Union Power Chicago Style Exposed: How the Labor Leaders Really Serve the Working Class!
But wait, it gets better. Look at the following:
Until last year, that pension came on top of Gannon’s union salary, which had grown to more than $240,000. He now draws the pension while working for a hedge fund, Grosvenor Capital Management, that does work with public pensions, including the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois. The firm also was one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel‘s largest campaign contributors.
Doesn’t look like Rahm will do anything about this, does it? Well, at least you now know how the system works. Call it “socialism for the union leaders,” if you will; at least you know what really motivates their activism — and it isn’t concern for the well-being of the rank-and-file. Next time you want to know what hedge fund managers do, just think of Comrade Gannon, the workingman’s rep in Chicago.
Mr. Gannon, it seems, is not too embarrassed about this revelation. He released this statement to the press:
“I am extremely proud of my many years of service to the city of Chicago and the working men and women of organized labor,” Gannon wrote. “I have always followed the pension laws governed by the state of Illinois statute as well as the city of Chicago municipal pension plan.”
Or, you might say, manipulate the laws so that the people you put in power by giving workers’ funds to campaigns then pass laws that benefit the donors . If you want to know why setting up a PAC through a union funded by contributions that are not voluntary is so corrupt, especially when done by public sector unions, you have no better evidence at hand than this.
The city will have trouble investigating this deal, since it was made over 16 years ago, and the details do not seem to be available. Those who arranged it, obviously, did what they had to do to make the evidence about who arranged it and how it was done rather hard to find. Covering their tracks is something at which Chicago pols have become more than adept.
How Gannon worked the system is spelled out in detail. Look at this:
With his pay increasing at a steady clip, Gannon sought to get back into the municipal pension fund in 1998. To do so, he would need to restore the money he had previously taken out and start making regular contributions again as if he were a city employee. He would also have to cover the contributions that normally come from the city.
And, readers learn, he was able to do all this by getting city help, by simply writing a letter to then-Mayor Richard Daley! So a man who as a union leader and worked regularly for Daley’s election writes a letter to score an unbelievable pension for doing nothing but pretending to have worked one day at a job!
As for Gannon, don’t worry. Each year he gets 3 per cent more to adjust for inflation. You don’t want this working-class hero to suffer, do you?
Read this and weep for what happened to organized labor in this great country of ours.
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!