Union Power Chicago Style Exposed: How the Labor Leaders Really Serve the Working Class!
This story, had it come out a bit earlier, would have been the perfect Labor Day special. It is not what the AFL-CIO union bosses want their membership to hear.
We all recall President Obama standing on the podium with Richard Trumka and the other labor chieftains, talking about the need to “take out” the Republicans and give the working man the dignity, salaries, and other perks they need to end income inequality and to become empowered. “Tax the rich,” they all scream — apply the “Buffett law” and see to it that the regular employee pays a lower tax than the greedy billionaire, who, like Warren Buffett, sets up businesses, employs people who earn a living, and yet supposedly engages in no activity of a worthwhile nature except to see to it that he personally gets rich. As old Karl Marx might have once said, confiscate the property of the bourgeoisie, redistribute the wealth to the working class, and allow them to become the masters of society.
Well, it seems that Marx’s dream is coming true in Chicago, but not exactly in the manner in which he thought it would occur. No social revolution, no mass movement, no movement of the working class to power with the “Long March” through existing institutions that the Gramscian New Left once proposed. Instead, it is taking place through the long evolved mechanism of Chicago-style corruption, developed over the years by the senior Richard Daley machine in the city that started Barack Obama on his way to political power.
So kudos to the Chicago Tribune for breaking this news to its readers, who can now ask Mayor Rahm Emanuel to do something to change the political culture. Emanuel is now the local leader, having gained the post after leaving his city for White House service and returning to it after having used national duty to obtain what previously had eluded him — the top political spot in his home town.
So here is the news. For a former labor boss named Dennis Gannon, it has now been revealed, “the keys to securing a public pension were one day on the city payroll and some help from the Daley administration.”
The story goes on to note that “his city pension is more than modest. It’s the highest of any retired union leader: $158,000. That’s roughly five times greater than what the typical retired city worker receives.” You have not misread this figure. It is so high that it is usually forbidden by federal limits to what one can get in a pension, so the Daley machine had to file a special request with the IRS to allow him to get it. If you owe them some back taxes, simply do the same next time. Give them this story, and file a “special request.” But don’t count on it, unless you live in Chicago and know Rahm very well!
The Tribune goes further, spelling out the significance of the deal, way beyond what it meant for Mr. Gannon. They explain:
Gannon’s inflated pension is a prime example of how government officials and labor leaders have manipulated city pension funds at the expense of union workers and taxpayers. Like other labor leaders, he was able to take a long leave from a city job to work for a union and then receive a city pension based on a high union salary.
But in a new twist, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found that Gannon is eligible for the lucrative pension deal only because City Hall rehired the former Streets and Sanitation Department worker for a single day in 1994, then granted him an indefinite leave of absence.
We used to call this a “sweetheart deal,” an arrangement going way beyond the old “double dipping” which takes place when a city worker retires and then is hired by another city agency to earn a full-time salary on top of his already high union pension. Why work at a new job, Gannon figured, when all he has to do is work one day and get the equivalent salary for the rest of his life? Yeah, evidently it is legal, and he took what he could get. But unlike the Warren Buffetts of the world, who hire people and set up businesses, he is giving nothing to anyone but himself. As he probably says, “nothing is too good for the working class,” especially when they can use the system and not have to work at all.
He is described as “one of the most powerful” labor leaders in Chicago, a man who became president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, sitting in AFL-CIO executive board meetings for years. There, he could help plan national labor strategy and work out deals with Democratic White Houses to advance union power, or work to oust a Republican executive branch by buffing up the national union’s lobbying force.
Don’t forget Saul Alinsky and number two Capone henchman Frank Nitti, who corrupted Chicago like it was nobody’s business, inside and out. Alinsky dedicated his book, “Rules for Radicals’ to, not Daley, nor Nitti nor Capone, but Satan hisself. Spoiled brat Bill Ayers dedicated his book to Sirhan Sirhan, killer of RFK.
That’s Chicago for you.
The. Most. Corrupt. City. EVER.
It makes ancient Babylon look like a convent.
It was ever thus. If you think organized extortion at the point of a bayonet is equitable, you’re probably a union goon. Just as long as you’re the extorter, not the extortee. Never fall for the history you hear about the noble unions, it’s all BS. If you believe that crap, you’ll be telling me the KKK were freedom fighters, next. Scum are scum, and always have been. There is no such thing as a hard working union man. Get it through your head. It’s all lies, from beginning to end.
Ron Radosh writes about a top union leader gaming the system to steal public money under the guise of legality, and you say there is no such thing as a hard working union man. One thing has nothing to do do with the other. The N.Y. City fighters going up the stairs of the Twin Towers were union men. Watch who you are calling “scum”, scum.
And the nearly 6,000 who have died in OEF/OIF are not unionized. So what’s your point? Are you here to say that union leaeders and unions have not been corrupted by power and greed? Are you to defend this corrupt person by using the good name of men who died just because they also happened to be in union? Are the firefighters and police unionized of their own free accord? Or were they forced to buy into a union? If unions are soooo great, how come all industry is NOT unionized? And how come most unionized industries are now defunct?
I await your no doubt brilliant answers.
Not to demean the sacrifices of the unionized firefighters, but blotto’s got it right when he asks “If unions are soooo great, how come all industry is NOT unionized?” Let’s go even further. What would result if all were unionized – painters, carpenters, auto mechanics, waitresses, managers, bank presidents, high school kids, administrators, accountants, etc.? It would be absolute chaos, with a strike somewhere in the US on any given day, and hyper-inflationary. The only way unions are able to survive is to have the non-union sector of the population pay for the benefits of the unionized members. Period. Unionism is like communism – the little communists at the bottom, the non-unionized, propping up the ruling elite, the unionized. Public unions are a class unto themselves, propped up by taxpayers.
I say get rid of Police Unions. NYPD, LAPD, Chicago PD, all leaches to taxpayer money. That goes for Fire too, 70% of fire depts across America are volunteer firemen, we can make police and fire a volunteer job and save taxpayer money. ALL unions are bad.
As a New Yorker from an NYPD and FDNY family, thanks for a chance to laugh at the stupidest comment ever posted on this site. Are you going to volunteer to patrol the mean streets of NYC, as a volunteer, no pay necessary? What’s your name and where do you live, so we can check up on your extraordinary skills to police our streets and rescue our citizens in burning high rise buildings?
Joe proposed to get rid of the unions, not the cops or firemen. If you are insinuating that cops need to be unionized to know their job, that’s ludicrous. That’s like saying our military needs to get unionized to get better at their jobs. Our military reserve units and National Guard are all volunteer part time and exhibited extreme skills in Iraq. And have you forgotten the volunteer, unarmed Guardian Angels patrolling the “mean streets” of NYC?
oh the lovely irony. HE HAS BEEN RICH! he MUST be taxed at the maximum possible level to ensure that hepays his ‘fair share’.
city pension: $158k
union pay: $240k
total: $398,000
he makes/has made more than $250,000…ergo….
I am now awaiting his tax check.
What fascinates me about this is how these guys get away with portraying themselves as being “against” the rich, as if they’re poor or middle class themselves. When you go look at the socialist nirvanas in various European countries, you never see one where there aren’t any rich people any more. Most of the time, you find the same typical suspects, the DSKs and so forth, Duke of this and Count that and so forth, living in mansions with the wife in one wing and the mistress in the other and 17 luxury cars in their oversized garage. The fun part is when one of their counterparts here makes the case that he’s one of “the people:” John Edwards building the largest house in the county he lives in, having an affair with a staffer while the wife stumps for him, but constantly reminding everyone that his father worked in a mill; or even better, Al Gore, the closest thing Tennessee has to royalty, with a family fortune and trust fund derived from plantations that at one time utilized slaves for labor, family very powerful (Dad was a Senator), and of course the famously enormous house and the yacht and so forth…and Al’s a “Man of the People.” Yeah right. So now we have evidence that another of these guys (especially from Chicago) is corrupt and getting a pension to which he probably shouldn’t be entitled, whether he actually is or not…not exactly a surprise.
The same BS applies to political contributions. Ask a democrat who makes all of the contributions to his party and he will swear that the party is funded by individuals making small heart felt donations. Ask the same person who funds the Republican Party and he will tell you how the evil large corporations fund them in order to keep the poor people poor.
The schools and media have done one heck of a job programing the public.
And the Union corruption goes on – as it has for years!
It was in a local Union hall during a ’warm up rally’ for contract talks with Chrysler – the members were being urged to kick in extra for what they were told would be a hard bargaining session and their extra donations would strengthen the ‘strike fund’.
In the back of the hall a hand was raised – a question was asked; “What ever happened to the four million dollars we raised for a strike fund during the last contract talks – remember – we settled without a strike – so where did the money go?”
From the executive table ; “Sit down – and ’shut up’ – you’re out of order !”
And the vast number of Union members did not make a sound as the questioner ‘sat down and shut up’.
Cleaning up Washington is only part of the battle – cleaning up the Socialist sties where the likes of Trumka and Hoffa rule would be another act of ‘self help’!
“As for Gannon, don’t worry. Each year he gets 3 per cent more to adjust for inflation.”
Just keeps adding insult to injury. Just remember who keeps paying for all of this, my friends. If they are a city worker, it’s you and me who get stuck with the bill. That is why almost all of the states are about to go broke because of these unfunded liabilities. There is no way the states, especially some of the big ones like New York or California, are going to be able to fund all of these sky-high pensions.
And what of all of those other non-union workers, which represents the majority of this nation, who do NOT get pensions like this? Not only do they NOT get pensions like this, put they get stuck with the bill for paying the pensions of union workers. Isn’t that “FAIR?” You’re hearing Obama throw that word around a lot lately, “fair” or “fairness.” I guess it’s only “fair” if you’re in a union and someone else gets stuck with the bill. But for the rest of us, just suck it up and keep your mouths shut. Yes, that does seem “fair,” right?
As a resident of Illinois, south of Interstate 80, I get slapped in the face routinely by Chicago politics, whether it’s the union goons, the thrown elections, the city and its neighbors determining who our Senators will be, and most egregiously how our Second Amendment rights will be waived because of the sway the city and collar counties throw weight and take money. Our state is right up there with California and new York with current debt, and beholden to all sorts of pension funds our electorate has spent in and around Chicago. It’s a beautiful city downtown; but like many things beautiful on the outside, rot is underneath. Family ties keep my wife and I in the central state, but not much longer. Iowa and Missouri to the West, Indiana to the East; a flip of the coin may decide. All Hail Rahm! All Hail the Prince! Awww, the hell with them!