Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations: RICO

As I take break from commenting on all the money unions are spending to stop John McCain and all the money unions are spending to make sure the EFCA passes, I thought it would be important to also take a look at where some other dues money goes: defending RICO lawsuits and paying HUGE fines when they lose...and you (union members) thought it was just spent on politics...

Recent headlines read:

"Union ordered to pay contractor $10 million"

Chicago Carpenters Union found guilty of targeting Prate Installations with the intent of destroying the business by regularly engaging in strikes and picket lines since 1998.

"UNITE HERE ordered to pay Sutter Health $17 million"

The union was convicted of "fraud, malice and oppression" due to their tactics to organize Angelica Textile Service employees. The tactic--go after their customer Sutter Health in a corporate campaign. Including sending out a postcard to all Sutter customers that told expectant mothers they should avoid Sutter or their babies might become sick.

"Union Ordered to Pay at Least $5 million to Cintas"

UNITE HERE illegally obtained the license plate numbers from employee-partners working at Cintas Corporations's Emmaus, PA facility, in order to access personal information, which was then used as part of the union's organizing efforts.

"NFL Union Countersues CBS Over Fantasy Sports Right"

I put this in here to make sure you are paying attention--while a real lawsuit, it's not RICO (yet). The union is demanding licensing fees for CBS's use of football statistics in online fantasy sports offerings as it "infringes on player's rights". Unions are stupid.

Giant pending RICO suits...

Cintas vs UNITE HERE

Bashas vs. UFCW (see www.bashsatogether.com, the company's response to union)

Wackenhut vs SEIU

Smithfield vs UFCW (yesterday in court: "The union did nothing wrong in peacefully applying economic pressure in its attempt to organize thousands of workers at the world's largest hog-slaughtering plant," the union's lawyer told a federal judge.)

and if you truly have sense of humor, Jobs with Justice, which is named as a defendant in some RICO suits (Bashas for one), launched a campaign against corporations' use of the RICO act as a legal tactic to silence corporate critics.

Yeah, that's what companies are doing, using the RICO act to stop union organizing... how about they just want unions to stop all the foolishness of corporate campaigns with blatantly illegal tactics against corporations, their vendors, their suppliers, their customers and worse--the very employees they are trying to organize.