Unions Send Dues Money to Planned Parenthood

Nearly half a million to top abortionist, mostly for political purposes

Labor groups sent nearly half a million dollars to Planned Parenthood in 2014, according to federal disclosure forms.

Three of the nation’s largest unions—the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), contributed $435,000 to the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Almost all of that money was spent on political advocacy. AFSCME donated $400,000 to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which spent about $1 million helping Democratic campaigns in 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. UFCW categorized its $10,000 donation as political activity in federal labor filings.

Not all of the donations were political in nature. Some were categorized as charitable contributions to the billion-dollar organization, which performs more than 300,000 abortions each year. The remaining $25,000 given by AFSCME and SEIU were described as “grants” to a “tax-exempt organization.”

None of the unions returned request for comment about the specific purpose of the donations or whether they intended to maintain relations with the organization in the wake of recent scandals.

The Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life group, has released several hours of video of top Planned Parenthood officials discussing organ harvesting and the sale of remains in manner that may run afoul of federal law. The group released a fourth video Thursday showing Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Vice President Dr. Savita Ginde sifting through the remains of “another boy” while drawing attention to various organs and praising a “per item” payment schedule for pieces of the fetuses.

“It’s a baby,” she said on tape as an assistant probed the body for intact body parts to sell to undercover videographers posing as prospective organ buyers.

While donating fetal body parts is legal, federal law prohibits the alteration of abortion techniques to harvest usable parts of the fetus, and also prohibits any sale of the body parts.

Planned Parenthood and Democrats have attempted to shield the group, which now faces three congressional investigations, by saying the “tissue donations” are used for medical research. Ginde, the Rocky Mountain executive, told the CMP actors that the group would use the blanket term “research” to justify its financial benefit from the sale of body parts.

Via: WFB

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CALIFORNIA: SCOTUS’ Decision To Hear Friedrichs Case Has Unions In A Tizzy

On June 30^th, the Supreme Court decided to hear Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association et al, a case that could seriously change the way the public employee unions (PEUs) do business. If the plaintiffs are victorious, teachers, nurses, sanitation workers, etc. would be able to work without the financial burden of paying union dues. The responses to the Court’s decision from the teachers unions and their friends have ranged from silly to contradictory to blatantly dishonest.

In a rare event, leaders of the NEA, AFT, CTA, AFSCME and SEIU released a joint statement explaining that worker freedom would be a catastrophe for the Republic. Clutching their hankies, they told us that, “big corporations and the wealthy few are rewriting the rules in their favor, knocking American families and our entire economy off-balance.” And then, with an obvious attempt at eliciting a gasp, “…the Supreme Court has chosen to take a case that threatens the fundamental promise of America.” (Perhaps the labor bosses misunderstood the wording of the preamble to the Constitution, “In order to form a more perfect union….” No, this was not an attempt to organize workers.) While the U.S. is not without its problems, removing forced unionism will hardly dent the “fundamental promise of America.”

The California Federation of Teachers, which typically is at the forefront of any class warfare sorties, didn’t disappoint. The union claims on its website that the activity of union foes “has resulted in a sharp decline in median wages for working people and the decline of the middle class alongside the increasing concentration of income and wealth in the hands of the one per cent.” But wait a minute – the unions are the most potent political force in the country today and have been for a while. According to Open Secrets, between 1989-2014, the much maligned one-percenter Koch Brothers ranked 59^th in political donations behind 18 different unions. The National Education Association was #4 at $53,594,488 and the American Federation of Teachers was 12^that $36,713,325, while the Kochs spent a measly $18,083,948 during that time period. Also, as Mike Antonucci reports, the two national teachers unions, NEA and AFT, spend more on politics than AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, General Electric, Chevron, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, Lockheed Martin, FedEx, Boeing, Merrill Lynch, Exxon Mobil, Lehman Brothers, and the Walt Disney Corporation, combined.”

Via: California Political Review

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The Story Behind How Unions Suddenly Came To Love Obamacare

When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Obamacare Thursday, unions praised the decision, but it wasn’t always that way. The biggest, most powerful unions in the U.S. opposed the law until they were granted special exemptions.

“The decision is a victory for the millions of Americans who need financial assistance to purchase health insurance, and means that tax credits for middle class and low-income Americans will be available in all 50 states,” United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) said in a statement.

The UFCW, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) among others all released statements showing their support for the law and the highest court’s decision to uphold it. Not long ago, however, unions were adamantly opposed to President Barack Obama’s massive healthcare overhaul.

“On behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans,” a union letter from 2013, which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, detailed.

The letter held signatures from leadership in the Teamsters, UNITE-HERE and the UFCW. But since that time, unions have come to support the law, while the Obama administration has continued to grant them special privileges.

“We write to express deep disappointment that your agency has approved a final rule creating an unwarranted special carveout benefitting certain unions over other Americans,” a 2014 letter to the Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Burwell from Senate Republicans declared. “We demand that the rule be immediately rescinded.”

The letter, signed by 25 Republicans, followed a decision by the Obama administration to release a rule exempting some self-insured health plans, such as those commonly run by unions, from a reinsurance fee written into the law. The fee is designed to stabilize the individual market if too many sick customers sign up for insurance between 2014 and 2016.

“The American people deserve answers when their own government proposes to undermine their right to equal treatment under law,” the letter continued. “Carving out some unions from a multi-billion dollar reinsurance fee, the cost of which will ultimately be borne by every other American with private health insurance, is unacceptable.”

Via: Daily Caller

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Labor Unions’ Minimum Wage Push: A Shameless Scheme to Fatten Their Own Coffers

Protesters calling for pay of 5 an hour and a union march toward McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

Utterly shameless. There really is no other way to describe what some unions are trying to pull when it comes to the minimum wage.

The issue, of course, has been in the news quite a bit lately, especially in Los Angeles, with supposedly incensed workers waving their “Fight for 15” placards. It’s all perfectly packaged for the media, an alleged David versus Goliath fight. Will those mean ol’ fast-food joints and other stingy employers finally start paying a “living wage”? Tune in for the dramatic video.

Never mind that a substantial hike in the minimum wage would price many unskilled workers right out of the market. Goodbye, entry-level jobs for men and women who will later become workers making a much better wage at a job with more responsibilities.

And never mind how this minimum wage hike would make the price of fast food soar. A huge part of the draw for fast food, after all, is the fact that it’s relatively cheap. Take that away, and now it’s goodbye to the industry, which, of course, will hardly help the workers who are supposed to benefit from the wage increase.

Employers, after all, don’t have a bottomless safe in the backroom from which to pull vast reserves of cash for these salaries. They’ll react by cutting hours, for one thing. Labor expert James Sherk, for example, found that raising the minimum wage to $15 would cause a 36 percent drop in hours worked in fast food.

Think of what such a hike would mean for a major city such as Los Angeles. “If the effects are the same for all low-wage food-service occupations,” writes economist Salim Furth, “the ‘Fight for 15’ will cost more than 20,000 Angelenos their jobs in those occupations alone.” We can expect the same type of effect everywhere if such a drastic hike is enacted.

Of course, we don’t hear about any negative effects from much of the media or from breathless proponents of such “wage equality.” Or if we do, the effects are shrugged off as the scaremongering tactics of employers who just don’t want to pay up.

Via: CNS News

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HILLARY PHONES IT IN FOR FAST FOOD WORKERS

Speaking to a gathering of fast food workers and voicing her support for a $15 minimum wage, Hillary Clinton said, “I want to be your champion” to the assembled group.

Well, we do know special orders never upset the Clinton Foundation. It’s also accurate to say Hillary phoned in her support.

Appearing by phone at a meeting of 1,300 workers, Clinton voiced her most emphatic support yet for the nationwide Fight for $15 movement, which is also seeking to unionize fast food giants like McDonald’s.

Perhaps more important to the multi-millionaire presidential candidate was that she paid her dues to Big Labor, including the SEIU. Campaigns and foundations do not run on bread, or hamburger rolls, alone.

Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry told the crowd that Clinton’s call shows “how powerful people around the world are listening to this movement to change our world.”

Clinton also expressed broader support for organized labor union and the right to bargain collectively.

The appearance marks the Clinton campaign’s latest attempt to shore up her left flank and de-emphasize the centrist pragmatism that marked her husband’s presidency and her own record as senator and secretary of state.

Via: Breitbart

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SEIU Hit With Second-Biggest Campaign Finance Fine in Michigan History

The Service Employees International Union will have to pay the second-highest fine in Michigan history for its failed 2012 campaign to preserve forced union dues among home care workers.

Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said that the politically powerful union agreed to pay the state nearly $200,000 for failing to properly disclose donors and file timely campaign reports.

The union funneled more than $9 million into two 501(c)(4) non-profit groups, Home Care First Inc. and Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care, which served as the public face of a ballot initiative.

“These organizations cannot be used as a means to conceal the identity of the true contributors,” Johnson said in a release. “This agreement reflects our commitment to transparency and accountability in the campaign finance process, especially in an election year.”

The union could have faced millions of dollars in fines if it did not settle with the Secretary of State’s office. SEIU said in a statement that reporting oversights were inadvertent.

“We have decided not to dispute the preliminary findings of the Secretary of State and SEIU Michigan consider this matter closed,” the union said. “The mistakes were a result of errors and reports by the Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care regarding the receipt and transfer of funds.”

The fine stemmed from an August 2013 complaint filed with the Secretary of State’s office. It alleged that the union and its 501(c)(4) groups misreported its campaign disclosures. For example, SEIU reported more than $4 million in direct contributions to the 501(c)(4)s in September filings, but those contributions were later scrubbed from an October campaign report, according to the Secretary of State’s complaint.

Via: WFB

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'Evil' Koch brothers just 59th on top political donation list

Sometimes, if you listen to some Democrats, they're running against the "Evil" Koch brothers rather than a specific Republican candidate.

The brothers that liberals like to hate are often trotted out as prime examples of why campaign finance reform is necessary. They are often portrayed as one of the biggest contributors to political candidates, their evil money financing evil Republicans.

The group OpenSecrets.com has compiled a list of top donors to candidates and, to the left's surprise, the Koch brothers are far down the list.

Washington Examiner:

Charles and David Koch are the two most evil people in American politics, right? We know that because Jane Mayer proved it with her landmark "Covert Operations" tour de liberal force in 2010.

Well, it turns out that Mayer's aim was off just a little, by like 58 slots on the all-time biggest donors in American politics list, as compiled by OpenSecrets.org.

OpenSecrets.org tallied the top donors in federal elections between 1989 and 2014. Koch Industries -- privately owned by the Evil Koch Bros -- is on the list, to be sure, but doesn't appear until the 59th slot, with $18 million in donations, 90 percent of which went to Republicans.

Unions, unions, unions

So who occupies the 58 spots ahead of the Evil Koch Bros? Six of the top 10 are ... wait for it ... unions. They gave more than $278 million, with most of it going to Democrats.

These are familiar names: AFSCME ($60.6 million), NEA ($53.5 million), IBEW ($44.4 million), UAW ($41.6 million), Carpenters & Joiners ($39.2 million) and SEIU ($38.3 million).

In other words, the six biggest union donors in American politics gave 15 times more to mostly Democrats than the Evil Koch Bros.

Via: American Thinker

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L.A. County social workers strike over salary increases, caseloads

In the first strike by Los Angeles County employees since 2000, more than 1,000 social workers took to the picket lines Thursday in a major escalation of a labor dispute over salary increases and caseloads.

The timing of a 6% raise is among the main sticking points in contract negotiations. But union leaders focused the public face of the dispute on social workers' caseloads, which protesters said were so high that they jeopardized the safety of the county's most vulnerable children.

"We don't have enough manpower to thoroughly investigate the cases," said Gerson Salazar, a dependency investigator who said he handles cases for 67 children. "They're extremely complicated cases and you can't resolve these issues in two weeks with [the size of our] workforce and be competent."

Political observers called the focus on child safety a smart move at a time when public sentiment about government-employee unions is dismal and many Angelenos in the private sector are still suffering from the recession.

"It's a public relations job unions have been forced into," said Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at Cal State L.A. "You have to start pleading a case that you feel is going to resonate with the public more than protecting pensions, more than getting raises. I think it's smart politics."

Negotiators for the county and SEIU Local 721, which represents 55,000 workers who have been without a contract for more than two months, did not meet Thursday and have no plans to return to the bargaining table this week. In addition to social workers, the union represents many of the county's lowest paid workers.

Via: LA Times

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Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets

Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities.

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Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

Protesters outside a Taco Bell in Michigan in July.

Related

• Life on $7.25 an Hour (December 1, 2013)

As the movement struggles to find pressure points in its quest for substantially higher wages for workers, organizers said strikes were planned for the first time in cities like Charleston, S.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Pittsburgh.

The protests have expanded greatly since November 2012, when 200 fast-food workers engaged in a one-day strike at more than 20 restaurants in New York City, the first such walkout in the history of the nation’s fast-food industry.

“There’s been pretty huge growth in one year,” said Kendall Fells, one of the movement’s main organizers. “People understand that a one-day strike is not going to get them there. They understand that this needs to continue to grow.”

The movement, which includes the groups Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, is part of a growing union-backed effort by low-paid workers — including many Walmart workers and workers for federal contractors — that seeks to focus attention on what the groups say are inadequate wages.

The fast-food effort is backed by the Service Employees International Union and is also demanding that restaurants allow workers to unionize without the threat of retaliation.

Hospital Workers Win Federal Settlements Booting SEIU Officials from Area Hospital

A group of Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital (TOSH) nurses and support staff has won three federal settlements forcing two major healthcare unions and the hospital's parent company to stop illegally forcing them and their coworkers into unwanted union "representation."

The settlements come after three TOSH nurses and two support staff receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

In late November 2012, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) Holdings, Inc.-owned Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center purchased TOSH. In late April 2013, Los Robles Hospital management suddenly announced that TOSH workers were "represented" by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) and SEIU Local 121 RN union officials. Supposedly the workers had been "accreted" into a pre-existing Los Robles-SEIU monopoly bargaining unit.

The workers were never given the opportunity to vote or otherwise be consulted on the matter. In fact, the vast majority of TOSH nurses and support staff signed petitions opposing the SEIU officials' forced "representation." Moreover, because California does not have a Right to Work law that makes union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary, SEIU officials began demanding that the TOSH employees pay union dues or fees or be fired from their jobs.

Two of the settlements force the SEIU union officials to renounce monopoly bargaining and forced dues powers over the workers, thus freeing roughly 200 nurses and ancillary workers from forced "representation" and compulsory dues payments. Similarly, Los Robles management must renounce its recognition of the two unions at TOSH, and notify all employees via workplace postings and e-mail that the SEIU unions are not the employees' representatives.

"Los Robles/HCA management and SEIU officials colluded to shove SEIU union bosses' 'representation,' and forced dues payments, down the throats of TOSH nurses and support staff," said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "Schemes like this show that the ultimate goal of union officials is more forced dues collected from workers, even when rank-and-file employees want nothing to do with the union."

Via: NRTW.com

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Grace Ramirez Of #GotInsurance Campaign Works For SEIU, Formerly Colorado DNC

Grace Lopez Ramirez appears in a new ad also airing in Colorado part of “Got Insurance?” campaign today.  Grace is currently employed by SEIU and another in the campaign who has a long history of leftist ties with illegal immigrant groups, unions and the Democratic National Committee both local/national offices.

Grace is presently a Communications Specialist at Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 105 (whatever the hell that is).  You can read more about Grace over at Red State

Here is a snip from her LinkedIn profile here…

Via: Weasel Zippers

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Ex-ACORN Operatives Helping Roll Out Obamacare

A group formed from the ruins of ACORN is hard at work signing people up for ObamaCare, and may be collecting taxpayer cash for their work despite Congress' efforts to cut the organization and its affiliates off from government funding, a watchdog group charged.

The United Labor Unions Council Local 100, a New Orleans-based nonprofit, announced last month it would take part in a multi-state "navigator" drive to help people enroll in President Obama's health care plan. The labor council was established by ACORN founder Wade Rathke after his larger group was broken up amid scandal in 2009 and banned from receiving taxpayer funds.

“At a time when our government has ceased functioning due to an appropriations gap, it is ironic that America’s tax dollars are being doled out to an entity whose poor stewardship of our funds was well-established by Congress,” said Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, a nonpartisan watchdog group based in Washington.

"... it is ironic that America’s tax dollars are being doled out to an entity whose poor stewardship of our funds was well-established by Congress.”

- Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action

The government has given out $67 million in Navigator grants to help with the controversial rollout of ObamaCare. It was not clear if Local 100 got a grant of its own, but it has set up a help center with Southern United Neighborhoods, a charity founded in March 2010 with many former ACORN members, to enroll people in ObamaCare. Southern United Neighborhoods received a Navigator grant of $486,123.

Via: Fox News

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Union concerned House will join Senate in sweeping immigration reform

A union representing hundreds of federal Citizenship and Immigration Services employees is concerned that House leaders will abandon the Republican-led chamber’s incremental approach toward illegal-immigration reform for the sweeping changes passed in the “extremely dangerous” Senate bill.

“I worry the House may be following a similar path,” Kenneth Palinkas, president of the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, said recently.

Palinkas said the union’s major concerns are that House leaders might be trying to “advance proposals to open citizenship benefits to the majority of those here illegally, in combination with proposals to expand visa programs.” 

He said the union also is concerned that House and Senate members will meet -- in what is known on Capitol Hill as “conference” -- to merge or “blend” the House bill “with the extremely dangerous Senate bill.”

Palinkas said the union is basing its concerns in part on media reports about Republican Reps. Paul Ryan, Wis.; Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va.; Bob Goodlatte, Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

Goodlatte could not be reached for comment Sunday. However, his stated stance on immigration reform is that the system is “broken” and that the way for Congress to remedy the problem is to “methodically look at each of the various components that need to be fixed and take any final bill through the traditional legislative process.”

Via: Fox News

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SCOTUS To Hear Case Of Parents Caring For Their Disabled Children At Home Being Ordered To Pay Fees To Unions

PARENTS SAY "NO" TO QUINN'S UNIONIZATION

Illinois Review just learned that the home health care workers' vote was tallied and those families caring for disabled family members sent the Governor a loud rejection of his plot to unionize private families. The vote was as follows:

• SEIU rec'd 293 votes
• AFSCME rec'd 220 votes
• NO UNION rec'd 1018 votes

That means the families have wholly rejected Governor Quinn's Executive Order 09-15. For those who are convinced grassroots organizing and networking are irrelevant in public policy, please take note of what these families did on their own, with little, if any help, from the mainstream media. On Thursday, October 2, Americans for Prosperity-Illinois held an open conference call to give listeners a heads up on this story.  The families themselves, including mother extraordinaire Pam Harris, were persistent and unwielding in their effort to get the word out among those affected and the Illinois public as a whole.

Take this victory for these families as a taste of what liberty-loving folks can do if they get organized.  SEIU/ACORN and Governor Quinn were put on notice.  Illinois taxpayers are fed up with their antics.  If you agree that this is the shot over the bow to the bullies, sign AFP's "Say No to ACORN" petition.  Let's push back even further.

Via: Illinois Review

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