New York Union Boss Arrested, Kickbacks Exceed $700K

New York Union Boss Arrested, Kickbacks Exceed $700K

United States attorney Loretta E. Lynch:   Hector Lopez turned the union members’ benefits fund into “a personal piggy bank, lining his pockets with the fruits of their labors.” The former boss of an International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) union local in Long Island City, Queens, was arrested on Tuesday and accused of abusing his position through a host of illegal schemes, including taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a company he contracted to run the union’s health benefits plan, the New York Times reports: Hector Lopez, the former president of Local 8a-28a, which represents metal polishers, sign painters and other tradespeople, set up an elaborate money-laundering operation involving several companies that funneled secret payments to him, according to a 29-page indictment that was unsealed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. In the most serious kickback scheme, Mr. Lopez, 54, is accused of accepting $740,000 over a seven-year period in exchange for guaranteeing one company the contract to administer the union’s benefits fund. The indictment did not name Mr. Lopez’s alleged accomplices or the names of the companies involved.

Voter Fraud: AFL-CIO Canvasser Booked On 23 Felony Counts

A union-funded front group Voters First Ohio canvasser was arrested August 14 by the Cincinnati Police Department. Timothy Noel Zureick was booked on 22 counts of signing false signatures and one count of election falsification, both fifth-degree felonies. [stream flv=x:/youtu.be/LlbKaPdacLE img=x:/nrtwc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/trumka.png embed=false share=false width=640 height=360 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=high…
Boss Trumka Begs for Help

Boss Trumka Begs for Help

[media-credit id=7 align="alignleft" width="300"][/media-credit]Margaret Thatcher once quipped that the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money.  The same can be said for the union bosses -- after taking advantage of so many workers for so long, eventually you run out of people who want to be taken advantage of. That's why it is not surprising to see AFL-CIO union boss Richard Trumka begging students to become part of Big Labor.  Red Alert Politics reports "Trumka practically begged liberal students to join the labor movement in a speech this morning at Campus Progress’ annual national conference in Washington, D.C. 'The American labor movement truly needs you,' Trumka told attendees of the conference." They continue: Trumka tried to explain every which way to Sunday why it would benefit the college students to team up with the teamsters. The union boss even admitted that he could see why unions would turn off young people. “You probably think we’re a bunch of stodgy, old school people with outdated ideas, too interested in what’s good for us and too disinterested in what’s good for the others in our community,” said Trumka.  “And I’ll be perfectly frank with you, there’s a grain of truth to that.” Trumka admitted that unions were often seen as self-serving and as slow-to-change institutions, thus young people might not necessarily consider joining a union to be in their best interest.

Union Bosses Press for Court-Imposed Bailout

Union bosses in Indiana are pressing for a judicially imposed bailout, arguing that the state's new Right to Work Law will reduce revenues to the union since membership is no longer compulsory.  The LibertyLawSite looks at the lawsuit and the impact the law has had on job creation in the state:   Amidst a series of setbacks at both the ballot box and the court house, the fate of the compulsory union movement may depend in large measure on the outcome of two lawsuits currently pending in Indiana.  In early 2012, Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a bill that made Indiana the nation’s twenty-third right-to-work state.  Unions have filed two challenges to that law, one each in state and federal court.  The outcome of those lawsuits will help to determine whether Indiana remains a right-to-work state and whether other states follow Indiana’s lead. In its first few months of operation, the right-to-work law has, by almost any measure, helped to attract new businesses to Indiana.  Indiana has only 2.2 percent of the nation’s population.  In April, the first full month after the law took effect, more than one in eight jobs created around the country were created in Indiana – more than in states several times the size of Indiana.  According to the state’s economic development arm, almost fifty out-of-state companies cited the right-to-work law as one reason that they were considering opening a location in Indiana.