Order Highlights Close Ties With SEIU

WSJ ^ | 12-15-08 | KRIS MAHER and DAVID KESMODEL

[malkee]

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was preparing to issue an executive order prior to his arrest last week that would have allowed union organizing of home-care workers that could have benefited a labor union with close ties to the governor.

The existence of this executive order, though never signed, illustrates the close ties between the embattled governor and the powerful Service Employees International Union, the nation's fastest growing labor organization. Last week, Gov. Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges, including that his office suggested a deal in which he would be given a job with an SEIU-affiliated group in exchange for naming a labor-friendly senator to fill the vacancy left by President-elect Barack Obama.

[hoosiermama]

For morning.

[gleeaikin]

He is either totally nuts, or he was terribly worried about his Governors job. Let’s see he wanted a cabinet post, or a job with the Service Workers, and I think a couple of others that I can’t remember this late at night.

[OL Hickory]

HHHHHMMMMM lets see the new math...

Blago + wiretaps=impeachment proceedings started against you by House speaker Micheal madigan....

AND here’s how 2+2=5

House speaker Micheal madigan +federal prosecuters+
subpoenaed records= You get to start impeachment proceedings on Gov Blago

OPERATING ENGINEERS (IUOE)
Feds Probing Illinois Agencies & Local
Federal prosecutors in Springfield, Ill., have reportedly opened a criminal investigation into a 2001 labor dispute at E. Ill. Univ., and have subpoenaed records from the office of Ill. House Speaker Michael Madigan (D), the Ill. Bd. of Higher Educ., the Ill. Educ. Labor Relations Bd., the Ill. Dep’t of Labor, and others. Reportedly, the subpoenas were delivered to the IBHE only a day after the Mar. 19, 2002, primary (in which Madigan’s daughter Lisa, also a state senator, won the Democratic nomination for Ill. Atty. Gen.) and sought documents relating to negotiations between EIU, located in Charleston, Ill., and Int’l Union of Operating Eng’rs Local 399 in Chicago. The subpoenas reportedly sought materials related to the role any state employee might have played concerning a new labor contract. Reportedly, the federal grand jury in the case is also currently taking testimony from a number of individuals.

An EIU spokesman confirmed that “the FBI was investigating a matter relating” to EIU’s contract negotiations with Local 399. Steve Brown, the Speaker’s spokesman, said Madigan’s office was subpoenaed for documents as a result of a meeting in which he summoned EIU and Local 399 representatives to his office to resolve the dispute. Meetings with Madigan and his staff were reportedly coordinated via EIU’s lobbyist Loretta Durbin, wife of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). In another eyebrow-raising link, Local 399’s lobbyist Janis Cellini, a “prominent GOP insider” and sister of Republican “power broker” William Cellini, is also board member of IELRB (a subpoenaed state agency). [Chi. Trib. 4/10, 4/11/02; Chi. Sun-Times 4/12/02]

[screaminsunshine]

Chicago politics. The gift that will keep on giving for 4 years or prior impeachment.