Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind (48 page)

37
Steven Malanga, “Unions vs. Taxpayers,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 14, 2009, available at
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=4544
, accessed January 2012.

38
Giovanna Fabiano,”Traffic Duty, Overtime Boost Englewood Police Paychecks,”
(Hackensack, N.J.) Record
, April 18, 2010, available at
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4041340
, accessed February 2012.

39
Luke Funk, “Audit: NJ Turnpike Wasted Millions on Perks,” My Fox New York, October 19, 2010,
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/traffic/traffic_news/audit-excessive-perks-for-nj-turnpike-employees-20101019-apx
, accessed February 2012.

40
Nicole Gelinas, “MTA’s Too-Nice Pay,”
New York Post
, July 13, 2011,
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/mta_too_nice_pay_yaOJpA4zHnVb6YRskNqB3K
, accessed January 2012.

41
Frederic U. Dicker, “Andy Rocks the ‘Bloat,’ ”
New York Post
, March 19, 2010,
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/andy_rocks_the_bloat_pMD64QLibsykw6vhTXJHfO
, accessed February 2012.

42
Ibid.

43
Once Cuomo took over as governor of New York, however, he seemed to become less concerned about union featherbedding. In 2011, he nixed an effort to end the Triborough Amendment, a New York law that allows inflated union contracts to be extended beyond their expiration dates. This amendment, which has been on the books in New York for many years, reduces the pressures on unions to give concessions in contract negotiations, because their contract can’t lapse if a deal isn’t reached. Jacob Gershman, “Triborough Labor Law Likely to Survive,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 12, 2012,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577155332171320006.html
, accessed January 2012.

44
Herbert London, “New York Is the Ultimate Nanny State,” Newsmax, July 2, 2010,
http://www.newsmax.com/HerbertLondon/London-unions-public-dependence/2010/07/02/id/363709
, accessed January 2012.

45
Jason Grotto, “Watchdog Update: Feds Probe Union Pension Deals,”
Chicago Tribune
, December 8, 2011,
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-union-pension-subpoena-20111208,0,7092967.story
, accessed March 2012.

46
Ibid.

47
Ibid.

48
Ray Long and Jason Grotto, “2 Teachers Union Lobbyists Teach for a Day to Qualify for Hefty Pensions,”
Chicago Tribune
, October 22, 2011,
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pensions-teacher-perk-20111023,0,7187206.story
, accessed March 2012.

49
Ibid.

50
DiSalvo, “The Trouble With Public Sector Unions.”

51
Mark Steyn,
After America: Get Ready for Armageddon
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2011), p. 220.

52
Chris Rizo, “Calif. AG Candidate Takes Aim at Public Employee Pensions,”
LegalNewsline.com
, February 8, 2010,
http://legalnewsline.com/news/225451-calif.-ag-candidate-takes-aim-at-public-employee-pensions
.

53
“The Widening Gap: The Great Recession’s Impact on State Pension and Retiree Health Care Costs,” Pew Center on the States, April 25, 2011,
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Pew_pensions_retiree_benefits.pdf/uploadedFiles/Pew_pensions_retiree_benefits.pdf
, accessed February 2012.

54
Martin Z. Braun and Cristina Alesci, “NYC Actuary Said to Seek Lower Pension-Fund Rate of Return of 7% from 8%,” Bloomberg, January 12, 2012,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-11/nyc-actuary-said-to-seek-lower-pension-fund-rate-of-return-of-7-from-8-.html
, accessed February 2012.

55
The report explains, “There are several reasons for the current crisis. Some states and local governments have lacked fiscal discipline, some have promised overly generous benefits, and many have failed to make the annual contributions necessary to maintain an actuarially sound pension plan. States have not been entirely at fault, as they had no control over the recent precipitous drop in interest rates or the volatile stock market. But regardless of the reason for the current pension crisis, the need for action can no longer be denied.” Senate Finance Committee, “State and Local Government Defined Benefit Pension Plans: The Pension Debt Crisis that Threatens America,” January 2012,
http://finance.senate.gov/newsroom/ranking/release/?id=f9a92142-d190-4bca-a310-b43cb462eb45
, accessed February 2012.

56
Edwards, “Public Sector Unions and the Rising Cost of Employee Compensation.”

57
David Cho, “Growing Deficits Threaten Pensions,”
Washington Post
, May 11, 2008,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/10/AR2008051002883.html?hpid=topnews
, accessed February 2012.

58
A 2009 CalPERS chart showing the life expectancies for California male and female police officers and firefighters at age fifty-five is reproduced on page 243 of Steven Greenhut,
Plunder!
(Santa Ana, Calif.: Forum Press, 2009).

59
David Crane, “California’s $500-Billion Pension Time Bomb,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 6, 2010,
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/06/opinion/la-oe-crane6-2010apr06
.

60
“State & County QuickFacts: California,” U.S. Census Bureau,
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html
, accessed January 2012.

61
Jon Bruner, “Is your state a debt disaster?”
Forbes.com
, January 20, 2010,
http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/20/states-debt-pensions-interactive-map.html
, accessed February 2012.

62
See Bruner.

63
Senate Finance Committee, “State and Local Government Defined Benefit Pension Plans.”

64
Ibid.

65
Tax charts are available on the Tax Foundation’s website,
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/9.html
, accessed February 2012.

66
Bureau of Labor Statistics, “State and Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings,”
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/SMS34000009000000001?data_tool=XGtable
, accessed April 2012.

67
Cristobal Young, Charles Varner and Douglas S. Massey, “Trends in New Jersey Migration: Housing, Employment and Taxation,” Policy Research Institute for the Region, September 2008.

68
Ibid.

69
“Statement by Governor Corzine Regarding the Princeton Migration Study,” September 2008,
http://www.politickernj.com/governors-press-office/23545/statement-governor-corzine-regarding-princeton-migration-study
, accessed May 2012.

70
The U.S. Treasury Department data cited here were obtained at
http://www.mytaxburden.org
—the Tax Foundation’s State to State Migration database.

71
Shannon Muller, “Leaving New Jersey,”
Asbury Park Press
, October 2, 2009,
http://www.app.com/article/20091002/NEWS/310020001/Leaving-New-Jersey
, accessed February 2012.

72
See “Domestic Net Migration in the United States: 2000 to 2004,” table 2, U.S. Census Bureau, April 2006; and “Cumulative Estimates of the Components of Resident Population Change for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2009,” U.S. Census Bureau, December 2009.

73
“Estimates of the Components of Resident Population Change for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: July 1, 2008 to July 1, 2009.”

74
Joel Kotkin, “The Golden State’s War on Itself,”
City Journal
(Manhattan Institute), Summer 2010,
http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_3_california-economy.html
, accessed February 2012.

75
See Joseph Vranich’s six-part entry for December 6, 2010, at Business Relocatiun Coach, beginning at
http://thebusinessrelocationcoach.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html
; “California Business Exodus Now Triple Last Year’s Rate,”
Fox & Hounds Daily
, September 21, 2010,
http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2010/09/7861-california-business-exodus-now-triple-last-years-rate/
, accessed February 2012.

76
“State to State Migration Data,” Tax Foundation,
http://interactive.taxfoundation.org/migration/
, accessed February 2012.

77
The calculations were made by considering “net migration” for California and North Carolina for the period 1999 to 2009, using the Tax Foundation’s State to State Migration calculator,
http://interactive.taxfoundation.org/migration/
.

78
Laura Ingraham, “The Public Employee Union War against the States,” Laura Ingraham’s Notes, Facebook, January 4, 2011,
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=482319946394&id=271042954725
, accessed January 2012.

79
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera,
You Know I’m Right: More Prosperity, Less Government
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), p. 69.

Chapter 7. Corruption and Conspiracy

1
Joseph A. Loftus, “Meany is Shocked by Racket’s Scope,”
New York Times
, November 2, 1957, p. 1.

2
Carl F. Horowitz,
Union Corruption in America: Still a Growth Industry
, (Springfield, Va.: National Institute for Labor Relations Research, 2004),
http://www.nilrr.org/files/Horowitz.pdf
, accessed January 2012.

3
“FBI investigating former SEIU leader Andy Stern,”
CBS News
, September 28, 2010,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/28/national/main6907828.shtml
, accessed January 2012; Kris Maher and Evan Perez, “SEIU Probed Over Consulting Pacts,”
Wall Street Journal
, September 28, 2010.

4
“About the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,”
FiscalCommission.gov
,
http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/about
; “Andrew L. Stern,” Columbia Business School Directory,
http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/cbs-directory/detail/7515985/Andrew+Stern
.

5
See In the Matter of the Construction & General Laborers’ District Council of Chicago & Vicinity Laborers’ International Union of North America Independent Hearing Officer, Docket No. 97-30T, February 7, 1998, Order and Memorandum,
http://www.ipsn.org/laborers/chicago_district_council/t97-30.htm
, accessed May 2012. John O’Brien, “Corruption Charges Spur Union Council’s Takeover,”
Chicago Tribune
, February 11, 1998,
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-02-11/news/9802110221_1_mob-influence-union-hearing-officer-international-union
, accessed January 2012.

6
105 Cong. Rec. 1,727 (1959) (statement of James P. Mitchell, Secretary of Labor, Feb. 4, 1959, before Subcommittee on Labor, Senate Committee on Labor & Public Welfare).

7
“Fighting Union Corruption: The Landrum-Griffin Act,”
McGraw-HillAnswers.com
,
http://www.mcgraw-hillanswers.com/fighting-union-corruption-landrum-griffin-act
, accessed January 2012. See also “Union Members Bill of Rights,”
UnionFacts.com
,
http://www.unionfacts.com/crime-and-corruption/union-members-bill-of-rights/
.

8
“Disclosure and Deterrence,”
UnionFacts.com
,
http://www.unionfacts.com/crime-and-corruption/disclosure-and-deterrence/
, accessed February 2012.

9
“Death by 23,000 Cuts and the Failure of Self-Governance,”
UnionFacts.com
,
http://www.unionfacts.com/crime-and-corruption/death-by-23000-cuts-and-the-failure-of-self-governance/
, accessed February 2012.

10
James B. Jacobs and Dimitri D. Portnoi, “Combating Organized Crime with Union Democracy: A Case Study of the Election Reform in United States v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters,”
Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review
42, no. 2 (Winter 2009), pp. 335–425,
http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol42/iss2/2
, accessed February 2012.

11
Steven Greenhouse, “Behind Turmoil For Teamsters, Rush for Cash,”
New York Times
, September 21, 1997,
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/21/us/behind-turmoil-for-teamsters-rush-for-cash.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
, accessed February 2012.

12
Ibid.

13
United States v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 998 F.Supp. 759 (S.D.N.Y. 1997);
http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?page=7&xmldoc=19971747988FSupp759_11679.xml&docbase=CSLWAR2-1986-2006&SizeDisp=7
, accessed May 2012, affirmed, 156 F.3rd 354 (Second Cir.
1998); Decision of Kenneth Conboy to Disqualify IBT President Ron Carey, (S.D.N.Y. 1997),
http://www.ipsn.org/teamsters/carey_decision.htm
, accessed May 2012; Steven Greenhouse, “An Overseer Bars Teamster Leader from Re-election,”
New York Times
, November 15, 1997,
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/18/us/an-overseer-bars-teamster-leader-from-re-election.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
, accessed February 2012.

14
Decision of Teamsters Election Officer Kenneth Conboy to Disqualify Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters President Ron Carey, p. 11.

15
Brody Mullins and Kris Maher, “Obama Says Teamsters Need Less Oversight,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 5, 2008,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120994756511766395.html
, accessed May 2012.

16
“How to Get an Honest Union Election,” Association for Union Democracy, September 2004,
http://www.uniondemocracy.org/Legal/honestel.htm
, accessed January 2012.

17
Steven Greenhouse, “Ex-officials of City Union Convicted of Rigging Vote,”
New York Times,
July 26, 2000,
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/26/nyregion/ex-officials-of-city-union-convicted-of-rigging-vote.html?ref=albertadiop
, accessed May 2012;