Former Union Boss Joseph Whitbeck Faces Potential 400-year Prison Sentence
Joseph Whitbeck, former vice president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 274, is now facing life in prison after being indicted for decades of wire fraud.
Joseph Whitbeck, former vice president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 274, is now facing life in prison after being indicted for decades of wire fraud.
According to federal prosecutors, Pittsburgh union boss Ray Ventrone used workers’ forced dues to buy gym and nautilus equipment, sport tickets and multi-thousand-dollar restaurant meals. He ultimately copped to stealing $1.5 million. Obama Administration Slashed Funding For Corruption Watchdogs After…
Union Consultant Charged With Overseeing Union Financial Reports (Source: May 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) On his first full day as U.S. President, Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13490, otherwise known as the Ethics Executive Order. Under E.O.13490, presidential appointees are required to sign a pledge affirming that, for two years after the day they are appointed, they will not "participate in any particular matter involving a specific party that includes a former employer or former client." "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," Mr. Obama vowed. Unfortunately, almost from the day E.O.13490 was first issued, the Obama Administration has repeatedly ignored its letter as well as its spirit when it comes to appointees whose job is to oversee and regulate labor unions. Thousands of Union Bosses to Be Exempted From Disclosing Any Conflicts of Interest Last month, the National Right to Work Committee issued a report on one of the most egregious examples of an Obama appointee making policies that clearly benefit his former union-boss clients: John Lund, now the director of the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). Mr. Lund is a former employee of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE/AFL-CIO). And he is currently on unpaid leave from the Madison-based University of Wisconsin School for Workers, of which the AFL-CIO and many other unions, as well as many union benefit funds, are clients. But now Mr. Lund is responsible for overseeing federally-mandated union financial disclosures and criminal investigations regarding union financial irregularities and embezzlement!
Racing against the clock, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushed through another Obama Big Labor nominee, Patricia Smith, before Senator-Elect Scott Brown becomes a Senator. Reid won this race, see the Senate votes here. In addition, Reid is prepared to add radical SEIU & AFL-CIO lawyer, Craig Becker to the list of Obama nominees approved before Senator Brown arrives. As the new U.S. Solicitor of Labor, President Obama’s nominee M. Patricia Smith will control the largest civilian pool of government lawyers after the Justice Department. Then New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed Smith Commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor (NYDOL). Having spent her entire working life as a government employee, Smith brings only bureaucratic experience to the table. As NYDOL Commissioner, Smith used her position and federal funds to override a state hiring freeze to hire a politically connected union organizer as a state employee.
The National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) released its first Obama Personnel Alert of 2010 exposing the ongoing failure of President Obama’s ethics pledge and executive order as it relates to ethics and transparency in his administration. According to…
Right to Work’s Mark Mix: President Obama swept into office promising a new era of openness and transparency. But he forgot to mention his union loophole.
As 2009 fades away, President Obama has decided to let disclosure of hundreds of millions of dollars in forced-union-dues disclosure fade away too. Under current law and regulations valid until December 30th, union bosses were supposed to carefully document the…
With less than a month left in 2009, President Obama gave Big Labor Bosses, ACORN, American Rights At Work, and other Big Labor-front groups another gift. This time Labor Secretary Solis’ Department will not require Big Labor to complete labor…
From the the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation: Union Watchdog Files Second Disclosure Request to Investigate Obama Labor Department Stonewalling Media report indicates Department of Labor officials are “in a tizzy and freaking out” over federal lawsuit Washington,…