Did Congressman's PR stunt interfere with Trump dealers' election?

With less than a week before the NLRB is scheduled to hold a federally-supervised, secret-ballot election to determine whether the casino dealers at Donald Trump's Plaza Hotel & Casino, US Congressman Robert Andrews (D-NJ) led a "bi-partisan" PR stunt by conducting a fake card check for the dwindling United Auto Workers.

Andrews, who received $154,250 from unions in the 2005-2006 election cycle, is also the Chairman of the House's Health, Education, Labor and Pension Subcommittee and helped push EFCA through the House on March 1st.

While the official NLRB election at the Trump Plaza is not scheduled to take place until March 31st, according to the televised news report, it would appear that the election is over. The official NLRB election, it would appear, is a mere formality.

Representative Robert Andrews lead a bipartisan 'card check' authorization for Trump Plaza Casino Dealers.

The results of the "card check" showed certification of majority status for forming a Union at Trump Plaza.

This comes on the heels of last weeks similar election at Caesar's Casino, when more than 80 percent voted in favor of forming their own union as part of the u-a-w union....

State senator Sonny McCullough, assemblyman Jim Whelan and Reverend Reginald Floyd joined Representative Andrews to sign the "card count" to confirm verification that the dealers want to join the U-A-W Union.

The actual vote will be held this Saturday. [emphasis added]

As a footnote to the story, the news channel added that "the actual vote will take place this Saturday." Why bother when a member of the federal government--a Congressman no less--has already declared the election over?

There is little doubt the "bi-partisan" PR stunt came at the request of UAW organizers, who are attempting to rebuild their dwindled ranks on the backs of Atlantic City's casino dealers.

It is also likely that, in addition to the television stunt, the organizers will use the signatures of these politicians in ads later this week before workers get the chance to vote using a NLRB's secret-ballot.

However, this stunt may have gone too far. It is possible that the Congressman and his cronies at the UAW have actually interfered with the Trump dealers' rights to a secret-ballot election. However, it will be up to the workers or the employer to raise this issue to the NLRB.

To a worker who may not know the difference between the NLRB and the US Congress, it would appear that the federal government has declared the election done...the balloting process is a formality.

For those workers who may oppose having money taken out of their checks and sent to a union who can't even keep its own members' jobs, why bother to vote at all?

UFCW Update: Almost laughable...if it weren't so pathetic

As part of our ongoing expose of the absurd and farcical nature of today's unions, you may recall that it was only a mere two weeks ago that we exposed the two-faced, hypocritical practices of the United Food & Commercial Workers' union bosses.

It was here that the UFCW bosses' firing of their own workers without warning and prompting others to go out on strike, then bragging about the strike brought them new effciencies was revealed.

This, of course, followed our February 8th exposure of the UFCW's Cash-for-Cards scheme, as union bosses have been caught paying money to workers inorder to get other workers to sign union authorization cards.

Well, on the East Coast, slightly more than a week has passed since the UFCW entered into a new three-year contract with New England grocery chain Stop & Shop. But the news isn't all that good for the UFCW-represented workers...

Although the UFCW averted calling its 43,000 Stop & Shop members out on the picket lines, new reports have it that the Stop & Shop chain will be closing 55 floral and 155 seafood departments. This means that as many as 1,000 UFCW members will be laid off.

Union boss James Riley, secretary-treasurer of UFCW local 328, acknowledges that "...we can't keep them from firing people and closing stores."

[So much for the myth (or, more adroitly, 'delusion') of union job security.]

Of course, Riley shouldn't be too worried because, as those folks at Unionfacts.com point out, he's gotten a 45% salary increase (34% in 2002 alone) since 2000. Far more than the average UFCW rank and file member has gotten.

Currently, more that 2,000 miles away on the Left Coast, the UFCW is in the midst of negotiating 'renewal' for already-expired contracts covering 65,000 grocery workers in SoCal. It was the 2003 expiration of these agreements that prompted the disastrous 140-day UFCW strike and lockout that idled 70,000 workers and devastated thousands of workers' lives.

In fact, workers are still recovering from bitter effects of that UFCW debacle:

For Celeste Cook, the Southern California grocery strike of three years ago was so traumatic that she and her husband eventually left the industry and the state, moving to Arizona. Cook's voice quivers as she remembers the stress the 4½-month strike and lockout had on her marriage, her friendships and her children. The former wall deli manager blames it for the divorce of her brother, also a grocery worker.

According to those folks at UnionFacts.com:

UFCW members collectively lost 4.58 million days of work, with terrible consequences for workers. The environmental publication High Country News described it as "a brutal strike that cost millions in lost wages, and resulted in broken marriages, lost homes and cars, and even suicides." Even then, the publication noted, when the strike was settled, "some workers have had their wages and benefits slashed."

Now, however, the UFCW has changed its SoCal negotiating strategy. In fact, it's not even talking about striking at this point. At this point, it's all drama. Instead of walkingoff the job--or even threatening to walk, the UFCW has begun acting, as in street theater! That's right!...STREET THEATER! Butchers and bakers and even candlestick makers becoming thespians?!?

So it would seem.

We're surprised the Actors' Equity Association isn't throwing a hissy fit with the UFCW for raiding their craft.

After all, with AEA's members' wages only averaging about $7,000 a year--far less than poverty wages--they could use all the work they can get. Unless, of course, the UFCW is already using union actors? (Somehow, we don't think that's the case.)

So, there you have it...

All of this seems almost laughable, if it weren't so damn pathetic.

Persian pu**ies?...Iranians upset at US over movie 300

Given that the goal of EmployerReport.com is to inform on the issues affecting the American work place, every now and then we must comment on the oddities and idiocies of the day (for example see last Monday's post). Here, dear readers, is yet another example of the absurd:

It would seem that the Iranian government is upset with America over the success of the movie 300. Some peon in the Iranian government actually has the audacity to say that "following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture," adding "certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies."

That's right, according to this moron, 300 is "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture."

Are you freakin' kidding? Are you that full of yourself to think that the movie 300 is some brainwashing flick from the CIA??? Dude! You must be smoking some of that Turkish hash or something!?!

Well not to burst your bubble you paranoid twit, but most Americans don't even know what the hell the Persian Empire was, let alone the Battle of Thermopylae! Sorry to disappoint, but the reality is most Americans seeing the movie are going for the good-old fashioned computer-generated blood, guts and glory.

You see, we Americans are a simple lot...We get distracted by big t*ts and bloody battles. That's about it. So, it's not some government conspiracy out to condemn the Islamo-fascist regimes of today. Nope, it's only entertainment in the good ol' US of A.

NYT on the Employee Free Choice Act: All the Pro-Union Lies Fit to Print

There is a blog worth checking out called The Union-Free Employer, ran by the attorneys at Kreitzman, Mortensen & Borden. Although we don't know them personally, we are fast becoming fans of their blog posts.

Their most recent one entitled NEW YORK TIMES ON THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT: ALL THE PRO-UNION LIES FIT TO PRINT? is an excellent piece that debunks much of the pro-union bunk (read bulls**t) that Congress has bought into, as well as the union 'spin' that the media is echoing from the halls of the AFL-CIO.

Included in the debunking is the oft-quoted Kate Brofenbrenner "study," which nearly all of the unions use in attempting to convince Congress (which they've succeeded thus far) and the public that companies are bad and the unions are being undermined at every step of the organizing way.

As you read their blog, there is another factoid that people seem to be missing in the EFCA debate and that is that unions are currently winning nearly 60% of the NLRB-conducted SECRET-BALLOT elections, according to NLRB stats from the last couple of years.

Enjoy their blog, then pass it along!

The Two Faces of the UFCW

The United Food & Commercial Workers, a union that like to portray itself as a friend of the working class, has been showing that it is a union of double standards and hypocrisy.

Recently, office staff who work at UFCW local 832 went out on strike against their employer—the United Food & Commercial Workers. The workers’ strike against the UFCW lasted for five weeks and ended with a four-year wage freeze. Then, according to the Winnipeg Sun:

[UFCW]Management gloated on its website following the strike, boasting that they got employees to "accept less" in the new deal. Talk about adding salt to the wound.

The organization even suggested it would start cutting staff and has already fired one worker who was on the picket line -- a move workers say is pure intimidation.

"One good thing that did come from this strike is that we know how to make this
(organization) run more efficiently and we've realized we don't need the amount of staff that we have," the president of the [UFCW] said on the website.

On Feb. 28, 2007, UFCW Local 791 bosses in Massachusetts engaged in a mass firing of nearly 40% its own union staff. The surprise firings shocked the union business agents who were fired "at will" with apparently no warning, prompting them to write in a letter to the UFCW membership:

We are sure that the membership, as well as us, never thought that a “labor organization” would treat its own members (or staff employees) like this. Apparently, the quote “an injustice to one, is an injustice to all” doesn’t apply to “all” of us.

We can’t help but wonder what the Union leadership’s reaction would be if the company had done this same thing to five members working in the stores or warehouses.

UFCW bosses forcing their own employees on strike.

UFCW bosses bragging about getting their own workers to accept less.

UFCW bosses firing their own employees for no apparent reason…

ARE THESE THE TYPE OF PEOPLE YOU’D WANT TO REPRESENT YOU AND TAKE YOUR MONEY?

SEIU & the legalization of illegal aliens...

The SEIU's Elisio Medina issued a press release today praising the Citizen Promotion Act which essentially paves the way for legalization of the 12 million (that we know of) or so illegal aliens who are currently residing and working in the good ol' US of A.

Some SEIU members don't seem to be too happy with the behemoth union's position on this issue, as SEIU members are planning a protest against their own union this Saturday in Salem, Oregon.

To us, the SEIU's endorsement of legalizing illegals is nothing more than political pandering to a segment of the population that the union has high hopes of turning into dues-paying members--and we expect to see other unions issue similar endorsements in the near future.

We've previously written about the perversity of unions wanting to turn illegal aliens into dues-paying members when unions have done so poorly in protecting the jobs of legal American citizens for the past 30 years. (See Blatant Hypocrisy or Mere Opportunism.)

Of special note in the SEIU's press release today is this statement:

Establishing a fairer, more inclusive citizenship test, funding community-based citizenship initiatives, and increasing accountability for background checks will make our Union safer and stronger for all Americans.

It should be noted that Medina didn't use the words "our country" or "our nation"...but used the term "our Union." A mistake? We think not.

Our National Distractions: A freak show, a circus, and Marx

It seems almost too easy to distract Americans these days.

It seems almost too easy to distract Americans these days.

See?

How long did it take you to notice that the above sentence was written twice?

...Have you noticed yet?

Well, that is the point after all.

Americans these days seem more concerned about who did or didn't do the late Anna Nicole Smith...Or, rather, was she done in?...than on the fate of this nation.

In November, Americans, unhappy over a stupidly-handled war caused by stupid (some say "faulty") intelligence, were suckered into voting for a gaggle of 'progressive' (read socialist) politicians, obsessed with redistributing the wealth of this nation.

Last week, we had the aforementioned, newly elected 'progressive' Congress passing one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation for American workers in the nation's history (i.e., HR 800 aka the Employee Free Choice Act aka the Kill American Jobs Act), one of the largest Congressional giveaways to any special interest group ever...Yet we're too titillated in our surreal world of silicone implants to have an honest debate on the ramifications of government-imposed union contracts in the private sector.

Crazy? You bet!

How about a presidential candidate that wants to lay claim to an industry's profits?..

If it were Castro's Cuba or Hugo's Venezuela, there would be a clamor amongst our national press...or maybe not, considering today's progressive media.

However, when one of our own presidential candidates spews forth Marxist rhetoric, nary a mention is made. When a whole political party and its operatives and candidates preach class warfare (as in "I hate the rich"), do Americans recognize they're being played and rise up and say "whoa!...hold on there, little dogie..."?

No. Instead, we're too busy staring at the boob tube, taking in the freak show of Anna Nicole Smith, her life, her cleavage, and her untimely death.

When Marx said in 1843 that 'religion is the opiate of the masses,' that may have been apropos in the age of Victorian mores. However, it is clear that Marx didn't live long enough to see the circus of our age...Our national politicos and their media minions.

Rest in Peace, Anna Nicole.

An Open Letter to American Workers on the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act"

Dear fellow American worker:

On Thursday, March 1, 2007, the United States House of Representatives voted 241-185 to strip you of some of your basic American freedoms. While many of us are used to politicians doing things that take away our freedoms, this action may very soon cost you a lot money and, for an untold number of you, it will likely cost you your jobs.

On Thursday, due to the political strong-arming from big union bosses, the House of Representatives voted to pass HR 800. HR 800 is a bill designed to take away your right as a worker to vote in a secret-ballot election about whether or not you want to become unionized. Once you are unionized, HR 800 also forces your company into a union contract imposed by government-appointed bureaucrats who have no idea about the competitive nature of your company’s business.

Most of us remember what has happened to big industries and the jobs that were dominated by big union bosses—and we know where they are today…Most are gone.

While HR 800 still needs to be passed through the Senate and signed into law by the president before it becomes effective, here’s how the House of Representatives has just stripped you of your basic democratic rights:

In order to replenish their depleted union ranks, union organizers—the paid salespeople of labor unions—can target you and your co-workers for unionization. Once you become targeted, there are a variety of tactics they can deploy to lure you into placing your name and signature on a little 3” by 5” card called a union authorization card. For example:

Some union organizers will claim that the little card is just to get you information or to be on a mailing list.

Others will claim the union’s authorization card will get you more money or better benefits or job security.

Some union organizers will mount larger offensives called tag teams to wear you or your co-workers down into signing a union authorization card.

The reality is, a union authorization card is the union’s golden ticket to get into your pocket and into the company you work for.

You see, if 50% plus one of your co-workers succumb to union pressure (or fall for their tactics) and sign a union authorization card, you no longer have the right to vote in a secret-ballot election… You will have just become unionized, under HR 800.

At that point, there will be a set of negotiations that will be government-imposed between your company and the union. If there is no agreement reached after 120 days (four months), a government-appointed arbitrator will bind you and your company into a contract with the union.

Again, you will not have the right to vote to accept or reject this government-imposed contract.

For those of you who work in the 28 states where it is legal to require workers to pay dues to the union to remain employed, you may also be forced to pay the union hundreds (or thousands) of dollars per year or you will be fired from your job.

In addition, if the government-imposed contract jeopardizes your company’s ability to compete in the marketplace, your company may be forced to lay you off, to outsource your job, or just close like so many other unionized companies have in the last 25 years.

As a courtesy, you may click here to view the list of US Representatives who have done this to you and your job. While there is little you can do about Thursday’s vote in the US House of Representatives now, you can still write to your Senator to voice your opposition to taking away your American freedoms and possibly your job.

For more information, and to voice your opposition to stripping you of your rights to the US Senate, please visit EmployerReport.com or myprivateballot.com.

Very truly yours,

EmployerReport.com

[To download a PDF version of this letter to distribute to your co-workers, click here. Note: This should be printed on legal sized paper.]