- Home
- News Grid
- Local News
- Green Hawk
- Business
- Politics
- School Zone
- Nonprofits
- Missing Pets
- Multimedia
- Arts
- Movies
- Outdoors
- Sports
- News Releases
- Columnists
- Blogs
- Opinions
- Classifieds
- Advertise
- Donate
- Partners
Michelle Malkin: When Big Labor Bullies and Volunteers Collide
The Boy Scouts’ motto is: Be prepared. Who knew it meant preparing to defend themselves against purple-shirted union thuggery over community service? Kids, pay attention. This is a teachable moment for all of you on power, politics and Big Labor’s culture of corruption.
Last week at an Allentown (Pa.) City Council meeting, a top official of the local Service Employees International Union chapter ranted about 17-year-old Scout Kevin Anderson’s park cleanup work. Anderson devoted 200 hours to the job to earn an Eagle Scout badge. He picked up trash and helped clear a 1,000-foot walking path with fellow members of Boy Scouts Troop 301 of Center Valley.
But SEIU’s Nick Balzano gave them hell instead of thanks.
Balzano disparaged altruistic efforts in city parks and asserted that “there is (sic) to be no volunteers” since his union members were laid off. He then issued a witch hunt threat: “We’ll also be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails. We may file another grievance on that.” Citing union rules, he gave the Allentown council, the Boy Scouts and all potential volunteers an iron-fisted ultimatum: “None of them can pick up a hoe. They can’t pick up a shovel. They can’t plant a flower. They can’t clear a bicycle path. They can’t do anything. Our people do that.”
That’s right. Balzano was ready to bludgeon the Boy Scout because his gung-ho volunteerism posed a threat to the SEIU labor monopoly. The outrageous display of Boss Balzano’s union protectionism provoked a national furor. SEIU headquarters in Washington immediately blamed “the disreputable Fox News and other right-wing outlets like Michelle Malkin’s accuracy-challenged blog” for the backlash. While decrying their critics’ “fiction,” SEIU distanced itself from Balzano, denying that he was a top union leader and dismissing his remarks as “unauthorized.”
Fact: The Labor Department records from 2008 (its most recent filing) show that Balzano is no rogue rank-and-file member. He serves on the SEIU local’s executive board and previously served as president.
Fact: The union tried to minimize Balzano’s grievance threat as “inappropriate.” But the dirty open secret is that public-sector unions have routinely attacked volunteer workers who threaten their stranglehold.
Last June, union officials in Baraboo, Wis., filed a complaint against volunteer firefighters who built sandbag barricades to protect the city from record flooding. They whined that city Department of Public Works employees should have been called first and demanded overtime pay (for work they didn’t do) to compensate them.
Yes, kids, the city was knee-deep in water and the government union got mad that other people scrambled to work together in an emergency to put sand in bags, save homes and help their neighbors. Public-sector unions aren’t about serving the public interest. They’re about serving their people, their power and their self-preservation.
In Montpelier, Vt., several years ago, the teachers union went after a superstar educator, Bill Corrow. The students, staff and supervisors at his school loved the social studies teacher and Vietnam War veteran. But the Vermont Education Association hated him because he was a volunteer who did not accept payment for his elective course. Teachers unions are all for parents and schoolchildren volunteering their time to engage in political lobbying and power-expanding initiatives on the union’s behalf. But God help the community service-oriented individual with a passion for sharing his knowledge in their classrooms.
In California, union heavies in the Sacramento area sued a nonprofit environmental group for using college-age volunteers on a state-funded project to clean up a canyon and build a community trail. Big Labor dusted off an old law that requires community service volunteers to be paid prevailing wages for doing the same kind of cleanup that Allentown’s Anderson was punished for doing freely. The law was finally repealed, but not without a brass-knuckles fight.
As National Right to Work Committee president Mark Mix, whose group monitors forced union abuses, pointed out during the battle: “Discerning California union bosses’ real agenda ... is not hard. Volunteer workers don’t have to pay compulsory union dues to serve their communities, but most paid workers on public projects in California do. ... (It) is yet another example of how government-authorized compulsory union dues corrupt the political process and furnish unscrupulous union officials with an enormous incentive to act against the public interest.”
SEIU president Andy Stern in Washington speaks for all of Big Labor when he describes his organizing philosophy: “We prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work, we use the persuasion of power.”
President Barack Obama, who has made national service an administration priority, has been and will continue to be silent about the Big Labor bullies who make public enemies of Scouts with trash bags and hoes.
You see, kids, Obama owes Stern (his most frequent White House visitor) and his union brethren. SEIU alone poured more than $60 million in compulsory membership dues into Obama’s campaign and leaned on its workers to “volunteer” to knock on doors, place phone calls and send out mailers for the Democratic Party. No good deed goes unpunished by union bosses — unless it benefits their political empire.
— Michelle Malkin is author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. Click here for more information. She can be contacted at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
» wrote on 11.23.09 @ 05:46 AM
Here we go again. Smoke screen that getting a decent wage for a worker’s labor is somehow Un-American.
American jobs have been exported to countries without any protection for labor. Sure, we get cheaper stuff along with giant corporate profits, but American unemployment comes along with it.
Remember the myth about America changing to a “service economy”. Yes, a job at Mc Donalds.
How about attacking Big Business crooks (have you forgotten Wall Street) along with Big Labor?
Other businesses hated Henry Ford for paying his workers enough wages to buy Ford cars, their own homes and send their kids to college. And Henry was no Commie.
Once upon a time we made the best cars, trucks and heavy equipment in the world. Now we make the best and most profitable weapons.
» wrote on 11.23.09 @ 07:43 AM
For the first time in my life I think I agree with Ms. Malkin. I have never enjoyed her columns, but I have to admit this one struck a chord.
» wrote on 11.23.09 @ 07:59 AM
Ron, this is not about screwing the American worker or big business engaging in unfair labor practices. this is about people whining that they want more money based on how long they have been work and not on how well they have been working. Our school systems are filled with tenured teachers that can’t teach their way out of a paper bag, but it is nearly impossible to fire them and put in decent replacements. City/County/State governments going broke because they can’t afford the defined benefits retirement packages that the unions forced them into. The list goes on and on. at one time unions stood for protecting the worker; that was so long ago that most people can’t even see back to that through the greed, power and waste of the current union system.
And for those of you that agree that it is already a mess: watch for “card check”. If Obama and congress push that through it will make the unions even more of an unstoppable monstrosity of misrepresentation and mis-wielded power.
» wrote on 11.23.09 @ 08:37 AM
Ms. Malkin’s right. Why can’t a Boy Scout do a good deed? We don’t need Unions. We just need to stand up for our rights. Just look at the Union leaders salaries and pension plans and you’ll know why they contribute so much to political campaigns in order to stay alive. If a Union was truly for the good of the person then maybe the leader should be donating their time instead of making a “killing” off all the dues and fees owed by the members.
» wrote on 11.23.09 @ 08:38 AM
The have long outlives any purpose except to sttel from the taxpayers..Go union Go broke.
» wrote on 11.23.09 @ 09:06 AM
Dear Honest,
I love to throw sand into the works and am not afraid to use my real name. I have to agree with you about not being able to fire incompetent teachers, doctors, judges, lawyers, corporate CEOs, and government bureaucrats. The flip side is administrations that get rid of competent people that don’t agree with the administration’s policies are wrong. (Good judges that refused to go after enemies of the administration.)
We have major problems with our government. Picking off a few small problems like ACORN and liability lawyers is not going to save us. Destroying Obama, our president, (admitted Republican policy) will not solve things either.
We are letting the insurance companies, arms manufacturers, drug makers, lobbyists, and banks run our country.
We are letting our media feed us with trivia while they ignore what is really important.
Liberal media? Hah.
Thanks for speaking out, we all have a job to do and need to communicate and not throw stones at each other. (I guess I just did.)
» wrote on 11.23.09 @ 03:11 PM
This thread I enjoyed. While Michelle Malkin took on the unions in her article, the messages left by you “posters” have hit the nail on the head no matter whose ox you want to gore: Money corrupts. Period. Contrast the motives of the unions, the corporations, government, and any other group mentioned in these posts with those people mentioned in the Ken Williams article in this News Hawk edition. If America is in a mess, it’s because too many have become to beholden to the almighty buck. Special interests would have no influence at all if they didn’t have money to spread around the halls of federal and state government. The scary thing is that there is no way back. And no one to take us there, despite the campaign rhetoric of our current Commander in Chief. Change? Give me a break! Not as long as money rules and we are fools…..
More Local News »
Michelle Malkin: Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, Racist Pig
Obama critic Rep. Allen West the target of the congressman's latest tirade
Michelle Malkin: The Obamas, aka Mr. and Mrs. Cranky Pants
Tarmac encounter with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer riles the president's, er, sensitive side
Michelle Malkin: The Land of Obama Make-Believe
President's idea of economic recovery includes lowering visa standards and risking homeland security
Michelle Malkin: Despite Conflicts of Interest, Obama’s ‘Razist’ Lobbyist Moves Up
Cecilia Munoz expands the reach of her radical multi-culti advocacy into the White House
Michelle Malkin: Obama’s Super-Czar Is on the Loose
Political end-run gives unfettered power to new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Weather: Fair 44.0º
Search Noozhawk »
