do I really have to say it???
Posted on 07/14/2008 6:25:55 PM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
It must be nice to be spending 85 million dollars on political campaigns yet refuse to fully fund your own member's pension plan. That, among other things, is exactly the sort of hypocrisy that it was revealed that the SEIU has been caught indulging in this week. Diana Furchtgott-Roth did yeoman's work in detailing the state of the SEIU's underfunded pension obligations in the New York Sun yesterday.
The Sun's Furchtgott-Roth details the SEIU's latest campaign against New York financier Henry Kravis of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts whom they accuse of all sorts of nefarious activities... none of which are actually breaking any laws. But as the SEIU attacks KKR, the Sun shows that they are not keeping their own house in order as they throw stones at others.
The pep rallies are another in a series of SEIU efforts to attack private equity firms. Apart from the silliness of making Mr. Kravis its target when its complaint really lies with Congress, the SEIU would do better to look in the mirror. In its own treatment of workers, especially worker pension plans, it falls short.
SEIU president Stern is trying to use the 30% stake that KKR has in the SEIU's pension fund management as a club with which to beat KKR into accepting the SEIU political goals.
SEIU President Andy Stern is not above trying to use that business relationship as leverage to pressure KKR to embrace the SEIU's political goals, either by threatening to harm KKR's name, as with the July 17 rallies, or by controlling proxy votes in shareholder meetings.
One of the issues that the SEIU's Stern is all in a dither about is worker benefits and how employees are supposedly not getting their due. So, since this is such a big, big issue who would imagine that the SEIU has a fully funded pension plan for its rank and file members?
You'd be excused if you might have assumed it was... but it isn't.
Yet in 2006, the SEIU National Industry Pension Plan, a plan for the rank-and-file members, covering 100,787 workers, was 75% funded. That is, it had three-fourths of the money it needed to pay benefit obligations of workers and retirees.
So much for the SEIU caring about their lowly rank and file members. But wait, it gets worse. The pension the SEIU has for their own union leadership and their employees is funded at 103%! So, they've taken care of their own pals in union leadership positions and shafted the rank and file membership.
See the rest of this post at Publius' Forum...
And in other news: Billy goats stink.
Is this supposed to be news?
A union screwing its members? Shocking!
AFSCME, SEIU, CSEA - all destroying New York State. They are monopolists and strong-arm political lobbying groups, that’s all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0
In Illinois, the current criminal Governor raided a public pension plan to a degree Jimmy Hoffa could have only dreamed about. The raid was legal, because in Illinois all the pols are in on the fix no matter the party or governmental branch. In other words the boys and girls in Springfield sanctioned it. Of course, had Barry been there, he would have either not voted, voted present, or had he gone on the record he would have tried to change his vote.
Since it might help, let's not do it.
A couple of years before I retired I had my union drop the poltical portion of my dues. They were supporting Gray Davis and his pro-abortion stance. It took them a week to find the form. We tried to pass a law in Cal that would require unions to inform their members that they had that option, but the initiative failed. But members can do it. Most, probably don’t know.
do I really have to say it???
It’s the union way.....
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