<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Well, a new corporate outfit has launched an
anti-union site called unionfacts.org -- and quotes by Robert Fitch are
featured prominently on the front page. Go Fitch.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But it relates to our discussion of union
corruption. I put up a post exploring the site's way of lying with
statistics here:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.nathannewman.org/laborblog/archive/003635.shtml">http://www.nathannewman.org/laborblog/archive/003635.shtml</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The links are important to go through the lies, but
here's the post in text form:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<H3>How Corporate Right Lies About Union Corruption</H3>
<P>Well, the corporate right has launched a <A
title="Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign - New York Times"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14labor.html?ex=1297573200&en=dc502c7478b8f162&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">new
anti-labor front group</A> called <A
href="http://www.unionfacts.org/">UnionFacts.org</A>, dealing in dark tales of
union corruption promoted by the former head of the Beverage institute, the nice
folks who tell the public soda pop has no role in childhood obesity.
<P>But it's a good chance to walk folks through how corporations lies about
things like union corruption. Not that among the 15 million union members and
tens of thousands of union staff, there aren't a few bad folks, but what's
amazing is how much the opposition has to lie and pump up the numbers to make it
seem at all significant.
<P>For example, check out the site's page on "<A
href="http://unionfacts.com/articles/crimeFraud.cfm">Union Leader Fraud &
Corruption</A>". They list $400 million in "labor racketeering" fines and civil
restitution in the last five years.
<P>Sounds bad for the union leaders, but since the information come from the
Labor Departments Office of Inspector General, let's go to that <A
href="http://www.oig.dol.gov/laborracprogram.htm">department's labor
racketeering site</A>.. Check out their <A
href="http://www.oig.dol.gov/statistics.htm#olrfi">Statistics page </A>on the
righthand side and, yep, there are the same numbers as on the anti-union site.
<P>But let's look in more detail at what counts as "labor racketeering" by
readng the most recent "<A
href="http://www.oig.dol.gov/public/semiannuals/54.pdf">Semi-Annual Report to
the Congress</A>" by the Office. It's a PDF so scroll down to page 33 where the
Labor Racketeering part starts. Some of the problems are very real, including
fighting crime influence on the east coast longshoremen union, but when you get
to the money fines, suddenly the defendants largely stop being union officials,
but instead are businesses that defrauded the unions-- ie. the union leaders
were the victims not the criminals. Here are a few examples:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Peter Wong, who controlled Pacific Group Medical Association
(PGMA), pled guilty on June 14, 2005, to charges of insurance fraud and money
laundering. In 1997, PGMA failed with more than $18 million in unpaid medical
claims, making it one of the largest health plan failures in Hawaii’s history.
PGMA had provided health coverage for 26,000 people, including members of the
United Public Workers Union Local 646.
<P>On August 22, 2005, Robert Boyd, a former Evergreen Securities Ltd.
official, was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment and three years probation.
On October 3, 2005, Martin Boelens, Jr., another company official, was
sentenced to 46 months imprisonment and three years of supervised release.
Both were ordered to pay more than $25 million and $14 million respectively,
in restitution for fraudulently obtaining monies from investors and pension
funds to be used for their personal benefit and that of others.
<P>In April 2005, Dennis Lambka and Ronald Bray, officers of
Simplified<BR>Employment Services, were sentenced to 54 months and 60 months
in prison respectively, and both received three years probation. They were
also ordered to pay, jointly and severally, restitution of $55,136,267. Lambka
and Bray previously pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit the
following offenses: embezzlement from an employee benefit plan; defrauding the
United States; and bank fraud. Restitution will be paid to the victims of the
embezzlement schemes which resulted in unpaid medical bills.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>In
fact, almost all of the big money associated with the $400 million figure in
labor racketeering was committed by private industry AGAINST unions, not by
union officials.
<P>But that's how you lie with statistics. Throw around a word like "labor
racketeering" while only talking about union officials and leave the impression
that the crime only involves acts by unions, not acts where unions and their
members are the victims.
<P>Any union illegal conduct should be rooted out, but in a world of
multi-billion corporate corruption, unions are pure as snow, especially in
compared to the criminals running corporate America. </P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>