By Brad Tidwell
Fox News had what could only be described as a professional point misser as their analyst on the story about the SEIU union advertising to hire someone to lead a team of law breakers in support of their ends.
Time and again, the anchor attempted to get him to make the obvious point that the union which in 2009 was viewed as the most influential in Washington, DC, is now looking to engage in an active campaign of civil unrest and law breaking. Yet, somehow, the guest prevailed by repeatedly talking around the edges and failing to make the salient point.
For those who missed the SEIU call for law breakers, the introduction to the employment advertisement might as well read, “Looking for a job? Sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street Movement? Have a healthy disrespect for the law? The SEIU may have a job for you!”
And while it isn’t that direct, here are some excerpts from the actual job listing: “SEIU Healthcare 775NW is hiring a Lead internal Organizer to lead a team of eight organizers who are focused on leadership development, the “Leaders In Action” field team, working with public and private sector home care workers. This team develops leaders and builds networks to take action in a variety of campaigns. The LiA team does not handle traditional representational duties, such as contract enforcement or bargaining.”
These non-traditional duties extend beyond normal SEIU positions indeed. Once you start looking at the duties and responsibilities of the organizer, a definite pattern emerges: “Train and lead members in non-violent civil disobedience, such as occupying state buildings and banks, and peaceful resistance… [And] [p]lan and execute strategic direct action field plans including banner drops, bank takeovers, and capitol occupations with membership, other local unions, and coalition partners.”
The essential qualities SEIU is looking for is a willingness to break the law, and create whatever disruption to targeted businesses that you can. However, a certain amount of caveat emptor to the potential job seeker — there is no mention if bail money will be approved on the successful applicant’s expense report.
These eyebrow-raising tasks begin to take on a whole new meaning when you see the way that the SEIU has been positioning themselves in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. After borrowing the “99%” slogan in their efforts with the OWS, it is clear the SEIU is trying to ride this movement as far as it will go.
But there is an even larger issue — that SEIU dues money is supporting a position that specifically will be teaching and conducting civil disobedience on a wide scale. Despite the “non-violent” nature of many of these protests, they often lead to arrests because they are taking actions that violate the law.
Ultimately, the SEIU is spending dues money to train and organize people to break the law- similar to the same offense that food service company Sodexo sued them for in their RICO case.
But this time, instead of throwing plastic roaches onto food to gross out customers and illegally harm their employers business, the SEIU is intending to occupy banks and align itself with the criminal elements of the OWS movement, all the while, breaking the law.
Not shockingly, union officers and employees have a duty under federal law to not spend union money on illegal purposes. This duty comes from Section 501(c) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), 29 U.S.C. § 501(c), which also provides for criminal penalties for those union officers and employees who choose to spend money illegally.
That section states as follows: “Embezzlement of assets; penalty. Any person who embezzles, steals, or unlawfully and willfully abstracts or converts to his own use, or the use of another, any of the moneys, funds, securities, property, or other assets of a labor organization of which he is an officer, or by which he is employed, directly or indirectly, shall be fined not more than $ 10,000 or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.”
Of course, who would be surprised if a group like SEIU, which is explicitly looking to hire someone with a penchant for lawbreaking would be overly concerned that in the mere act of hiring that individual they are getting very close to the law breaking line themselves.
And in some cases, that is a dangerous law for union leaders to cross.
W.A. Boyle, a former president of the United Mine Workers of America discovered this truth that spending union money on an illegal purpose gets you in trouble with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Boyle was convicted of spending union money for an illegal use, i.e., an unlawful campaign contribution. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which affirmed the conviction, stated: “If the use to which the money is knowingly transferred is unlawful, then the transfer constitutes a violation of § 501(c). U.S. v. W.A. Boyle, 482 F.2d 755, 64 (D.C. Cir. 1973).”
Turning back to the SEIU job posting, most people would probably consider “bank takeovers” to mean a physical occupation of the bank’s private property. If this occupation is done without the consent of the bank, something very unlikely to be granted, then state trespassing laws are violated. Thus, SEIU has literally posted a job ad that calls for carrying out illegal actions.
Since, as discussed above, spending union money for an illegal use violates § 501(c) of the LMRDA, the SEIU would be well advised to immediately scrap this job posting.
Or, they could continue on and find out the hard way, like Boyle did, what happens when you use union member’s dues money for an illegal use. After all, their friends in the Obama Administration will not be running the Labor Department forever, and at some point, the law against using member dues for breaking the law just might be enforced.
Certainly a reason to pause for all those who’ve signed off on the job posting.
Brad Tidwell is the web editor for Americans for Limited Government.
