Video: The party’s just about over for unions
posted at 12:55 pm on March 2, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
While the union bosses party, and while the White House names their leadership to a deficit spending panel, the truth is that the union position is eroding — and the unions know it. The Workforce Fairness Institute has a new video out today using the occasion of an annual conference to skewer the wishful thinking of the labor movement these days, but the WFI may have buried the real lede a bit. They mention the problem of underfunded pension plans almost in passing, but that’s key to the rising desperation in the union hierarchy:
The union pensions are similar in many ways to the Social Security and Medicare entitlement disasters looming for the US. Unions have repeatedly raided pension funds on the assumption that growth in membership would allow them to eventually cover all of the commitments to its beneficiaries. They need Card Check as a means to force millions of workers to start contributing to their Ponzi-scheme structures to stave off utter collapse.
Yid with Lid has some interesting data on this problem:
Should these pension plans collapse its curtains for the Union Leaders and it would not be the best recruiting tool for the labor movement in general.
How bad off are the union pension plans? The best single indicator of a plan’s financial health is its Funding Percentage. A fully funded plan will have a funding percentage of 100%. A plan is underfunded when the percentage is below 100%. The lower the percentage, the greater the risk that benefits will not be available when they come due.
According to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 multi-employer (plans set through unions and company sponsors) plans are evaluated via their funding levels. To ensure retiree benefits are protected, when a multiemployer plan falls below certain funding levels, stronger funding requirements become effective under provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Plans whose funding levels are below 80% are referred to as “endangered,” while those below 65% are referred to as “critical.”
The SEIU National Industry pension fund is right at the 65% mark. The Newspaper Guild’s plan is at 62.8%, which is interesting in that newspapers seem uninterested in reporting on the problem. Sheet Metal Workers National is only funded to 38%.
If one wants to understand the desperation of Andy Stern and his allies in the Democratic Party to push Card Check — and to eliminate the secret ballot for workers in organizing elections — one need only look at the multitude of pension funds in critical condition. That also applies to union efforts to expand the federal government, which would mean a greater demand for workers paying dues to unions like SEIU and AFSCME (the latter of which doesn’t appear to have these kind of pension issues). It’s also no great surprise that the White House has been pushing to favor union-shop bids in federal contracting, for the same reasons.
With all of this in mind, one has to wonder why the unions pushed so hard on ObamaCare when they should have been looking out for their main interest, which is to strip private-sector employees of a critical protection against union intimidation in organizing efforts. That miscalculation will probably cause some heads to roll when Democrats lose control of Congress, perhaps even Stern’s himself.
Blowback
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Thank Goodness Andy Stern has agreed to help Obama recreate this kind of success for the whole country.
RBMN on March 2, 2010 at 1:00 PM
One road to a global government.
daesleeper on March 2, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Gee, I hate to recommend more laws and more regulations, but shouldn’t there be a law???
…like union pensions should be funded to a minimum level of 87% before unions are allowed to make political contributions?
ElRonaldo on March 2, 2010 at 1:03 PM
Glenn Beck talked about this last night and showed graphs to indicate the downward trend. Did you happen to see that, Ed?
SKYFOX on March 2, 2010 at 1:04 PM
No bailouts. Unions have or had plenty of dough, but chose to invest in Democrats. I feel bad for any deserving working person, but they also allowed their leaders to sink them. The same applies for elected officials in politics. Either we sit back and accept this nonsense, or we start taking elections seriously.
BuckeyeSam on March 2, 2010 at 1:09 PM
GM says THANKS A LOT BARRY!
DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. outsold General Motors Co. in February for the first time in more than a decade.
Ford sold 334 more cars than GM in the U.S. It was the first time since August 1998 that Ford outsold GM.
Ford’s said Tuesday its sales jumped 43 percent thanks to strong demand for its cars. The automaker grabbed some sales from Toyota, which is struggling with a massive safety recall.
Ford said it saw renewed demand from rental-car companies and other corporate fleets, which are buying again after weak sales in 2009. Ford’s fleet sales surged 74 percent over February of last year.
Ford had expected sales to climb from last February, when U.S. sales plummeted in the midst of the recession.
Ford says car sales climbed 54 percent as consumers continued to shop for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
originalpechanga on March 2, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Well, because that’s the deal they made. The liberals want socialized medicine with the permanent power it will grant them. The union bosses get card check and massive government expansions for the foreseeable future. Quid pro quo.
This is the fundamental reason why liberalism cannot succeed for long. It requires too many deals, too many strange bedfellows, to form a liberal coalition. The Democrat party somehow holds together unions and illegal immigrants, blacks and abortionists, billionaires and soak-the-rich populists, not to mention Jews and anti-Semites. It’s a coalition that can’t last.
joe_doufu on March 2, 2010 at 1:13 PM
Can’t drop fast enough for me…just like Zero’s numbers
PatriotRider on March 2, 2010 at 1:13 PM
OT BREAKING now from Fox News:
New healthcare plan to be revealed tomorrow. A “streamlined” version of Democrat version.
Will only include five areas where he’s exploring Republican ideas:
Expanding health savings accounts
$50 million in government pilot programs to reduce malpractice tort claim
Putting doctors in as undercover medicare / medicaid fraud investigators
Relook at reimbursement rates of medicaid
Getting rid of Florida medicare advantage.
That’s it. Everything else is from the Senate bill, which would be approved first, and then, assumingly, these are added in a reconciliation bill after.
Enoxo on March 2, 2010 at 1:15 PM
This is part of my “Piss off a Lib” plan…..let’s see how it works.
Imagine the work / cleanup that will have to start 1-20-13.
Pensions / Obamacare / Overseas Relationships / Deficits / etc.
Mountains of problems for:
PRESIDENT PALIN
PRESIDENT PALIN
PRESIDENT PALIN
PRESIDENT PALIN…..just repeat this over and over to a Lib….
PappyD61 on March 2, 2010 at 1:18 PM
I hope Andy is enjoying that chicken.
JusDreamin on March 2, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Personally, I believe that Andy Stern and his bunch of union thugs will never rest until they see the complete unionization of WalMart.
pilamaye on March 2, 2010 at 1:21 PM
Enoxo on March 2, 2010 at 1:15 PM,
Good post. Obviously, we could do any of those things, plus rooting out fraud and abuse, allowing insurance purchases across state lines, WITHOUT any “comprehensive” plan! I hate ANY bill that can be referred to as “comprehensive.” It just means it has a lot of crap in in it that we DON’T WANT!
Star20 on March 2, 2010 at 1:21 PM
I practice law in NYC. I am frequently around the various city agencies with unionized employees. These people make too much money and get too many benefits.
ParisParamus on March 2, 2010 at 1:22 PM
You know, this is getting to the place that it would not surprise me in the least to see B.O. recruit the ShamWow Guy as a last-ditch push to try and pass this idiotic bill!
pilamaye on March 2, 2010 at 1:22 PM
Perhaps a provision should be written in, that union leaders need to keep their mitts off of these funds. They should only be removed by the retiree. It’s the same as stealing, and not being punished for it. I wonder if most of these SEIU goons know they’re getting ripped off while they support this drivel?
capejasmine on March 2, 2010 at 1:25 PM
Expanding health savings accounts–that’s not a cookie; it’s a crumb or two.
$50 million in government pilot programs to reduce malpractice tort claim–LOL.
Putting doctors in as undercover medicare / medicaid fraud investigators–this makes the “bill” even larger, not smaller.
Relook at reimbursement rates of medicaidshell game continued.
Getting rid of Florida medicare advantage–That’s an improvement?
ParisParamus on March 2, 2010 at 1:25 PM
Absolutely not good enough!!! I say Republicans say NO!!!
capejasmine on March 2, 2010 at 1:28 PM
The big issues with all of this unfunded stuff is, the whole house of cards will come crashing down within the next 5-7 years. A whole lot of people are not going to have the retirement they envisioned.
Johnnyreb on March 2, 2010 at 1:28 PM
And who manages the GOVERNMENT pensions plan?
Why, that would be AIG.
seesalrun on March 2, 2010 at 1:31 PM
They were looking out for their bottom line – those tens and tens of thousands of new federal jobs in the new bureaucracies that the health care “reform” bills added. It was something like 118 new bureaucracies, wasn’t it?
darwin-t on March 2, 2010 at 1:33 PM
So the scaled, nay dramatically scaled down bill is just a larger bill?
I’m not too surprised as this is the power house wit of the same botoxed coma victim that had so many things in common with the Tea Party.
THIS JUST IN!!!!!!!
Black is white, up is down, and left is right.
jukin on March 2, 2010 at 1:34 PM
So when the Union Pension plans fail, they are taken over by the United States… apparently by existing law. When that happens, do I (the taxpayer) have to pay for their Union Pension AND their Social Security payments? Yeah, it would mean the end to the Union dominance in politics now, but what would the price be? How many trillions…?
Mr Michael on March 2, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Another Wave Cresting and returning out to sea….
Dr Evil on March 2, 2010 at 1:45 PM
Well my retirement is safe, I work for the
stateCommonwealth of VA hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahascalleywag on March 2, 2010 at 1:47 PM
Umm… if the House approves the Senate bill, then NO reconciliation is required, and the Senate bill can be taken directly to Obama for his signature. Everything else you list can be forgotten about, because it will never be allowed to be included.
AW1 Tim on March 2, 2010 at 1:47 PM
Even with Card Check (i.e. the ability to add additional funds through new members), the collapse is inevitable unless: the current members agree to give more than normal to cover the deficit and the leaders can permanently refrain from raiding the funds for other uses.
Neither seems likely.
rukiddingme on March 2, 2010 at 1:48 PM
He mentioned it last week, also, about the same time he said Andy Stern was going to be appointed to the “deficit commission.”
mwdiver on March 2, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Can we get this on pay-per-view?
tru2tx on March 2, 2010 at 1:52 PM
The reason Stern & Co were pushing so hard on HCR is that unionizing the health industry, nurses, janitors, admin, etc. has long been a central focus of the SEIU’s efforts. Why was Andy all hot to trot for this particular industry? Well that goes to the “core convictions” of he and his SDS/Weathermen co-horts like Paul Booth(AFSCME) and Marilyn Katz who has been leading the HCR confabs in the White House.
What is this “core conviction” you ask? Why its the stated objective of this little cabal since their heyday in the 60′s, the overthrow of our constitutional government and replacement with, as Billy Ayers said, “communism with a little “c”.
What pray tell does HCR have to do with communism? Well as Vladimir Illyich Lenin, who just might be considered an authority on the subject, said: “Medicine is the keystone of socialism.”
Wait you say, he said “socialism” not “communism” doesn’t this undermine the overall premise? Not at all, as we remember the USSR stood for “Socialist Republic” yet was a Communist Gov’t. The reason being that as Karl Marx stipulated, Socialism is the imperfect implentation of policy towards the ideal of Communism.
True to the pattern of collectivist’s of every stripe, the call is forever for sacrifice and service in the here and now, in the name of an eternally sometime-in-the-future nirvana that never comes to pass.
Never forget that unionization has been the cradle of of communism throughout it’s history. Obama’s mentor himself Frank Marshall Davis ran the communist party headquarters out of the longshoremen’s union(ILUW) in Hawaii.
Our greatest danger may lie in the fact that collectivists are imminently patient with trans-generational plans, where the forces of Capitalism too often focus on quarterly returns.
Archimedes on March 2, 2010 at 1:59 PM
Makes perfect sense to me. I don’t think union leaders care whether or not pensioners get 100% of what is owed to them.
scalleywag on March 2, 2010 at 2:11 PM
This has been building for year’s with an aging workforce…the corrupt union bosses just always assumed their bought politicians could always take care of it…
DCJeff on March 2, 2010 at 2:14 PM
Man, that is THE TRUTH. We’ve been focused on 90 days down the road, while the moonbats have been focused on 90 years down the road.
Dominion on March 2, 2010 at 2:14 PM
OT BREAKING now from Fox News:
New healthcare plan to be revealed tomorrow. A “streamlined” version of Democrat version.
Will only include five areas where he’s exploring Republican ideas:
Expanding health savings accounts
$50 million in government pilot programs to reduce malpractice tort claim
Putting doctors in as undercover medicare / medicaid fraud investigators
Relook at reimbursement rates of medicaid
Getting rid of Florida medicare advantage.
That’s it. Everything else is from the Senate bill, which would be approved first, and then, assumingly, these are added in a reconciliation bill after.
Enoxo on March 2, 2010 at 1:15 PM
The supposed cave to R’s on a limited basis to entice one or more into bi-partisan legislation is merely a gimmick to accomplish the age old adage of it being better to have them inside the tent pissing out, than to have them outside the tent pissing in.
Oh course the the salient issue is the fact that “We the People” are the ones outside getting pissed on.
Archimedes on March 2, 2010 at 2:14 PM
Interesting info here, but I’m not confident of their imminent demise. Obama will ride to the rescue on his unicorn, our tax dollars in hand.
Buy Danish on March 2, 2010 at 2:15 PM
There already is a law, that covers company funded pension plans.
There’s no reason why union pensions shouldn’t be covered under the same laws.
MarkTheGreat on March 2, 2010 at 2:15 PM
Wow! What a sham!
Steve Z on March 2, 2010 at 2:16 PM
Wasn’t Mr. Wow arrested recently for assault or something?
Oh, that would be the Super Secret Last-Ditch move…
karl9000 on March 2, 2010 at 2:16 PM
Ed, with this post,you just answered a question I had about some work I just completed for a group that was, until now, unknown to me.
Thanx.
JohnGalt23 on March 2, 2010 at 2:24 PM
Does anyone have the UAW numbers? Being they’re such strong advocates of single payer healthcare since they hold seats on the GM BOD.
booter on March 2, 2010 at 2:28 PM
Still trying to grasp Morrissey’s take on this meme. Is he pushing a ‘spell of making’, trying to create some brighter future? Or telling us ‘everything will be fine’, Don’t Worry, Be Happy? Or is it ‘whistling past the graveyard’?
/again, I’m sitting here on the brink of the abyss in CA, where public sector unions are about to bring the entire state to collapse. The glint of silver I see here is no cloud lining, it’s bayonets & knives coming out.
rayra on March 2, 2010 at 2:38 PM
Maybe if they hadn’t been using their dues as a political slush fund for the past 30 years to fund democrats, they may have better funded pension plans.
How can you claim underfunding when you spend $95 million in a presidential election cycle?
Opportunity Costs on March 2, 2010 at 3:02 PM
Good points.
Buy Danish on March 2, 2010 at 3:14 PM
Didn’t they just get a ruling that union’s don’t have to disclose to the rank and file where their dues are being used?
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! … and bring your paychecks.
Well at least the MSM is all over this, or they will be, right? Pathetic.
ontherocks on March 2, 2010 at 3:19 PM
What has the money been used for? If they were taking in dues and taking enough money to fund the pensions they should have had enough money to do the business of the unions without taking money out of the pensions.
Are dues so low they don’t cover the cost of the business of unions?
Someone is taking money that doesn’t belong to them and using it for something.
This books of the Unions should be open to the public.
People should know where their money is going.
If government can cap executive pay, they certainly should be able to curb union spending on pay or contributions or wherever that money is going!
Raise dues, just like raising taxes! That’s what they should be forced to do. And have pay go for unions.
petunia on March 2, 2010 at 3:35 PM
He was in the news cause he died!
Or was that someone else who did those kind of commercials.
petunia on March 2, 2010 at 3:38 PM
petunia on March 2, 2010 at 3:38 PM,
You are thinking of Bill “something,” who pushed Oxy “something.” The shamwow guy was in the news for hitting a prostitute.
Star20 on March 2, 2010 at 3:41 PM
Union members should be represented by someone to protect them from unfair union practices… in fact they should unionize against the unions!
petunia on March 2, 2010 at 3:44 PM
Seems like no matter how well they’ve hidden who they are, what they’re about, and where they want to take the country,
a whole lot of the Left’s BS is hitting the fan at the same time.
Break out the rain gear, it’s gonna get messy.
ontherocks on March 2, 2010 at 3:49 PM
nion members should be represented by someone to protect them from unfair union practices… in fact they should unionize against the unions!
petunia on March 2, 2010 at 3:44 PM
Comment pages:
Just an interesting point of fact, the SEIU has ruthlessly suppressed efforts amongst their own employees to unionize themselves and subject the SEIU to the very conditions for which they advocate. On top of this they have successfully lobbied to exempt themselve’s & ACORN from minimum wage requirements they are continually trying to raise to the detriment of other employers.
http://www.rottenacorn.com/downloads/060728_badSeed.pdf
http://thecitysquare.blogspot.com/2006/12/minimum-wqge-and-hypocrisy.html
Their stated arguement? I kid you not sounds as if it were written by Friedman or Hayek himself.
“According to EPI, “ACORN argued that being forced to pay higher wages would mean that they would hire fewer employees — the very dilemma faced by businesses.”
Oh wait, and it gets even better! What was their legal rationale for failing to liv eby the rules they set for others? Doing so would violate their rights, their 1st amendment right no less. As it would hamper their “political free-speech” which is what they & Obama precisely railed against in the recent Supremes decision a couple of weeks ago.
The SWDS/Weatherman, SEIU, ACORN, Obama and all the denizen of their labrynth of collectivist not for profits and other miscarachterized venues of alturism, are naught but a cabalist plot undermining the very fabric of our way of life!
Archimedes on March 2, 2010 at 4:17 PM
It’s time and more for a law that says that all public and private defined-benefit pension plans have to be funded AS ANNUITIES purchased from or managed by independent companies, and paid for in full within 18 months of an unscheduled retirement, or 30 days of a scheduled (after-55 or after-60) retirement.
njcommuter on March 2, 2010 at 4:23 PM
Oops, her’s the last quote that I intended to cite re; 1st amendment.
“Incredibly, ACORN stated that paying its employees a lower wage would allow them to be more sympathetic to the low- and moderate-income families they were attempting to help. ACORN argued that abiding by the state minimum wage would limit their ability to promote their agenda and would therefore be a violation of their First Amendment rights.”
Archimedes on March 2, 2010 at 4:37 PM
Not the federal employee unions. According to Rich Lowry, in 2009 – for the first time – government employee union members outnumbered private sector union members.
bw222 on March 2, 2010 at 5:28 PM
Im a federal employee that does not have a union, the US Army. If you serve 20 years, you get a pension and medical benefits. If you serve 20 years in the Reserve or National Guard, you get the same but cannot draw on it until age 60. I’m a bit confused, are military retirements considered entitlements and should they be abolished??
Claimsratt on March 2, 2010 at 6:58 PM
Having served myself let me say that you are mixing apples with oranges. Citizens, ie; civillians have the right to of free assembly and thus rights to collective bargining. As per UCMJ soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are by definition not civillians or ie; citizens.
By the arcane reasoning of the UCMJ as such you are listed as “equipment”, really. Therefore as typewriter or Humvee have not the right to collective bargining, neither do service men & women. Just the way it is, and as it seems at this point the only properly functioning arm of Gov’t, it is greatly appreciated by the populace with approval ratings in the 80′s! So I nguess it is as it should be.
SSGT rt. USArmy
Archimedes on March 2, 2010 at 8:31 PM