On January 22, Robert Clearwater, former president of National Association of Government Employees (NAGE) Local 14-8, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to three years of supervised probation for embezzling $11,681 in funds from the Topeka union. He also was ordered to pay full restitution plus a special assessment of $700. Clearwater had pleaded guilty to embezzlement and falsifying union financial records last April after being charged in February. NAGE is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.… Read More ➡
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from National Legal & Policy Center http://nlpc.org/2019/01/31/kansas-president-of-government-employees-union-sentenced/
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Kamala Harris, the junior U.S. senator from California, is a woman in a hurry. Elected in 2016, Harris today announced her candidacy for president in 2020. “I’m running for president of the United States, and I’m very excited about it,” she told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Her track record, however, suggests she would be the kind of president who among other things would cut ethical corners on behalf of labor unions. Back in 2015, Harris, as California attorney general, helped a powerful affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) scotch the purchase of a half-dozen nonprofit health care facilities by a corporate buyer to protect union jobs. While a federal judge twice has dismissed allegations by the buyer, Prime Healthcare, that she abused her office, the case deserves another look.
On December 7, Keith Franzese, former president of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America Local 275, was sentenced in Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, Md. to 10 years in prison (suspended), 90 days of home detention and five years of probation for various acts of theft from the Greenbelt-based union. He also was ordered to pay $67,624 in restitution. Franzese, who entered an Alford plea last June, had been indicted in November 2017 on 15 counts of various acts of theft, embezzlement and fraud totaling well over $200,000. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.… 
Obnoxiousness is a universal human trait. But for unions, it’s a tool of persuasion. Large employers, with good reason, are wary. A new paper from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “
Few things say “money in the bank” to a union quite like Medicaid. A proposed federal rule could end this freebie. On July 12, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 
To organized labor, they’re called dues payments. To some members of Congress, they’re called acts of theft. The critics may be right. During the past several weeks, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has been conducting oversight on why Medicaid, a program now consuming well over a half-trillion dollars a year in federal and state taxes, is costing so much. One reason is that unions now skim an estimated $200 million a year from the program, having been granted the authority by more than a dozen states to reclassify home health care workers, including family caregivers, as government employees. This practice undermines statutory intent and a Supreme Court ruling four years ago. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., for one,