Well, we can’t say no one saw this one coming, but Obama has turned back rules that had been put in place to force unions to be more transparent in their financial reporting. These rules were meant to stop union fraud, theft, and embezzlement but in an effort to pay back his supporters, Obama has turned these rules back so that unions can find it easier to hide illicit financial transactions.
Naturally, one of the chief opponents to union transparency that fought the Bush administration, Deborah Greenfield, is now in the Obama administration. It was Greenfield that fought the financial reporting rules when she was a lawyer for the AFL-CIO. She was against forcing unions to account for all their illicit cash and secret accounts then. Now that she is in charge of implementing such rules she has been a major part of eliminating them so that unions could more easily hide their financial dealings from union members and the government.
The Washington Times reports this expected turning back of transparency rules.
So, what we see here is the Obama administration making more efforts to payback his supporters from the campaign. What could be a better gift than eliminating rules that keeps union criminality at a minimum?
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
OK, how predictable was this?....NT
USNJIMRET (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 7:14AM EST (link)OK, how predictable was this?....NT
USNJIMRET (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 7:14AM EST (link)Unions hate glass houses
GreyCloak (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 7:21AM EST (link)I spent a few weeks working for a Federal Union once upon a time … decades ago … I was dismissed shortly after I accidentally discovered that the union boss and his mother were both covered by Federal health insurance although neither was a Federal employee. I don’t think anything came of it … I reported it as “curious” to the Union bosses, and they decided they no longer needed my services.
I’m sure that this is not typical … some FBI employees who might investigate have probably selected the same health plan for their own coverage. Many years later, it is still an option for all Federal employees.
Ron Gettlefinger, the head of the UAW, made only $156,000 in 2007 … probably excluding his health insurance and retirement packages. A solely Michigan grocery-worker union paid Rob Potter $305,000 in the same year … I’m sure that baggers and cashiers benefited as well.
Union employees really shouldn’t know how much their executives make … it would distract them from finding a new job, or wondering why their Union benefits disappeared when they had to switch Locals after years of dues.
Besides … with a thawing in US-Cuba relations … Teamsters may have a new venue for investment!
The first 100 days of obama
bobojake (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 7:35AM EST (link)A million lies in 100 days and $10 trillion dollar debt on our great grand children. I don’t believe obama stops to think about the debt he is throwing on his daughters.
God Bless America
I don’t believe obama stops to think about the debt he is throwing on his daughters.
izoneguy (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 8:58AM EST (link)LOL, they will inherit billions of dollars from daddy Obama. I am pretty sure they will also be programmed to run for office. This is the last thing America needs – an Obama dynasty. I am pretty sure that the dynasty will be over in:
http://www.obamacountdownwidget.com/
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Hope and change ?
Kenny Solomon (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 7:45AM EST (link)No…….. Dope and strange.
Next up for Los Unionos, controlling interest in at least one of ‘the big three’ auto manufacturers.
Obama's union payback
bosslowrider Monday, April 27th at 9:32AM EST (link)GreyCloak, think of all the money the union can make off all those Desota and Edsel mechanics by unionizing them.
A friend of mine belonged to a union years ago, before he escaped…I mean changed jobs. Everytime he had to go out on strike(once for a dime an hour pay raise), he was given a whole 35 bucks a week to feed a family of 5! Unions are always looking out for the common man.
I’m sure the union bosses paid themselves the same, tho.
Payback to the Pres ... but not to the members
GreyCloak (Diary) Tuesday, April 28th at 4:16AM EST (link)Yes, union bosses keep their paychecks, while members suffer.
Union pensions aren’t safe … but then, some are managed by Morgan Stanley.
A neighbor had worked for the same trucking company for years … just short of his 20th year, the company went belly-up, and he took a new job a mile away. Teamsters denied him his service and his pension … he had to start anew with another local of the same union! Bosses kept being paid.
Non-union autoworkers still have companies … Toyota, Nissan, BMW are still in business … but GM and Chrysler?
First thing WJC did was rescind the Beck order,
Achance (Diary) Monday, April 27th at 12:24PM EST (link)then eliminate enforcement and review of LM-2 filings. Even when GWB came in and tried to restore the reporting, the D-controlled Senate put in frontend budget language prohibiting expenditure of any appropriated funds to publish LM-2 filings.
The dirty little secret is that this isn’t really rule driven The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act makes the reports a statutory requirement. Only the means and forms are creatures of regulation. Democrat Administrations simply put the word out that there will be no reviews, audits, or other enforcement, so the unions either stop filing altogether or file works of fiction.
If there were one Republican AG or Governor in the Country with a pair and an interest in our National well-being, it would be easy enough to sue the USDOL and the unions under the LMRDA and probably RICO as well. Oh well, we can dream …
In Vino Veritas
Errr, but I thought...
bart Monday, April 27th at 2:58PM EST (link)“deregulation” was the problem.