Scandal Stopped Big Labor Payoff

From the Wall Street Journal:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was preparing to issue an executive order prior to his arrest last week [December 9, 2008] that would have allowed union organizing of home-care workers that could have benefited a labor union with close ties to the governor.

The existence of this executive order, though never signed, illustrates the close ties between the embattled governor and the powerful Service Employees Internation union [SEIU], the nation’s fastest growing labor organization. Last week [December 2] , Gov. Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges, including that his office suggested a deal in which he would be given a job with an SEIU-affiliated group in exchange for naming a labor-friendly senator to fill the vacancy left by President-elect Barack Obama.