Odds are excellent that – if elected – President Obama will act quickly to shut down an obscure office deep in the bowels of the U.S. Department of Labor. His friends in Big Labor will certainly breathe easier when they know DOLâs Office of Labor-Management Standards is no more. They wonât have to worry anymore about joining hundreds of their colleagues jailed as a result of an obscure but enormously effective Bush administration program. Under Elaine Chao, Bushâs long-serving labor secretary, OLMS did the unthinkable – it actually enforced laws and regulations aimed at stopping union corruption. Since 2001, OLMS has obtained 889 criminal convictions, the bulk of which involved embezzlement by union officials. All told, OLMSâs Don Todd estimates that his office has secured more than $90 million in restitutions since 2001.
Just in one recent month, OLMS gained convictions against officials from the United Steel Workers Union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers, American Federation of Teachers and the Teamsters Union. No wonder union leaders have complained about the Bush-Chao anti-union corruption campaign since it began. And thereâs no surprise, either, that their allies in the Democratic congressional majority have promised to shut down OLMS at the first opportunity. So Obama will waste no time making good on that promise, especially since labor unions are among his partyâs financial cornerstones, giving so far in 2008 more than $40 million to federal candidates, 91 percent to Democrats.
After disposing of the threat to corrupt unionists, President Obama would work enthusiastically with congressional Democrats to pass the horribly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, which would abolish secret ballots in workplace elections on whether to unionize or not. Big Laborâs No. 1 legislative priority for 2009 is ECFA because union membership has been declining for decades and is now less than 8 percent of all working Americans. With no more secret ballots, union bosses know their goons will be able to intimidate workers, and the membership rolls and dues payments will start growing again. Think about it – tomorrow may be the last Labor Day for a long time in which American workers enjoy the right to vote oneâs conscience without fear of retaliation from the boss, regardless whether heâs with management or the union.
