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August 01, 2002
Right Tries "Labor Corruption" ploy
As conservatives flail around for something to divert public attention from the corrupt corporate looting of the country, it was somewhat inevitable they would drag up their standard trope of "union corruption" as a dangerously undiscussed problem (as if!).
The problem is that union corruption is largely a myth-- yes the Teamsters history exists, but most unions are far cleaner and less corrupt than the businesses they negotiate with, hardly surprising since union leaders actually have to face real and tough elections, especially at the local level, to keep their jobs.
Today's Washington Times has an opinion piece calling for more investigation of union financial corruption. The reason? Evidence from the Department of Labor's Office of Labor Management Standards that union officials get indicted at a rate of 12 people per month for fraud and financial misdeeds.
Sounds scary, doesn't it? But what is ignored is that "union officials" include leaders of tens of thousands of tiny local unions. A typical indictment listed at the DOL includes this item about a woman in a local of just 100 members who got caught embezzling money. And apparently this is the biggest fish caught recently, since it's the only one given its own press release this year.
Not exactly the devastation wraught by Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers.
The rightwing has been riding stories of Jimmy Hoffa and Teamster corruption for decades (although omitting the fact that even there, the workers actually did pretty well despite the leaders skimming a bit for themselves) to divert attention from the real and serious corporate crime the devastates the lives of workers and consumers every day.
Posted by Nathan at August 1, 2002 10:30 AM
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Comments
Remember, according to the Financial Times, in the 25 largest collapses of US businesses recently those responsible made off with 3.3 billion dollar.
There needs to be a lot of corruption within unions to top that...
Posted by: Martin Wisse at August 2, 2002 03:56 PM
Think simple. Learn different. Macinstruct.net
Posted by: Gillam at July 6, 2004 09:21 AM
oh you think theres not much corruption eh?
http://www.russblunden.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=a4c6eb5a9c558bfcaa689676e7160637
copy and past THAT into your browser, have a look, and be glad you don't work at meijer! corruption was low but is now rearing its head again!
Posted by: NFOGUY at September 19, 2004 10:45 AM
