunesse asks DMAS to release any records related to the SEIU’s request, including the original request, any correspondence between SEIU and Commonwealth personnel, any internal or interagency communication related to the request, any communication to or from Governor Tim Kaine’s office, any DMAS or other agency communication related to SEIU or VAPCA attempts to become monopoly bargaining agents of Virginia home-care providers, any documents or communication pertaining to Commonwealth policies regarding in-home service providers, and any DMAS or other Commonwealth agency documents pertaining to the employment classification of in-home service providers.
Union organizers often use such personal contact information to badger workers into joining union ranks.
“Virginians have a right to know if the Commonwealth is preparing to impose the SEIU on in-home care providers,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Thanks to the state government, those workers now have to worry about union organizers knocking on their doors to browbeat them to join the union.”
Does Obama’s Ethics Policy Apply to Labor?
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).
…
Ron Bloom, United Steelworkers’ (USW’s) director of corporate research, was appointed senior adviser on the auto bailout team.
…
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.
Did Big Labor Break the Bank in the 2008 Elections?
To readers who followed Big Labor’s record-breaking political contributions last election, it should come as no surprise that the AFL-CIO and the SEIU officials are hinting at big union debts. Of course, so long as the union bossses have a basically unrestricted right to to collect (and jack up) forced union dues, they will not have trouble raising revenue until most American jobs are destroyed.
But don’t be surprised to see the union bosses lining up at the federal bailout trough (again) to exploit the situation. Here’s the Wall Street Journal:
Alarm is coming even from inside the AFL-CIO — specifically, from Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who sits on the AFL-CIO’s finance committee. Bloomberg News reports that he is circulating a report claiming the AFL-CIO engaged in "creative accounting" to conceal financial difficulties heading into last year’s Presidential election. As recently as 2000, the union consortium of 8.5 million members had a $45 million surplus. By June of last year it had $90.6 million in liabilities, or $2.3 million more than its $88.3 million in assets. "If we are not careful, insolvency may be right around the corner," Mr. Buffenbarger warned.
—
As for the SEIU, as recently as 2002 total SEIU liabilities were about $8 million. According to its 2008 disclosure form, the union owed more than $156 million, a 30% increase over the $120 million it owed in 2007. Its liabilities now equal more than 80% of its $189 million in assets. Net assets fell by nearly half last year, to $34 million, from $64 million in 2007. The debt includes an $80 million loan the SEIU took out in 2003 to purchase a new headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. But the liabilities also stem from political spending, including at least $67 million last year on political and lobbying expenses, twice what it spent in 2007.
Adding insult to injury, the SEIU is initiating another vicious "corporate campaign" to intimidate one of its biggest creditors:
By the end of 2008, the SEIU also owed Bank of America nearly $88 million, including its headquarters loan and another $10 million for unspecified purposes. This is the same BofA that the union as spent the past months attacking as the face of Wall Street excess. The SEIU has protested outside of Bank of America offices and demanded the resignation of CEO Ken Lewis.
Keep in mind that any union debt is paid off by rank-and-file workers across the country, many of whom are unwilling contributors to Big Labor’s massive political apparatus. No wonder unions are having more and more trouble convincing workers to join, which is why they’re going all-out to get Congress to pass "card check" instant-organizing legislation:
One irony here is that the SEIU’s Mr. Stern, the most powerful labor leader in America, loudly broke from the AFL-CIO in 2005 because he said it spent too much in Washington and not enough on organizing. But unions can’t resist the lure of the Beltway precisely because they fare so poorly in the private marketplace. The union red ink helps explain why Mr. Stern and AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney are lobbying so hard for Congress to rig the rules to make it easier for unions to gather more dues-paying members.
The Journal also notes that union bosses are working overtime to rollback basic transparency guidelines, something the Foundation sounded the alarm on back in March:
Unions have a long history of corruption in part because they mix large amounts of cash from dues with political purposes and little oversight. Yet the same union leaders who denounce failures of corporate governance bitterly resisted the Bush Administration’s expanded disclosure, and now they want the Obama Administration to water down those rules. The news about rising union debt shows why that transparency is more necessary than ever.
Keeping basic transparency regulations in place would be marginally beneficial, but the reality is that union bosses will continue to extort money from unwilling workers for a variety of activities as long as they enjoy exclusive monopoly bargaining and forced dues privileges. Making union membership and dues-payment strictly voluntary is the only effective way to combat union corruption and encourage financial restraint, which is why state Right to Work laws are so important.
New Right to Work Podcast: Part 3 of Mark Mix on the Jason Lewis Show
In the third and final installment of his interview with Jason Lewis, Foundation President Mark Mix discusses the implications of Big Labor’s Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining Bill. Click here to listen or use the embedded player below:
Federal Labor Board Sanctions Union Boss Deception
As if there was ever any doubt about whether or not the federal government favors union bosses over individual employees (including union members and nonmembers alike), the National Labor Relations Board last week determined that union bosses may lie to employees about employers’ contract proposals.
In a Division of Advice memorandum, NLRB Associate General Counsel Barry Kearney ruled that union chiefs do not commit an unfair labor practice when they misstate the details of a contract proposed by the company.
In the NLRB’s twisted logic, union bosses can deceive the very employees it has the duty to fairly represent so long as the deception involves "wholly an internal union matter."
This is a textbook example showing just why Right to Work protections are so needed. In 22 states with Right to Work laws, employees cannot be forced to join or pay dues to a union to get or keep a job. When "representatives" deliberately lie to employees about contract negotiations, why should workers be forced to pay for this "service"?
National Union Boss Looks in Mirror, Sees «The Sopranos»
The Las Vegas Sun reports that internal disputes and struggles for power within some of the nation’s top union monopolies have played a role in Big Labor’s inability to force the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill through Congress.
This is largely untrue. While internal union disputes may be playing a small role, the real story is that the National Right to Work Committee has led mobilized grassroots America to lobby against this toxic union boss power grab. Of course, this bill would eliminate the secret ballot in union certification elections and empower federal bureaucrats to write and impose contracts on small businesses and workers.
But the current power struggle among UNITE HERE union chiefs is incredibly revealing:
Exhibit A: Unite Here General President Bruce Raynor resigned last week from the apparel and hotel workers union after six months of legal and verbal jousting with co-president John Wilhelm over union resources and the direction of Unite Here.
He said he decided to quit after Wilhelm’s allies, accompanied by nearly a dozen security guards, broke into his New York union office and stole personal files related to mediation sessions aimed at reconciling the two leaders’ differences. Raynor likened the incident to something one would see on the HBO mob series “The Sopranos.”
A bit of a thug himself, Raynor would know. Sadly, union violence and intimidation is nothing new and it is usually committed against independent-minded American workers. The Card Check Forced Unionism Bill would only increase union harassment of American workers.
Indeed, even comparing union operations to "The Sopranos" is common. And it’s no laughing matter, as we show in this Right to Work video report about an indictment of twelve Operating Engineers Local 17 union officials.
Research Institute Finds ‘Card-Check’ Forced Unionism Threatens Job-Based Private Health Insurance
The National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) recently published a fact sheet discussing U.S. Census Bureau data from 1999 to 2007 that shows the "Card Check" Forced Unionism Bill and similar legislative "compromises" actually endanger workers’ access to health insurance.
According to NILRR’s observations:
As of 1999, according to economists Barry Hirsch and David Macpherson, 10.2% of private-sector employees nationwide were under “exclusive” union representation. In 10 states — Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Washington — 14% or more of private-sector employees were unionized. From 1999 to 2007, these states suffered an aggregate decline of 3.0%, or 1.44 million, in the number of people with private, job-based health insurance.
The 22 states with 1999 private-sector unionization of between 7.0% and 13.9% also experienced an overall decline in access to job-based insurance, but the decline was substantially less
severe. The employment-based insurance rolls in these states — Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming — fell by 843,000, or 1.2%, from 1999 to 2007.Meanwhile, the 18 states with 1999 private-sector unionization of no more than 6.9% — Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North
Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia — had a very different experience. These least-unionized states enjoyed an increase of 2.96 million, or 5.2%,
in the number of people with job-based private health insurance.
NILRR sums up their findings by stating, "there is a strong negative correlation between the growth in the ranks of the privately insured within a state and the share of its private-sector employees who are subject to union monopoly bargaining." In other words, in states where union bosses are more likely to hold their grasp on private-sector workers in the workplace by claiming monopoly bargaining privileges over them, the more likely the number of those employees and their families receiving private health insurance from their employer will decrease — i.e. forced unionism threatens workers’ access to private-sector job-based health insurance.
Enter Big Labor’s latest compulsory-dues power grab: card check forced unionism. Card check forced unionism (and similar legislative "compromises" being floated in the U.S. Senate right now) intends to help Big Labor herd more workers into compulsory unionism by making it easier for union bosses to use coercion and intimidation to claim monopoly-bargaining power over millions of additional workers. However, NILRR’s research illustrates that President Barack Obama and Congressional compulsory unionism advocates are working steadily to sell out not only workers’ rights — but also their well-being — to continue to dole out paybacks for Big Labor’s political support.
For more on NILRR’s findings, click here.
