Will Team Biden Weaponize Workers’ Pensions?
Big Labor abuse of worker pension and benefit funds as a means of advancing union bosses’ self-aggrandizing policy objectives is a familiar phenomenon.
Union activists have littered a construction project in Philadelphia with bottles of urine because a new company had the audacity to hire non-union construction workers on a new development project.
“We’re going to continue to embarrass the Pestronks [project owners] until they start doing the right thing for our community and our society, and that is pay fair wages and standards that have been established,” said Pat Gillespie, a boss in the Philadelphia Building and Trades Council.
Of course, doing the “right thing” means filling the union’s coffers. And, apparently, “the right thing for our community and our society” doesn’t mean revitalizing a neighborhood as the construction project will do.
A statement from the Pestronks’ website:
“Our dispute is solely with the organized extortion being carried out by the Building Trade Unions management. They are trying to force a majority of non-local workers onto our projects, and force us to pay a huge tax to sustain the Unions’ power structure. The unmatched public defamation of our company, harassment, bullying, vandalism, racism, property damage, and physical assault all add up to EXTORTION by the Philadelphia Building Trades Unions.”
Big Labor abuse of worker pension and benefit funds as a means of advancing union bosses’ self-aggrandizing policy objectives is a familiar phenomenon.
What impact does handing a union monopoly power to deal with your employer on matters concerning your pay, benefits, and work rules have on your pay?
Wherever Big Labor wields the power to collect forced union dues, union bosses funnel a large share of the confiscated money into efforts to elect and reelect business-bashing politicians. Employment growth tends to lag as a consequence.