California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has indicated she is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and take on Big Labor, particularly the huge and politically active California Nurses Union. The CNA-NNOC took the initiative during the primary campaign when they launched a “Queen Meg” actress dressed as Whitman to hound her on the campaign and fund-raising trail.

Whitman recently sent nurses in the state a four-page letter inviting nurses to join an advisory panel. She is positioning herself as pro-nurse, but is against unions, which she says symbolizes California’s undisciplined spending, political gridlock and inefficient, outdated operations.

The nurses union has already spent upwards of $300,000 opposing Whitman, and will spend heavily as the election approaches. They continue to fight back at Whitman, most recently by sending

Continue reading Head On Collision In California

This is a great 2 minute Fox News video exposing the exorbitant salaries and benefits that union bosses around New York are drawing, while their union locals are languishing. Examples:

• Hector Lopez, president of Metal Polishers Local 8A-28A – the union is running a $330,000 deficit in 2008 while Lopez took $148,000 in salary… $40,000 more than union rules allow!
• Rocco Miranti – head of Local 223 for Toy and Novelty Workers – his union is a half-million in debt with an almost non-existent pension fund, while he and his family took in more than $400,000 last year (while he worked about 8 hours a week- that’s about $1,000 per hour!).
• Bill Duffy – boss of Operating Engineers Local 138 – which has less than 20% of

Continue reading Fat Cat Union Bosses

A young entrepreneur known for providing highly useful union organizing content on the Web has released a new resource that will soon be in the hands of organizers near you, so be prepared! The next iteration of using the Web for organizing goes beyond information dissemination, or even research.

Following the overall trend of focusing on Social Media, Jason Mann has released a video tutorial with accompanying worksheets that explain the art of using the key social media sites to find and/or organize groups of employees, and how to then effectively enter the conversation in such a way as to gain the trust of the audience, and hopefully move a union organizing effort forward.

There are lessons to be learned for those on the management side, and as much as I hate to give money toward any union effort, I believe the $10 that goes to this young

Continue reading Social Media Strategy Tutorial