AFL-CIO boss John J. Sweeney spent much of the Labor Day weekend with extreme left religious groups — the Religious Left — and kicked off the celebrating with a Sep. 1 breakfast at a posh Manhattan hotel. Manhattan has been ground zero for union corruption in 1999. The lowlights being the 27 union corruption indictments (including 11 guilty pleas) of the Am. Fed. of State, County & Municipal Employees’ Dist. Council 37 and the ousting of corrupt Service Employees Int’l Union Local 32B-32J boss (and Sweeney’s successor) Gus Bevona. Note that Sweeney himself was caught double-dipping in 32B-32J’s coffers. [Newsday 9/5/99]
In an almost silly attempt to spin or combat this stark union corruption, one Religious Left group, the National Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice, handed out a booklet at the Sweeney breakfast called “Why Unions Matter.” The booklet including a section titled “What About Union Corruption?” It read in part: “As wrong as union corruption is, it is unfortunate that union corruption received so much front page media attention, compared to the important justice work done by unions to raise wages, benefits and working conditions for low-wage workers.”
Bradley’s 73% Vote Trounces Gore at Union Straw Pole
Former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) scored a victory over Vice President Al Gore (D) in a straw poll of delegates at the Int’l Bhd. of Painters & Allied Trades. The upstart Bradley won 73% of the votes cast at the union’s annual convention to Gore’s measly 22%. [Christian Science Monitor 9/9/99]