All posts tagged "union"

Texas Republican has $25K stolen from campaign

Fraudsters stole more than $25,000 from the campaign of a prominent Republican congressional candidate in Texas — the latest in an epidemic of political campaign thefts, according to a Raw Story analysis of federal campaign records.

The campaign for Scott Armey, a Republican U.S. House candidate for Texas' 26th Congressional District, lost $25,013 through a “fraudulent transaction," according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

The fraudulent transaction took place on Feb. 9 and involved “media placement” from political media firm SRCP Media, the FEC filing indicated.

Scott Armey for Congress did not respond to Raw Story’s requests for comment.

Armey, a former judge and commissioner in Denton County, Texas, just north of Dallas, is once again running for the seat held by his father, former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX), from 1985 to 2003. Dick Armey served as House majority leader from 1995 to 2003.

Congressional primaries in Texas will be held March 5. Scott Armey faces a crowded Republican primary field, which includes Brandon Gill, the son-in-law of Republican author and provocateur Dinesh D’Souza.

Scott Armey for Congress raised $281,855 between October 1 and February 14, and had $94,294 cash on hand as of February 14, per FEC records.

Scott Armey previously lost his bid for the seat in a 2002 runoff against Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), who announced his retirement last year, according to the Dallas Morning News.

In a separate incident, thieves also hit a New York labor political action committee — the Mason Tenders District Council of New York and Long Island PAC.

The labor PAC reported 29 fraudulent Venmo and Uber transactions between July 19 and Sept. 6, according to recent disclosures to the FEC.

Total tab: $4,308.84.

“These charges were the result of a stolen credit card and identity theft,” Kris Kohler, assistant director for the PAC told Raw Story via email. “The committee does not know the perpetrator(s) of the theft and the fraud or if any criminal or civil action has been taken against the perpetrator(s). The committee worked diligently to resolve this circumstance and has duly reported to the FEC all associated transactions.”

The PAC, which reported to the FEC expenditures of more than $2.8 million between Jan. 1, 2023 and Jan. 31, 2024, “has influenced government to approve literally tens of billions of dollars worth of unionized construction work throughout New York City and Long Island,” according to its website.

The PAC previously reported $339.93 refunded from “fraudulent charge(s)” between June 27 and July 12 at the Diplomat Canteen in Florida and Industry Kitchen in New York, according to an FEC filing.

Political committee theft epidemic

This is hardly the first time thieves ripped off political fundraising committees.

Over the past year, Raw Story reported that scammers stole millions of donor dollars combined from dozens of political campaign committees — which have experienced varying levels of success in recouping the stolen funds.

Most recently, the Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest PAC reported $14,156.25 in fraud over the course of December, Raw Story reported.

A thief nabbed a $3,000 check sent by a political committee led by former House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). The July 2023 check intended for a photographer was “stolen during the USPS mail process and fraudulently cashed,” Raw Story reported.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s political action committee reported theft of nearly $4,700 due to fraudulent checks in December, and the Oregon Republican Party was the victim of a fake check scam last summer.

Last year, the FEC questioned the campaign of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) about the fraudulent use of her campaign credit card by far-right agitator Milo Yiannopoulos, who purchased a 2024 campaign website domain for rapper-turned-2020 presidential candidate Ye, formerly Kanye West, using Greene’s donor dollars, Raw Story reported.

In May, Raw Story reported that the Managed Funds Association PAC was targeted more than 20 times between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2023, initially losing $147,000 in fraudulent check payments, although it appeared to have since recouped the money, according to filings with the FEC.

The Retired Americans PAC, a super PAC that supports Democrats, recouped more than $150,000 it lost in late 2022 after paying fraudulent bills sent to the committee, according to an April 21 letter to the Federal Election Commission, Raw Story reported.

The FBI got involved when Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) was the victim of a cybertheft incident in late 2022 that initially cost his campaign $690,000.

Raw Story reported that other current and former Republican members of Congress targeted by thieves include Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas (his campaign lost $157,626), former Rep. John Katko of New York ($14,000), Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida ($10,855), Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina ($2,607.98) and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida ($362.04).

The Republican National Committee and Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) also experienced campaign cash thefts.

The problem isn’t unique to Republicans.

Last year, the Minnesota Democratic Party experienced check fraud. In November 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s campaign fell victim to check fraud worth $10,085, Raw Story reported, and President Joe Biden’s 2020 Democratic presidential campaign committee lost at least $71,000, according to Business Insider.

One-time Democratic presidential candidate and congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and West are among others who reported money stolen from their political accounts.

Other PACs losing campaign cash to thieves include the Business Industry Political Action Committee ($14,156), State Farm Insurance PAC ($12,220) and the International Franchise Association Franchising Political Action Committee ($2,500), Raw Story reported.

The political action committees of Google, National Association of Manufacturers, Consumer Technology Association, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MoveOn.org, and law firms Akerman LLP and Blank Rome LLP have also experienced theft of various kinds, ranging from cyber theft to forgeries and check tampering, according to Business Insider.

'Not a trustworthy individual': Exec says Trump has 'zero' chance of winning union support

Trump is courting the Teamsters for their prized endorsement, but an exec with the union whose members run 1.3 million deep says the former president can't erase his past and therefore he should save his breath.

"I would say zero," John Palmer, vice president at-large of the Teamsters, said in a Wednesday interview on CNN. "I don't believe he does have a chance."

Palmer skipped a Wednesday roundtable powwow with former President Donald Trump and Teamsters Union brass in Washington where Trump made his best pitch to blue-collar workers that helped him march by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and will be a focal part in key battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan to determine what happens come November.

Trump left upbeat, calling it “a very productive meeting."

ALSO READ: Trump goes silent on ‘serious voter fraud’ after long trashing New Hampshire as ‘rigged’

He admitted that nabbing the endorsement would be a long shot, but, “Stranger things have happened.”

“Usually a Republican wouldn’t get that endorsement,” said Trump. “But in my case it’s different because I’ve employed thousands of Teamsters and I thought we should come over and pay our respects. As you know, a big part of the voting bloc votes for me.”

Palmer believes the public seeing Trump's posture dangles false hope.

"I was disappointed in the appearance, particularly the press conference that occurred after the meeting," Palmer said. "It's a tacit endorsement. He is not going to do anything for labor. Never has. Frankly, he's not a trustworthy individual."

Palmer pointed to numerous reasons he believes Trump can't be trusted.

They include crossing the picket line when IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) picketed "The Apprentice."

Watch the video below or click the link.

Trump crowd members with union signs revealed to be non-union: report

Donald Trump has claimed to be greeting union members at his speech on Wednesday, but those with union signs who were approached reportedly admitted to not being members at all.

Trump held an address at an auto parts plant in Clinton Township, Michigan, on Wednesday night, although he received criticism from workers due to the fact that the plant in question is not unionized.

The Detroit News was present at the event, and reported on Trump saying that the UAW negotiations "don't mean as much as you think."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

The outlet uncovered a surprise in the course of its reporting.

"About 400 to 500 Trump supporters were inside a Drake Enterprises facility for the speech. Drake Enterprises employs about 150 people, and the UAW doesn't represent its workforce. It wasn't clear how many auto workers were in the crowd for the speech, which was targeted at them, The Detroit News wrote Wednesday. "One individual in the crowd who held a sign that said 'union members for Trump,' acknowledged that she wasn't a union member when approached by a Detroit News reporter after the event. Another person with a sign that read 'auto workers for Trump' said he wasn't an auto worker when asked for an interview. Both people didn't provide their names."

Read the full article here.

Union leader for GM says 'pompous' Trump coming to spread 'verbal diarrhea'

The UAW's lead negotiator in contract talks with General Motors reportedly has some harsh words for Donald Trump.

Trump, who is doing a speech in front of auto workers Wednesday, is a "pompous (expletive)" visiting a non-union shop for his photo op, according to UAW Vice President for General Motors Mike Booth.

That's according to a new report from Detroit Free Press, which spoke with Booth and said he issued "a scathing assessment of former President Donald Trump hours before Trump was due to speak in Detroit."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

"Let me be blunt. Donald Trump is coming off as a pompous (expletive)," Booth said in an email, according to the outlet. "Coming to Michigan to speak at a nonunion employer and pretending it has anything to do with our fight at the Big Three is just more verbal diarrhea from the former president."

The report continues:

"Trump was expected to deliver prime-time remarks at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township. The auto parts supplier is nonunionized. According to an AP report, Trump will speak to a crowd of 'several hundred current and former UAW members, as well as members of plumbers and pipefitters unions.'"

"Booth said Trump's visit to Detroit is disingenuous given his past. In a video about plant closings that the union released Wednesday morning, 2017 footage shows Trump promising autoworkers in Ohio he would save their jobs. But in 2019 GM closed its Lordstown Assembly plant in northeast Ohio, displacing thousands of workers there and helping lead to the union's 2019 strike against GM."

Read the report right here.

Trump's viciously anti-worker record in the spotlight ahead of Detroit trip

Posturing as a friend and ally of the working class, former President Donald Trump is planning to travel to Detroit next week amid the historic United Auto Workers strike against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.

But during his four years in power, Trump took an openly hostile stance toward workers, stacking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with anti-union officials, gutting Labor Department regulations aimed at protecting workers' wages and benefits, and nominating Supreme Court justices and agency heads with long histories of siding with companies over employees—all while delivering huge tax cuts to the rich and big corporations, including major automakers.

"At every turn, Donald Trump and his appointees have made increasing the power of corporations over working people their top priority," the Communications Workers of America wrote while the former president was still in office. "Trump has encouraged freeloaders, made it more difficult to enforce collective bargaining agreements, silenced workers, and restricted the freedom to join unions."

It's no surprise, then, that Trump's 2024 presidential campaign is glossing over the actual substance of his record as the billionaire former president and current Republican frontrunner attempts to insert himself into one of the most significant labor actions in decades.

The New York Times reported Monday that the Trump team has "produced a radio ad that will begin running on Tuesday in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, trying to cast Mr. Trump as aligned with autoworkers."

The narrator of the spot declares that Trump "has always had their backs," even though he said on at least two occasions during his 2016 campaign that U.S. workers' wages are "too high" and spent much of his administration trying to disempower employees.

Trump is expected to speak to hundreds of workers—including autoworkers and plumbers—during his Detroit visit next Wednesday. According to the Times, the former president is also considering "an appearance at the picket line."

"The last time Donald Trump 'visited' striking union workers, it was to cross our picket line against 'The Apprentice' in 2004," the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.

"Now he wants to visit a UAW picket line? When billionaires show you what they think of labor, believe them," the union added.

It's far from clear that Trump would get a warm reception from the roughly 13,000 autoworkers who are currently on strike in Missouri, Ohio, and Michigan—a number that's expected to grow in the coming days if management does not meet the UAW's demands for substantial wage and benefit improvements.

A majority of the U.S. public supports the strikes, which are the first simultaneous walkouts targeting the Big Three automakers in the UAW's history.

Just two days after the union launched the strikes, NBC News aired an interview with Trump in which the former president lashed out at UAW president Shawn Fain, claiming he is "not doing a good job in representing his union because he's not going to have a union in three years from now."

"Those jobs are all going to be gone because all of those electric cars are going to be made in China," Trump said. "The autoworkers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump."

Fain, the first UAW president directly elected by rank-and-file members, hit back in a statement on Monday.

"Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers," said Fain. "We can't keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don't have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class."

"Donald Trump's anti-worker, anti-union record is one of the key reasons Michigan rejected Trump in 2020."

Reports that Trump is considering a picket-line visit have generated some consternation among Democratic lawmakers and strategists, who fear that the former president is " outmaneuvering" Biden on the autoworker strike.

The day the walkouts began, Biden—whose NLRB has fought to strengthen workers' rights—said the Big Three automakers "should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW" and announced he would dispatch Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and White House senior adviser Gene Sperling to Detroit to support the contract negotiations, a move that reportedly frustrated UAW leaders wary of any outside intervention in the high-stakes talks.

The Biden administration has since decided against sending Su and Sperling to Detroit.

The Washington Post's Jeff Stein reported earlier this week that Biden is facing "increasing pressure from some Democratic lawmakers to do something none of his predecessors appear to have done in office: join striking workers walking a picket line."

"Numerous Democrats in Michigan and around the country have expressed concern as Biden's likely rival in next year's election, former president Donald Trump, tries to woo union voters and weaken a crucial Democratic constituency by making his own visit to a strike site," Stein wrote. (Biden beat Trump 57%-40% among members of union households nationwide in 2020.)

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) told the Post that she believes "the UAW family would love the most powerful person in the world—the president of the United States—to come and hold a sign in solidarity with them."

"But I hope he does it in a way where he actually sits down and has a roundtable with some key people, and really listens to how hard it’s been," Tlaib added. "Of course, the president coming would be extremely important. But people want someone who's advocating for them and demanding a form of economic justice for them and their families—to come in solidarity."

Politico reported Tuesday that "Biden's team has privately weighed whether to dispatch a top lieutenant to the picket line to stand alongside the UAW workers," but a decision has yet to be made.

One Democratic strategist, granted anonymity by Politico, expressed concern that Trump "scooped" the Biden administration by announcing a Detroit trip first.

"Now if we announce we're going, it looks like we're just going because of Trump," said a national Democratic strategist. "We waited too long. That's the challenge."

The Biden campaign waved away that assessment, arguing that Trump's visit provides "an opportunity to remind voters across the Midwest that as president he cut taxes for billionaires."

"Donald Trump's anti-worker, anti-union record is one of the key reasons Michigan rejected Trump in 2020 and sent Joe Biden to the White House," Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, told Politico. "His failed presidency is defined by auto companies shuttering their doors and shipping American jobs overseas while lining the pockets of the wealthy and big corporations."

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) expressed a similar sentiment in a social media post earlier this week, writing: "Trump is not going to fight for pay increases, pensions, healthcare, benefits, or job security for workers. He will not work to strengthen our domestic auto industry during this transition and he’s not going to fight to keep these jobs in America."

"I hope people see exactly what this is about at a time when this industry and our workers are at a crossroads," Dingell added.

'Conspicuously absent' GOP’s claim of backing labor unions is 'almost comical': column

In a Tuesday, September 19 op-ed published by The New Yorker, longtime staff writer and columnist John Cassidy argues ex-President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers' claim of supporting the United Auto Workers (UAW) is laughable.

"What about Trump and Pence and the rest of the Republican U.A.W. stalwarts?" Cassidy writes. "So far, they have been conspicuously absent."

He notes that this week, UAW President Shawn Fain said, "Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers."

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

Cassidy emphasizes, "Most Republicans have consistently opposed legislative efforts to reverse that trend, including two bills that would have made it easier for unions to organize: the Employee Free Choice Act, which a Democratic-controlled House passed in 2007, and the Protecting the Right to Organize (pro) Act, which the House passed in 2019 and again in 2021."

Just days ago, the columnist notes the MAGA hopeful told NBC News, "The autoworkers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump."

However, comparing the ex-president's labor record with President Joe Biden's, he writes, "After taking power in 2017," Trump "restored the Republican majority on the five-person National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency that was established during the New Deal to support workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively," which led to the agency's quick reversal of "several pro-labor rulings that it had issued during the [ex-President Barack] Obama Administration, including one that made it easier for workers at fast-food franchises to organize."

Cassidy notes that under Biden's leadership, "the agency has abrogated many of its Trump-era rulings, including the ones related to voting procedures and independent contractors. Last month, the N.L.R.B. ruled that if a company engages in intimidatory behavior during a unionization election, such as firing union organizers, the agency will order the company to recognize the union and bargain collectively."

Cassidy writes:

Politics is politics, but the sight of senior Republicans posing as the true friends of the union workers is so outlandish as to be almost comical. From Trump on down, the G.O.P. has spent decades siding with employers and seeking to frustrate union efforts to organize workplaces and raise wages. Even as it has sought to rebrand itself as a workers' party, the G.O.P.'s actions have made a mockery of this claim.

John Cassidy's full op-ed is available at this link.

Biden backs Amazon workers' right to unionize

There have been a series of protests around the United States on safety and working conditions at Amazon, with the pandemic increasing pressure on its distribution network even as profits soar

Washington (AFP) - US President Joe Biden on Sunday backed the right of Amazon workers to unionize, but stopped short of explicitly encouraging them to form a union.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama began voting in February on whether to form the first American union at the e-commerce giant that could pave the way for further unionization in the US at one of the world's most powerful companies.

"Workers in Alabama and all across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace," Biden said in a video posted to Twitter. "This is vitally important -- a vitally important choice."

"There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda," he said. "Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union."

Amazon does not officially oppose unions but it has campaigned against efforts by staff at the warehouse in Bessemer to unionize.

In addition to flyers posted in bathrooms, it has held meetings to make the case against unions and even launched a website arguing that a union is unnecessary.

There have been a series of protests around the United States on safety and working conditions at Amazon, with the pandemic increasing pressure on its distribution network even as profits soar.

The company -- helmed by the world's richest person, Jeff Bezos -- has maintained that it has invested billions in worker safety even as it has boosted the number of its employees.

It is unclear how many of the Bessemer employees support a union, with the count expected to begin on March 30.

If a majority vote in favor, they will automatically be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) but will only become full members after approval of a new company contract, negotiated between the union and Amazon.

"As President Biden points out, the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is by organizing into unions," RWDSU head Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement.

Biden cultivated a pro-organized labor image and played up his working class background while campaigning for office, although he had previously avoided addressing the Bessemer efforts to unionize.