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NEA Unit Forced to Admit Guiilt

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NEA Unit Forced to Admit Guiilt I VA7 t 1 it$II TO 2v r? k- 04XI 1 7 elt VOLUME 30, NUMBER 9 QOCT 1 9 W4 SEPTEMBER 30,1984 Committee Exposes Forced-Dues Abuse UNIVERSeTYOFti rJFORNIA NEA Unit Forced to Admit Guiilt - . dence amassed by the National Right to Work Committee, Alabama NEA offi- CHRONOLOGY cials have admitted publicly that union kingpins illegally subsidized Walter * March 4-12: National Right to Work Mondale's presidential campaign by Committee investigator mans partisan providing free "in-kind" political ser- phone bank at Alabama Education Asso- vices. ciation offices in Montgomery. The admission comes from top offi- * Sept. 4: National Right to Work Com- cials of the NEA affiliate in Alabama mittee rfes complaint with Federal Elec- and from Mondale workers who alleg- tion Commission alleging illegal union edly coordinated campaign activities subsidies of Mondale campaign by AEA with the militant teachers' union. officials. These services, financed victims of Sept. 5: AEA's executive secretary denies by Committee's allegations. forced NEA representation, were exposed * Sept. 13: Confronted with Committee by the Committee's nationwide investi- evidence, AEA's executive secretary and gation into forced-dues politicking by Mondale campaign officials publicly ad- corrupt union bosses. mit to federal election law violations. After insisting for more than a week that there was no substance to Commit- Mondale win the Alabama primary. tee charges filed with the Federal Election Commission union bosses banks, precinct organization and parti- investigators hired by the Committee were backed into a corner when con- san get-out-the-vote drives that union have traveled throughout the United fronted with Committee evidence, and officials buy the allegiance ofpoliticians States during the past seven months, Jjr rorcer to admIff thieyr' LwhA.wi[ ,,.r tqroversial infiltrating Big Labor's Mondale cam- gal in-kind political services to Mondale. social, political and economic agenda. paign and logging irrefutable evidence The Alabama charges, filed in early Widely opposed by millions of rank- of forced-dues politicking: the use of September, join a set of previously filed and-file workers these often-radical compulsory union dues to advance pol- complaints charging union officials with causes are nevertheless financed by Big itical causes and candidates trumpeted illegally subsidizing the Mondale cam- Labor's forced-dues politicaljuggernaut. by the union brass. paign. The new round of charges brings To help right this wrong, private See Investigation page 2 the total number of complaints filed by the Committee to eight. The complaints document more than 25 instances in which power-hungry union officials have violated federal election laws in an Apologists Stall Hobbs Measure 'Put Up or Shut Up' effort to plop Big Labor marionette Metzenbaum threatens to filibuster in Larson challenges claims of Kirkland, Mondale into the Oval Office. committee ..... 2 Trumka ........ 4 The Committee launched the investi- gation last February to expose and end the misuse ofcompulsory dues for polit- Labor Council Gets New Blood Presser Shoots Himself in Foot ics. It is through the spending of Union bosses lose control of GOPpol- Demand to oust NLRB chairman hundreds ofmillions ofdollars annually icy board ..... 3 backfires ........ 6 for "in-kind" services like phone Investigation services at below-market rates to prop- Dunn, coordinator for Mondale's cam- continuedfrom page I agandize anyone other than members of paign in Alabama's 2nd Congressional the union whose money is involved. District. "AEA people didn't use the UNION OFFICIALS Despite these clear restrictions, cam- phones. They were all Mondale volun- CAUGHT RED-HANDED paign reports filed with the FEC through teers." Three of the latest complaints focus July reveal that the Mondale campaign on technical violations of federal elec- has neither paid for nor been billed for COMMI | E CHALLENGES tion laws, while the fourth documents campaign services financed by AEA's LETHARGIC COMMISSION substantive charges that Alabama Edu- general treasury. With the previously filed complaints cation Association officials blatantly According to the investigator's affi- still pending before the FEC, the Com- violated the law by providing union- davit;jtwo people-who played key roles mittee has gone to court to force the Big owned offices and phone banks to the in the partisan phone bank have received Labor-dominated Commission to act Mondale campaign at no charge. The expense money from the Mpndale cam- on a Feb. 17 complaint, and a court Committee charges that these illegal paign "'and, therefore, the Mondale hearing on that case is expected to be AEA "in-kind" services to the Mondale campaign knew or must have known of held within the next few weeks. campaign - financed by dues ofcoerced tlhe phone bank operation,' Committee The Committee's fight against forced- union members - are part of a massive, vice president William-A. Wilson said. dues politicking continues on other coordinated effort to mobilize general fronts as well. Earlier this year, freedom- public support for the former vice pres- COMPLAINTS SEEK of-choice advocates, assisted by National ident in the Alabama Super Tuesday MAXIMUM PENALTY Right to Work Legal Defense Founda- primary. The complaints, filed jointly by the tion attorneys, won.a.aandmark nling Mondale, deeply in hock to Big Labor Committee and former New Mexico from the U.S. Supreme Court in the bosses, won the Alabama primary last legislator Bud Hettinga Jr., call for the case of Ellis/Fails v. Brotherhood of March with 34 percent of the popular FEC to remedy the violations and to Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks. vote. Coming after a string of defeats in assess the respondents "the maximum The justices ruled unanimously against New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, civil penalty for knowing and willful the expenditure of compulsory union the Alabama victory played a crucial violations." dues for nonbargaining activities such role in resurrecting Mondale's faltering AEA executive Paul Hubbert, before as politics. campaign and carrying him to the seeing the irrefutable evidence, flatly In Congress, the Committee is sup- Democrat Party nomination. denied the Committee's charges, saying porting legislation sponsored by U.S. The evidence proving that union offi- the telephones were not used by Mon- Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) that would cials broke the law came directly from a dale campaign personnel. One week implement the Ellis/Fails decision by private investigator who for more than later, however, Hubbert did an about- outlawing the use of compulsory union a week helped staff a Mondale phone face. Mondale campaign officials also dues for all political and ideological bank at AEA headquarters in Mont- admitted the phone banks were used spending. Similarly, the Committee gomery last March. prior to the presidential primary. backs a bill introduced by Rep. Ed Federal election laws prohibit union "We had lots ofphone banks, notjust Bethune (R-Ark.) that would require officials from spending dues money in AEA's, but we did use seven of their full public disclosure of all "in-kind" support of their chosen political candi- (phones), and we did have calls going on political expenditures by organized dates, and from providing campaign every single night," admitted Elizabeth labor. - Metzenbaum Bottles Up Hobbs Measure Despite the dogged efforts of U.S. for a committee vote in mid- ages union officials' widespread use Sens. Jeremiah Denton and Charles September. His threat proved suc- of violence and intimidation. Union Grassley - both staunch Right to cessful. Corrupt union bosses - see- bosses received a unique license to Work advocates - Big Labor lack- ing the amendment as pure poison to beat, bomb and burn without fear of eys on the Senate Judiciary Commit- their reign of terror - still have federal prosecution in 1973's contro- tee kept the Hobbs Act Amendment enough Judiciary members in their versial Enmons decision by the U.S. bottled up in committee during the pockets to prevent the bill's suppor- Supreme Court. In that case, five of panel's first two meetings in Sep- ters from voting to end a filibuster. ninejustices declared that union offi- tember. Despite the continued willingness cials were immune from federal Denton (R-Ala.) and Grassley (R- of some members to duck a vote on prosecution for acts of violence Iowa) worked tirelessly in the halls of the measure, there is solid evidence committed in pursuit of "legitimate Congress this month to see that the that - thanks to effective lobbying union objectives." Judiciary Committee forwarded the by Right to Work supporters in recent The Hobbs Act Amendment would anti-violence measure to the Senate weeks - the amendment's passage is restore equity to federal law by mak- floor. virtually assured if a committee vote ing union officials subject to the same Nonetheless, Sen. Howard Met- is taken. penalties as all other Americans. The zenbaum (D-Ohio) led the apologists' The Hobbs Act Amendment, intro- measure stands a good chance of pas- delaying tactics by threatening to fil- duced by Grassley, would close the sage on the Senate floor.s ibuster S.462 when it was called up loophole in federal law that encour- 2 Free Choice Advocates Win Voice on Labor Advisory Council GOP Policy Forum Wrested from Union Bosses Right to Work supporters moved enemies of freedom." swiftly and decisively in Dallas last Fannin's pre-convention efforts set month to restructure the GOP's union the stage for sweeping reform of the boss-dominated Labor Advisory Coun- council membership and, once in Dal- cil, winning equitable representation for las, Idaho Rep. John Brooks (R- champions of employee freedom. Gooding) carried the Right to Work The Labor Advisory Council, em- banner to the convention Rules Com- powered with establishing Republican mittee. Brooks protested the anti-worker policy on labor-related issues, has been hue of the powerful advisory board, a one-sided forum for Big Labor profes- demanding that the Labor Advisory sionals since its formation in 1980.
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