Union Bosses And Senate Democrats Try to Stop Worker Pay Raises

Union Bosses And Senate Democrats Try to Stop Worker Pay Raises

Sen. Marco Rubio writes on the pages of National Review about the RAISE Act, legislation that would permit an employer to award individual employees with financial incentives beyond the pay or compensation level specified in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA): The basis of the American Dream is that one can work hard, play by the rules, and realize one’s potential. But big-government policies deny this freedom to millions of Americans. One of these policies can be fixed when the Senate votes on the RAISE Act later today. Under federal law, private-sector union contracts do not just set the minimum wage employers pay, they also set the maximum wage. Businesses may not pay more than the union rate without negotiating it. Unfortunately, unions often say “No” when employers propose rewarding productive workers. Unions prefer contracts that, to quote Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, “create uniform standards for all employees” — no matter how hard they work. Only about one in five union contracts permit performance pay.

Barack Obama Sees No Taint in Teamster Brass

Barack Obama Sees No Taint in Teamster Brass

Despite a judge's recent finding that Teamster chieftain Jim Hoffa "raided the Teamster treasury to try to buy his own reelection support with jobs and pensions," President Obama continues doggedly courting Mr. Hoffa's support. Credit: mediatumblr.com Presidential Pal Jim Hoffa Recently Tried to Bribe Union Rivals (Source:  January 2012 National Right to Work Committee Newsletter) For decades, Inside-the-Beltway politicians have again and again sullied themselves and the American public's view of how Washington, D.C., works by turning a blind eye to Teamster union-boss corruption. Undoubtedly, the best-known example is the Nixon Administration's 1971 decision to pardon Teamster czar Jimmy Hoffa well before he had served out his 13-year sentence for mail fraud and attempted bribery of a federal jury. More recently, the George W. Bush Administration publicly toyed from 2001 to 2003 with cutting an outrageous deal to end federal oversight over the Teamsters, even as major cases of ongoing rampant Teamster-boss corruption and orchestration of strike violence were making national news. (Thanks largely to the fierce and vocal opposition of citizens who support the rule of law, the Bush Administration never actually cut the deal.) And now it is Democratic President Barack Obama who is practicing the "old politics" of coddling corrupt Teamster officials in exchange for Teamster forced dues-funded "in-kind" campaign support as Mr. Obama prepares for a potentially tough re-election bid this fall. Barack Obama and Teamster Kingpin Are 'Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee' As opinion writer and blogging maven Michelle Malkin pointed out in one of her syndicated columns early last fall, Mr. Obama and current Teamster President Jim Hoffa (the son of Jimmy, who disappeared in 1975 and is presumed dead) have over time become "like Tweedledum and Tweedledee," that is, inseparable.

Jimmy Hoffa Part 2 - Cleaning Up the Teamsters

Jimmy Hoffa Part 2 - Cleaning Up the Teamsters

Big Labor history of forced unionism abuses from Robert F. Kennedy’s The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee’s Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa And Corrupt Labor Unions: By August of 1958, the McClellan Committee had uncovered a mass of crookedness and wrongdoing in the Teamsters. There were demands that Hoffa take steps to clean up his union. However, I was convinced by this time that he was completely incapable of doing the job-had he cared to. He was dependent on the racketeers and ex-convicts with whom he had surrounded the Barney Bakers. So when in August of 1958 Hoffa announced that he was appointing a special committee to investigate corruption in his union, I was suspicious. And when I heard that George Bender was to be the chairman of the committee I was flabbergasted. Although at that point we had not made it public, we had learned not only from Jim Luken but from a friendly source within the Teamsters that the Hoffa-Bender relationship was an intimate one dating back to the 1954 Bender investigation. (The Committee had found that approximately $109,000-at least $30,000 in cash-went through George Bender's campaign committee bank accounts following that 1954 election. The money was never reported to state authorities-though there may be some question if it is necessary to report campaign funds received after an election is over and won.)

Jimmy Hoffa Part 1 - Tough Guys

Jimmy Hoffa Part 1 - Tough Guys

Big Labor history from Robert F. Kennedy’s The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa And Corrupt Labor Unions: As I was going out the door, Hoffa said: "Tell your wife I'm not as bad as everyone thinks I am." I laughed. Jimmy Hoffa had a sense of humor. He must have laughed himself as he said it. In view of all I already knew, I felt that he was worse than anybody said he was. In the next two and a half years, nothing happened to change my opinion. On my way home I thought of how often Hoffa had said he was tough; that he destroyed employers, hated policemen and broke those who stood in his way. It had always been my feeling that if a person was truly tough; if he actually had strength and power; if he really had the ability to excel, he need not brag and boast of it to prove it.

Right to Work on the March in Statehouses

Right to Work on the March in Statehouses

Subscribe to The National Right to Work Committee® Website Updates by Email (Source: February 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) Economic Reality Puts Compulsory-Unionism Apologists on Defensive In a hand-wringing January 21 commentary for the leftist Huffington Post, international Teamster chieftain Jim Hoffa joined the ranks of prominent union officials bemoaning the recent introduction of legislation prohibiting forced union dues and fees in state capitols across America. Mr. Hoffa called on his militant followers to "fight like h***" against what he called "dangerous attacks." In reality, of course, the Right to Work measures he decried would do nothing more than prohibit firing or denying a job to an employee simply because he or she refuses to join or bankroll an unwanted union. Echoing the rhetoric of his late father Jimmy Hoffa, who filled out his last four years as Teamster czar while serving a federal prison term for jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud, Mr. Hoffa proffered a conspiracy theory about why Right to Work legislation is being considered in so many states this year. "A coordinated network of think tanks, business groups, [and other organizations] has for years been working toward passing these right-to-work … laws. Leading the charge is National Right to Work," he fumed.