What a difference a month makes.  Earlier this week, the Democratic National Convention in Boston was called to order by Mayor Tom Menino, who gave a light hearted, if not jovial talk.    

A month ago, Menino was anything but light hearted and jovial when he described the John Kerry Campaign as “small-minded” and “incompetent.”  Kerry had raised Menino’s ire when he cancelled a talk that he was scheduled to give at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston.  The reason Kerry bowed out was because the union representing Boston Police officers, who have been in a contract dispute with the City for the past two years, threatened to picket the Democratic National Convention if Kerry spoke to the mayors.    

Could this be a sign of things to come should Kerry be elected in November?  If Kerry brushed off the mayors of virtually every city in this country, one wonders if he would tell our Governors to take a hike if a union told Kerry it would be better he didn’t make his presence known?  Would he snub a Tony Blair or a John Howard if a union told Kerry it would not be in his interest to meet with them and national security be damned?

Under these circumstances, the new book Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics, by Linda Chavez and Daniel Gray, could not have come along at a better time.  Chavez, a one time aide to President Reagan and President Bush’s original nominee for Secretary of Labor, and Gray, a former Communications Director with the National Right to Work Committee, argue that labor unions have the Democratic Party “in their pockets.”

While organized labor has generally supported the Democratic Party, it has only been within the last decade, with the election of John Sweeney as President of the AFL-CIO in 1995, that it has taken a decidedly leftward tilt.  Sweeney’s predecessor, Lane Kirkland, was a strong anti-Communist who supported defense spending.  Today’s AFL-CIO vociferously opposes American foreign policy.  Under Sweeney’s leadership, the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have spent hundreds of millions dollars to support Democrats.  In 2000, over $100 million was spent supporting Al Gore’s bid for the Presidency and other Democratic candidates.  In 2002, a non-Presidential election year, unions spent $90 million.

Chavez and Gray don’t object to organized labor being involved in the political process.  What they do object to are unions using the dues of members to advocate policies that are not supported by its members.  Chavez and Gray cite the statements of Steve Rosenthal,  the AFL-CIO’s Political Director.  Rosenthal, who was an official in the Labor Department under Clinton, stated that 40% of AFL-CIO members who vote will vote Republican.  But Rosenthal insists that they are “wrong” to vote Republican.  Is it any wonder that many union members object to having their dues pay for political activities with which they do not agree?  Indeed, the authors point to two U.S. Supreme Court decisions -- Abood v. Detroit Board of Education in 1977 and Communication Workers of America v. Beck in 1988 -- that decree that unions cannot compel their members to fund political activity.  The Abood decision applied to public sector unions while Beck applied to their private sector counterparts.

According to the Department of Labor, unions collected nearly $17 billion in dues from its members in 2002.  Much of this money is spent on political activity, yet unions report they spend no money on political activity to protect their tax exempt status.  Yet survey research shows that 80% of union members do not want their dues spent on political activity.  So why have things remained as they are?

Simply because there are many politicians (mostly Democrats) that rose to power because of the support of unions, and are not about to upset their benefactors -- even if it means associating with questionable characters.  Chavez and Gray focus on the relationship between President Clinton and Arthur Coia, the one time President of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA).  Coia had contact with President Clinton over 100 times during his first term in office, including a meeting in the Oval Office in October 1994.  This despite the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice was conducting an ongoing investigation into Coia’s alleged ties to organized crime.  The Clinton Administration was willing to overlook these concerns from the Justice Department because Coia made large donations to the Democratic National Committee, various Democratic candidates and even loaned $100,000 to Clinton’s inaugural committee.  LIUNA received $30 million in federal grants during the first two years of the Clinton Presidency.  Arthur Coia makes Monica Lewinsky look lightweight by comparison.

While the Justice Department indicted Coia in November 1994, within months the indictments were dropped and it instead settled with Coia, allowing him to retain his post.  A year later, when a congressional subcommittee investigated LIUNA after information had emerged that federal prosecutors had been undermined in their efforts to investigate LIUNA, Democrats defended LIUNA and chastised union official and FBI informant Ron Fino.  New York Congressman Charles Schumer asked Fino if he believed “space aliens are linked to the mob?”  When Schumer ran for the U.S. Senate in 1998, LIUNA donated $10,000 to his campaign.

Coia would eventually step down as President of LIUNA after defrauding the state of Rhode Island on taxes owed on three Ferraris.  But when the Rhode Island Bar Association suspended his law license, several Democratic politicians interceded on his behalf, and his license was reinstated.

I must admit when I saw the chapter titled “Legalized Terrorism” I cringed.  However, since 1975, more than 10,000 incidents of union violence resulting in more than 200 deaths have occurred.    Chavez and Gray argue that unions are immune from accountability by virtue of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Enmons, which stated that the Hobbs Act -- anti-extortion law -- did not apply to unions if they were trying to achieve “legitimate union objectives.”  In that particular case, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) had fired high powered rifles at several electrical transformers and blew up another.

Chavez and Gray write at length about the 1990 strike at the New York Daily News and the violent tactics used against stores and news stands that sold the paper.  Many store keepers were threatened with physical violence.  Others were beaten with baseball bats.  Others had their stores or stands burned down or otherwise damaged.  As for the response of the authorities, they argue that the unionized NYPD seemed more concerned about union solidarity than protecting innocent people from violent thugs.  While I would hesitate to use the word terrorism in this instance, it is certainly cause for concern.

To be fair not all Democrats are beholden to organized labor. Some do stand firm.  Chavez and Gray cite former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell.  When the City of Philadelphia was on the verge of bankruptcy, Rendell told union leaders that they had a choice -- wage concessions or layoffs.  City unions refused either option and went on strike.  But Rendell rallied the public behind him and the unions eventually agreed to some concessions.  Rendell went on to be elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002.  The only problem here is that Chavez and Gray did not mention that Rendell is a Democrat.  Rendell may be an exception to the rule but Chavez and Gray should have acknowledged his party affiliation.  For that matter, Boston’s Tom Menino has certainly not endeared himself to the city’s unions either.

Nevertheless, Chavez and Gray have produced a timely piece of work.  Clearly the AFL-CIO has thrown its weight behind John Kerry, and its affiliated unions have increased their dues accordingly, regardless of whether their members actually intend to vote for Kerry.  In the past, Kerry has been supportive of NAFTA, but now he is one of its fiercest critics.  Undoubtedly, the influx of AFL-CIO money has influenced this new position.  Should Kerry be elected in November, will he being reporting for duty to the American people, or will he need John Sweeney’s permission to meet with America’s mayors and continue reconstruction in Iraq?

Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics is available on Amazon.com.

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