Jolie Rouge

Union troubled by Eagle Scout project in Allentown
After layoffs, SEIU president complains about city's use of volunteers, contractors
By Jarrett Renshaw ~ OF THE MORNING CALL
10:59 AM EST, November 15, 2009

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council.

Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path. "We would hope that the well-intentioned efforts of an Eagle Scout candidate would not be challenged by the union," said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in an e-mail Friday. "This young man is performing a great service to the community. His efforts should be recognized as such."

Balzano said Saturday the union is still looking into the matter and might cut the city a break. "We are probably going to let this one go," Balzano said .

The possible entanglement of a local Boy Scout in a union dispute underscores the frustration and anger SEIU members feel after being the lone city union to suffer layoffs in the ongoing financial crisis. It may also serve as a preview of future labor battles as the city tries to outsource some necessary jobs as a result of the layoffs.

Anderson, a junior and varsity soccer player at Southern Lehigh High School, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 301 of Center Valley.

He got the idea for the trail while taking hikes along the partially complete, 165-mile Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. He noticed there were a few missing connections to the trail in Kimmets Lock Park, which is on the Lehigh River near Dauphin Street. He already has logged 250 hours trying to carve out a walking and biking trail along the river.

"I decided to do my part in completing this part of the trail. In that way, others could enjoy walking along the river, without having to walk on the busy road," Anderson said in an e-mail Friday.

During last week's budget hearings, where City Council reviewed the Public Works and Park and Recreation departments' funding requests, it was made clear that the layoffs and early retirements -- all of which have led to the lowest city staffing levels in two decades -- are bound to create union disputes in the weeks and months ahead.

For example, the city currently does not have an electrician available because of the layoffs and an employee on an extended sick leave. As a result, the city has been forced to hire an outside union electrician to oversee the installation for the popular Lights on the Parkway holiday display.

"In the spirit of the holiday, we decided to let that go," Balzano said.

Greg Weitzel, head of the Parks and Recreation Department, which lost 17 full-time employees as a result of the layoffs and retirements, said the low staffing levels will require more outsourcing of labor and a greater reliance on volunteers.

"There are some things that we can do in-house and other things we will have to bid out," Weitzel said Tuesday. "We originally had plans to do more with our labor force, but now we have to bid out that work."



http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a8_5sc...,6238384.story

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

On Monday, MM spotlighted SEIU thuggery in Allentown, Pa., over a Boy Scout’s volunteer work. SEIU’s Nick Balzano threatened to file a grievance when a teenager pursuing his Eagle Scout badge contributed too much free labor clearing walking paths and improving his neighborhood.

The story, first published in The Morning Call, was picked up by Fox News and provoked a big backlash against Big Labor bullies. ttp://www.mcall.com/news/all-a8_5scout.7084728nov15,0,6238384.story

SEIU is hopping mad — and spinning. Badly:



Well, here’s a fact: You can hear Balzano’s comments at the city council meeting yourself right here. http://blogs.mcall.com/valley610/200...spotlight.html

Fact: The Morning Call continues to describe SEIU officer Balzano as “president of Allentown’s largest union.” http://blogs.mcall.com/valley610/200...spotlight.html

Fact: The audio makes it unmistakenly clear that Balzano was not “misspeaking” about his intent to file a grievance against the Boy Scout and against any other volunteer who dares pick up a hoe or shovel in Allentown.

Fact: The SEIU Purple Shirts have been caught with their brass knuckles showing.

And it won’t be the last time.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/19...scout-debacle/

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

My column today provides context for the SEIU bullying of Boy Scouts in Allentown, Pa. As you’ll see, there’s a long history of Big Labor thuggery against volunteers who threaten the union racket. On a related note, be sure to check out the video of Fresno homecare providers exposing how SEIU staff threatened them and changed their ballots to secure a razor-thin advantage in a controversial union election this June. As I’ve been reporting over the last several months, the home health care power grab across the country gives you a glimpse of the SEIU-endorsed Obamacare future.



When Big Labor bullies and volunteers collide



The Boy Scouts’ motto is “Be Prepared.” Who knew it meant preparing to defend themselves against Purple-Shirted union thuggery over community service? Kids, pay attention. This is a teachable moment for all of you on power, politics, and Big Labor’s culture of corruption.

Last week at a city council meeting in Allentown, Pa., a top official of the local Services Employee International Union chapter ranted about 17-year-old Scout Kevin Anderson’s park clean-up work. Anderson devoted some 200 hours to the job in order to earn an Eagle Scout badge. He picked up trash and helped clear a 1,000-foot walking path with fellow members of Boy Scouts Troop 301 of Center Valley.
But SEIU’s Nick Balzano gave them hell instead of thanks.

Balzano disparaged altruistic efforts in city parks and asserted that “there is (sic) to be no volunteers” since his union members were laid off. He then issued a witch hunt threat: “We’ll also be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails. We may file another grievance on that.” Citing union rules, he gave the Allentown city council, the Boy Scouts, and all potential volunteers an iron-fisted ultimatum: “None of them can pick up a hoe. They can’t pick up a shovel. They can’t plant a flower. They can’t clear a bicycle path. They can’t do anything. Our people do that.”

That’s right. Balzano was ready to bludgeon the Boy Scout because his gung-ho volunteerism posed a threat to the SEIU labor monopoly. The outrageous display of Boss Balzano’s union protectionism provoked a national furor. SEIU headquarters in Washington immediately blamed “the disreputable Fox News and other right-wing outlets like Michelle Malkin’s accuracy challenged blog” for the backlash. While decrying their critics’ “fiction,” SEIU distanced itself from Balzano, denying that he was a top union leader and dismissing his remarks as “unauthorized.”

Fact: U.S. Department of Labor records from 2008 (their most recent filing), show that Balzano is no rogue, rank-and-file member. He currently serves on the SEIU local’s Executive Board and previously served as president.

Fact: The union tried to minimize Balzano’s grievance threat as “inappropriate.” But the dirty open secret is that public-sector unions have routinely attacked volunteer workers who threaten their stranglehold.

Last June, union officials in Baraboo, Wisconsin filed a complaint against volunteer firefighters who built sandbag barricades to protect the city from record flooding. They whined that city Department of Public Works employees should have been called first and demanded overtime pay (for work they didn’t do) to compensate them.

Yes, kids, the city was knee-deep in water and the government union got mad that other people scrambled to work together in an emergency to put sand in bags, save homes, and help their neighbors. Public-sector unions aren’t about serving the public interest. They’re about serving their people, their power, and their self-preservation.

In Montpelier, Vermont, several years ago, the teachers’ union went after a superstar educator, Bill Corrow. The students, staff, and supervisors at his school loved the social studies teacher and Vietnam veteran. But the Vermont Educators Association hated him because he was a volunteer who did not accept payment for his elective course. Teachers’ unions are all for parents and schoolchildren volunteering their time to engage in political lobbying and power-expanding initiatives on the union’s behalf. But God help the community service-oriented individual with a passion for sharing his knowledge in their classrooms.

In California, union heavies in the Sacramento area sued a non-profit environmental group for using college-age volunteers on a state-funded project to clean up a canyon and build a community trail. Big Labor dusted off an old law to require that community service volunteers be paid prevailing wages for doing the same kind of clean-up that Allentown Boy Scout Kevin Anderson was punished for doing freely. The law was finally repealed, but not without a brass-knuckles fight.

As National Right to Work Committee president Mark Mix, whose group monitors forced union abuses, pointed out during the battle: “Discerning California union bosses’ real agenda…is not hard. Volunteer workers don’t have to pay compulsory union dues to serve their communities, but most paid workers on public projects in California do…[It] is yet another example of how government-authorized compulsory-union dues corrupt the political process and furnish unscrupulous union officials with an enormous incentive to act against the public interest.”

SEIU president Andy Stern in Washington speaks for all of Big Labor when he describes his organizing philosophy: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.” President Obama, who has made national service an administration priority, has been and will continue to be silent about the Big Labor bullies who make public enemies of Scouts with trash bags and hoes.

You see, kids, Obama owes Stern (his most frequent White House visitor) and his union brethren. SEIU alone poured more than $60 million in compulsory member dues into Obama’s campaign and leaned on its workers to “volunteer” to knock on doors, place phone calls, and send out mailers for the Democrat Party. No good deed goes unpunished by union bosses—unless it benefits their political empire.




http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/20...teers-collide/

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Boy Scout brouhaha spurs Lehigh Valley union chief to quit post
Local Service Employees International head says he was just trying to protect jobs
By Jarrett Renshaw OF THE MORNING CALL
November 20, 2009

Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.

Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley's congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the local Service Employees International Union.

Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.

''I am proud of the work I and the rest of the executive board have done over the years,'' he said.

He had ''nothing against Boy Scouts'' and was just ''trying to protect my jobs,'' said Balzano, who had served as union president for nearly a decade.

The controversy began last week when Balzano warned that the union may file a grievance against the city after officials allowed a local Boy Scout to clear a 1,000-foot walking path in Kimmets Lock Park.

"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano said, and told council that given the layoffs of 39 union members, no one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

Kevin Anderson, 17, is doing the volunteer work to help earn the rank of Eagle Scout. He said he'd already toiled for more than 200 hours on the project, which he said will keep people from having to traverse a busy road.

Anderson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The story published Sunday in The Morning Call quickly drew the national attention of conservative pundits, who said it illustrates the selfish and monolithic thinking of today's unions.

On Monday, during his Fox News television show, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck pointed to the events in Allentown as another example of the SEIU using bullying tactics to protect jobs at the expense of others.

"Even the Boy Scouts aren't safe from SEIU's thuggery," Beck quipped.

Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin took aim at Balzano on her blog Monday, saying, "The Purple Shirted-thugs of the Service Employees International Union ... are going after an Eagle Scout who poses a threat to their workers because he's volunteering too much."

On Wednesday, after getting hit by a steady onslaught of rights, Balzano got hit by one big left when his own union distanced itself from his comments and called Balzano's wounds self-induced.

"His comments were completely unauthorized and they do not reflect the position or views of the union," wrote area leader of the SEIU's Mid-Atlantic District Wayne MacManiman in an apology letter to Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

"The careless and insensitive comments were prompted by frustration over recently laid-off workers in Allentown," MacManiman wrote Wednesday.

He said the union "has no intentions" of filing a grievance against the city and continues to support the efforts of voluntary organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-15th District, also got in on the action this week, writing a letter to Balzano and calling on him to apologize to the Boy Scout and to city residents.

When Balzano made the comments about the Scout, it was just seconds of a roughly five-minute monologue. He spent most of the time warning council that labor issues are likely to arise because of the layoffs and as the city tries to outsource some responsibilities.

Greg Weitzel, head of the Parks and Recreation Department, which lost 17 full-time employees, said the low staffing issues may force officials to look outside City Hall.

"We originally had plans to do more with our labor force," Weitzel said. "But now we have to bid out that work."


http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a1_5sc...,1983128.story

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?