posted on July 17, 2007 11:19:21 AM new
Nothing like making it easier for the unions to have no oversight. tsk tsk tsk
===
WSJ op-ed
JOHN FUND ON THE TRAIL
Belabor the Point
Democrats find one government office they want to cut back. It's the one that exposes union corruption.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
The new Democratic Congress has finally found a government agency whose budget It wants to cut: an obscure Labor Department office that monitors the compliance of unions with federal law.
In the past six years, the Office of Labor Management Standards, or OLMS, has helped secure the convictions of 775 corrupt union officials and court-ordered restitution to union members of over $70 million in dues.
The House is set to vote Thursday on a proposal to chop 20% from the OLMS budget. Every other Labor Department enforcement agency is due for a budget increase, and overall the Congress has added $935 million to the Bush administration's budget request for Labor. The only office the Democrats want to cut back is the one engaged in union oversight.
Although Congress has long insisted on copious reporting by corporations, including the burdens of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, lawmakers have been relatively nonchalant about union reporting. Unlike the quarterly filings of corporations, unions must only file once a year with the Labor Department using a free software program. They don't have to get an independent certified audit, are only rarely audited by the government, and don't have to follow standard accounting methods.
OLMS, the Labor office that watches over union disclosure forms, says that last year 93% of unions met its reporting requirements. But the other 7% deserve scrutiny. Union members deserve to know how their dues are spent.
They might want to know that in 2005, the National Education Association gave more than $65 million to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and dozens of other liberal advocacy groups that have nothing to do with the interests of teachers.
In 2006, 49 individuals employed at the national AFL-CIO headquarters were paid more than $130,000. "Union members are also discovering the extent to which their dues money is funding lavish trips for union officials to luxury resorts and other expensive perks unrelated to collective bargaining," says Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
The OLMS reporting requirements date back to the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, the last major revision of federal labor law. The American Law Encyclopedia notes that then-Sen. John F. Kennedy "was instrumental in inserting title I of the act, which has been dubbed the union bill of rights." It mandated that union votes be by secret ballot, that unions file reports on large payments and loans to union officers, and that all members have access to union financial records and the right to recover misappropriated union assets. Its provisions led directly led to the creation of the Labor Department office that Democrats now consider the lone example of bloated government.
Far from oppressing unions with burdensome reporting requirements, the Office of Labor Management Standards is doing what governments often do best: provide information and punish people who abuse the public trust. It has posted an impressive array of data on union governance at its Web site, unionreports.gov, where any dues-paying member can access it.
Investigations conducted by OLMS also have led to an impressive list of successful prosecutions of union officials. Just last week Willie Haynes, a member of the Saginaw, Mich., City Council who also served as a United Auto Workers financial secretary, pleaded guilty to falsifying his union local's reports. In May, Chuck Crawley, a former Teamster's local president in Houston, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for stuffing a ballot box so he could be elected president of his union local and embezzling dues money.
GOP Rep. John Kline of Minnesota will offer an amendment Thursday to restore $3 million of the $11 million planned cutback in OLMS's budget, so its budget would merely be restored to its 2007 level. Whatever sums are spent on union disclosure reports appear to be a good investment. Unions held $22 billion in assets in 2005, and you'd think that a modest enforcement budget, representing less than 0.003% of that amount shouldn't be the only target for cuts by budget appropriators.
Union officials have publicly stated that they believe many of OLMS's requirements are burdensome and unnecessary. Since unions helped elect the current Congress, they are now seeking action on their agenda, which ranges from holding fewer secret ballot elections to cutting back on the oversight that is at the heart of the 1959 union "bill of rights" that JFK championed.
=====================
Yep....payback those unions for giving their support to the dem party. And here they told us they were going to 'clean things up in WA DC'.
posted on July 18, 2007 06:10:01 AM new
Sad, but that's about as intelligent as mingo is going to get without a C & P.
Texas is a "right to work" state where the word "union" is seldom heard and seems to be doing fine.
Texas has an economy that is the second largest in the nation and the 15th largest in the world based on GDP (PPP) figures. As the largest exporter of goods in the United States, Texas currently grosses more than 100 billion dollars a year in trade with other nations.
posted on July 18, 2007 07:19:49 AM new
Hilarious that the John Wayne wannabe thinks the U.S. consists of Texas only. ...and unfortunate but not surprising that he has no education or knowledge of the history of the U.S.
posted on July 18, 2007 08:49:10 AM new
Quote: "...and unfortunate but not surprising that he has no education or knowledge of the history of the U.S."
In your mind only again mingo. I'll compare my knowlege of history to yours anyday.
To quote you: "A ha hahahahahahaha! LOL Hahahahahaha!LOL!! ROFLMAO ! "
posted on July 18, 2007 10:06:21 AM newTexas has an economy that is the second largest in the nation and the 15th largest in the world based on GDP (PPP) figures. As the largest exporter of goods in the United States, Texas currently grosses more than 100 billion dollars a year in trade with other nations.
Speaking of quotes, that C&P one is accredited to Wikipedia.
posted on July 18, 2007 11:25:53 AM newI see you're taking up for your leader again.
Etexbill, is this your silly mind-thought where individual thought and opinions are not tolerated and everyone is designated a position, one below the other? Does that make you feel more comfortable? So who are you under here - who is your leader?
posted on July 18, 2007 02:12:06 PM new
She's been doing that a lot lately, etexbill.
She's always needed someone to lean upon. Always dependent upon another liberal....lol. I see her actions the same way you do. But she'd NEVER admit to it....EVER. ;-D
posted on July 18, 2007 02:49:41 PM new
Yup, here comes momma rushing in to defend one of her boys when he runs into a bit of difficulty facing the fact that some of us here can speak for ourselves and don't need others to do it for us. lol
posted on July 18, 2007 03:43:57 PM new
So why do you have your nose in it then, linda?
You'd rather label and categorize others because of your own insecurities when it comes to discussing anything without a C&P response that originally came from someone else's thought process first. All you do is regurgitate it here and add a lol or tsk along with a few sneering smileys for emphasis so in your little mind it equates deep thought and judgment. It's not.
posted on July 18, 2007 05:12:35 PM new
Not that she needs any help from me, but Kiara is definitely an independent thinker who does not need to follow the crowd. I find her to be level headed and calm and I always enjoy her posts (like the poor distracted bus driver!) I'm a big fan.
posted on July 18, 2007 06:40:22 PM new
Thanks Coincoach, I truly enjoy your thoughtful input on any topics you reply to.
Lest we forget next time we feel light hearted.......
The Round Table
A place to kick back, relax, and have fun! ...........
........ amidst the sneering and snarling and snarking of those who wish to change the format to a holy meeting place of worshiping an inept leader and digging dirt on all those who defy that leader or any of his followers .............
....... where differing opinions should not be freely spoken on the misdeeds of war, corruption, greed, hypocrisy, lies or immorality of said leader or any of his followers ........
....... and remember always ............
........ The Round Table is now a place where any amusement, free thought and real smiling from the heart are unacceptable and most likely considered evil work of the devil so will not be tolerated.
posted on July 18, 2007 06:50:38 PM new
I hope neither of you break your arms patting each other on the back.
Just as in this thread kiara RARELY posts to topic....most things are made personal by her constant whining about what others do that she doesn't like.
Then she twists it around and plays stupid about her own actions.
But the funny part is when other liberals come in a compliment her for what she does here. ROFLMHO....oh how typical.
posted on July 18, 2007 07:20:17 PM new
Linda, I don't see that you have any sense of humor for anything that's light fun or if I address anyone else - you even hated to see me enjoy the moon at night and got angry with me over something as simple as that.
In fact the only time I ever see you having fun here is when those sexually retarded guys pop in and make crude comments about gay sex or body functions and fluids and then again when they call the rest of us women the C word - if that happens you just roll out of your chair, laughing straight from the heart because you relate to it so well. Maybe they will stop by and entertain you soon so you can lighten up a bit, eh?
posted on July 18, 2007 07:31:42 PM new
"I hope neither of you break your arms patting each other on the back." My arm is used to patting people on the back.
Sorry, Linda, but I disagree. If that's what you want to think, continue with your paranoia. You take everything so personally.
Kiara..great post!
[ edited by coincoach on Jul 23, 2007 09:59 PM ]
posted on July 18, 2007 07:37:50 PM new
LOL...and as for YOU CC. Ever since you posted your respect and admiration for 'waco' I've seen you in a much different light.
Few admit to being supportive of idiots. But you sure did.
posted on July 18, 2007 08:43:40 PM newTry and focus on something you can be right about...your OWN feelings/positions.
I have been speaking my own feelings/positions for years and that's exactly what makes you so angry, linda. If I agreed with you each time you praised Bush you would be patting my back long ago. In fact by now it would ache from all the patting.
posted on July 19, 2007 01:45:30 PM newThe fact that the outhouse is now closed,
Did the Rev's trash and bash board close?
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- The duty of a patriot in this time and place is to ask questions, to demand answers, to understand where our nation is headed and why. If the answers you get do not suit you, or if they frighten you, or if they anger you, it is your duty as a patriot to dissent. Freedom does not begin with blind acceptance and with a flag. Freedom begins when you say 'No.'
posted on July 19, 2007 10:33:04 PM new
LOL CC. nope...your observations leave a LOT to be desired.
I only use certain names with certain posters. I can't remember EVER calling anyone an idiot....until 'waco' peepa. And many on many boards have also called him what he was. Had nothing to do with his political positions....some people are just idiots. And waco was one of them. Even a few of the liberals here tried to silence him as he embarrassed THEM. lol Other boards even game him 'special awards' for his stupidity. lol
In character for me? LOL Well....that seems okay with you when it comes from any liberal. But your continued bias sure rears it's ugly head.
And when you first came here...I held a certain degree of respect for you....not your positions...UNTIL you made that statement about 'waco'. Then your judgement ability became very clear to me...
LOL!
Are YOU a Bunghole?