2011 Feb 28 - Headline News

As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, the Daily News has learned.

[url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Free-spending United Federation of Teachers]Free-spending United Federation of Teachers[/url] brass last year spent nearly $1.4 million for the UFT's 50th anniversary gala at the [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hilton Hotels Corporation]Hilton[/url] - complete with a movie, a book and a paperweight.
Records show they:

• Ponied up $514,000 to 16 separate caterers.
  
• Dropped $278,417 on the annual Teachers Union Day ceremony at the [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel]Waldorf-Astoria[/url].
  
• Bought $6,100 in gift baskets from a lower East Side candy store - and plowed $179,000 into training retreats at a Connecticut resort boasting golf, scuba diving and aqua aerobics.
  

In one amazing feat of spending, they shelled out $114,870 for annual
"coffee supplies" at their five offices across the city - paying the [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Coffee Distributing Corp.]Coffee Distributing Corp.[/url] on [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Long Island]Long Island[/url] $324,000 over three years, records show.

And while most New Yorkers spend hours trying to find a parking space, the UFT rents 25 slots in [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn (New York City)]Brooklyn[/url]'s Renaissance Plaza Garage for members at an average annual cost of $75,000 over three years.
"I'm not going to apologize for spending money to service our members," said [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael Mulgrew]UFT President Michael Mulgrew[/url].
"These people are heroes dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our children. They never get the respect they deserve. A cup of coffee, a bottle of water and a few parking spots is the least we can
do for them."

The $284,078-a-year union boss got a little more than coffee when he took the reins in August 2009: The UFT feted him with a $6,400 "Welcome, Michael" party at a Brazilian steakhouse.

Mulgrew describes it as dinner for 130 union members, most of them volunteers, that came to barely $50 a head.
Three months later, the union bid farewell to his predecessor, [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Randi Weingarten]Randi Weingarten[/url], with a goodbye bash at the Tribeca Grill. Price tag: $8,339. "[url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael Bloomberg]Mayor Bloomberg[/url] came and I tried to get him to pay," Mulgrew said. "Wouldn't do it."

Drawing from an annual honeypot of $126 million in members' dues, the union last year flung open the spigots even as it took fire for protecting dismal teachers and fighting reforms. "These are wasteful, fantastic and outrageous expenditures, and they learned their profligate ways from the government spenders they negotiate with," said [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Sol Stern]Sol Stern[/url], a [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manhattan Institute for Policy Research]Manhattan Institute[/url] scholar and veteran education advocate.

Not Paris, but it is the Hilton

The spending orgy comes to light a week after after The News disclosed that cops bounced 24 rowdy UFT reps from an Albany eatery after they caused a ruckus over an $1,800 tab - and the modest size of a $40 gourmet quail.
Turns out over-the-top spending and a party-hearty culture is a union trademark.

Documented in the UFT's 2010 annual report to the [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/U.S. Department of Labor]U.S. Labor Department[/url] are details of the union's "Golden Jubilee," a gala bash last March that drew 2,500 members of the "UFT family." It cost to $679,246 for the event at the Hilton New York.

To mark the milestone for posterity, a [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/CUNY TV Foundation]CUNY TV Foundation[/url] crew was paid $220,000 to film the documentary "UFT: Celebrating 50 Years," and all attendees got a DVD.

The UFT paid a printer $262,406 for a special book and anniversary journal. Paperweights emblazoned with the UFT logo cost $46,333. Balloons, $20,000 for entertainment and other expenses brought the tally to $1.4 million, filings show.

The UFT says it recouped $125,000 by charging members $50 a head, and donations from vendors and advertisers brought in an additional $275,000. Bottom line: That left the UFT out $1 million for the gala.

"We're very proud of the work we've done in 50 years as a union, and it deserved to be celebrated with dignity and respect," Mulgrew said.

dfeiden@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2011/02/24/2011-02-24_lessons_in_livin_large_uft_brass_having_a_ball_as_teachers_face_layoffs.html#ixzz1FIGpEPik

Check out this video from Hillaryis44

This is from inside the WI capitol…. idiot college students making a completely a$$ of themselves with drums and jumping around, refusing to move…. complete idiots.

http://qik.com/video/38023144

These are the “civilian army” the fraud spoke of in 2008.

“Labor union PACs [political action committees] and employee contributions to Democrat candidates in 2010: $280 million,” and “In 2008, unions spent over $400 million to elect Obama and other Democrats.”
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The unions don't give anything. They just take dues, pay lawyers to hold companies and taxpayers hostage to force the latter to protect people who don't want to work whie also funneling some of the dues to the democrat party. Sounds kinda like money laundering to me is it even legal?
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The harworking taxpayers who make 2/3 the salary and pay 4+ times what the state workers pay for their benefits need to quit their whining and just get it throught their thick heads that their job is to just shut up, work hard and pay exorbitant taxes to support the state workers vs. the state employees working for and answering to them.
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Krauthammer at the WaPo explains it:

"In the private sector, the capitalist knows that when he negotiates with the union, if he gives away the store, he loses his shirt. In the public sector, the politicians who approve any deal have none of their own money at stake. On the contrary, the more favorably they dispose of union demands, the more likely they are to be the beneficiary of union largess in the next election. It's the perfect cozy setup."
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That is why film crews are leaving union states and making movies in right to work states. Some union stage hands in NYC make over $200,000 per year. Why, they stike a broadway play if the producers don't pay up. Called extortion.
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Cmon, THINK people! Private unions bargain against who? Private Managament. Public unions bargain against who? WHO? The People. Their "management" is politicians -- politicians who accept their FINANCIAL support.

Wake Up! Public unions screw the citizens, with the help of their bought-off politicians.

THIS is why the states are broke.
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Union Supporter at Rally Explains to Conservative Kid Handing Out Constitutions How He’s Going to Sexually Teabag Him (Video)



[full story at....]
http://www.poedpatriot.com/2011/02/high-school-student-hands-out.html
&
[video also posted at...]
http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/02/union-supporter-at-rally-explains-to-conservative-kid-handing-out-constitutions-how-hes-going-to-sexually-teabag-him/

DataMine: Search Wisconsin teacher salaries

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/99999999/APC0110/80221166/DataMine-Search-Wisconsin-teacher-salaries

In the city's funny math, you get only one teacher for the price of two.

The Department of Education pays about 1,500 teachers for time they spend on union activities -- and pays other teachers to replace them in the classroom.

It's a sweetheart deal that costs taxpayers an extra $9 million a year to pay fill-ins for instructors who are sprung -- at full pay -- to carry out responsibilities for the United Federation of Teachers.

With Mayor Bloomberg calling for thousands of teacher layoffs to balance the 2012 budget, critics say it's time to halt the extravagant benefit.

"In these tight fiscal times, it defies common sense to pay two different people to do one job," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a government watchdog. "It's a waste of money."

That $9 million would cover the salaries of 198 new teachers at the current annual $45,530 starting pay

The DOE lets 40 experienced teachers collect top pay and fringe benefits, but work just one class period a day.

Under a longstanding contract agreement, the DOE excuses these veterans to work for the UFT -- currently 38 as district representatives and two as union vice presidents. The UFT pays them another salary, plus expenses.

English teacher Tom Dromgoole, for instance, collects top teacher pay, $100,049 a year, from the DOE for his slot at Leadership and Public Service HS in downtown Manhattan. But he is relieved for most of the day to serve as a UFT high school rep. The UFT supplements his salary by $50,461, records show. [that's $150,510 all benefits]

Dromgoole is outspoken on state budget cuts, which he blasted at a boisterous protest last March with UFT President Michael Mulgrew. Reached Friday outside his Brooklyn townhouse, Dromgoole brushed past a reporter who asked about his UFT work, saying, "No comment."

Another veteran teacher said of the lucrative gigs, "It's a plum because you're not teaching. Some principals give them little or nothing to do" because the UFT reps are powerful.

The rest of the 1,500 teachers paid for time away from students are UFT "chapter leaders," who represent faculty at each school. They get at least one class period a day "for investigation of grievances" and other union-related duties, the contract says.

The UFT reimburses the DOE only about $900,000 of nearly $10 million it spends to replace the teachers, officials said.

One principal said his school's chapter leader is helpful as a staff liaison, but he questioned why the UFT -- which collects $126 million in member dues -- doesn't cover the cost: "They have a lot of money to run TV ads. Should DOE be paying for this?"

UFT spokesman Dick Riley said such arrangements are common among city unions "and were instituted with the agreement of NYC government."

A spokeswoman for Mayor Bloomberg declined to comment.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/union_classic_le_en_jrQKCmKdjWQbMAtzqHASxI#ixzz1FETKqxST

MoveOn.org National Rallies A National Embarrassment - Supporters Fail to Materialize Despite Best Astroturfed Efforts

MoveOn.org hosted dozens of rallies across the US today in support of public employee unions. The protests were organized by MoveOn org and about 45 other groups that typically support Democratic candidates and causes. They were hoping that Americans would be just as outraged as they are that public employee union members might have to pay more for their pension and health care in Wisconsin.

[continued... see pics, videos]
http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/02/fail-leftists-left-red-faced-as-protesters-fail-to-materialize-at-national-moveon-rallies/

How can fringe benefits cost nearly as much as a worker's salary? Answer: collective bargaining.

The showdown in Wisconsin over fringe benefits for public employees boils down to one number: 74.2. That's how many cents the public pays Milwaukee public-school teachers and other employees for retirement and health benefits for every dollar they receive in salary. The corresponding rate for employees of private firms is 24.3 cents.

Gov. Scott Walker's proposal would bring public-employee benefits closer in line with those of workers in the private sector. And to prevent benefits from reaching sky-high levels in the future, he wants to restrict collective-bargaining rights.

The average Milwaukee public-school teacher salary is $56,500, but with benefits the total package is $100,005, according to the manager of financial planning for Milwaukee public schools. When I showed these figures to a friend, she asked me a simple question: "How can fringe benefits be nearly as much as salary?" The answers can be found by unpacking the numbers in the district's budget for this fiscal year:

•Social Security and Medicare. The employer cost is 7.65% of wages, the same as in the private sector.

•State Pension. Teachers belong to the Wisconsin state pension plan. That plan requires a 6.8% employer contribution and 6.2% from the employee. However, according to the collective-bargaining agreement in place since 1996, the district pays the employees' share as well, for a total of 13%.

•Teachers' Supplemental Pension. In addition to the state pension, Milwaukee public-school teachers receive an additional pension under a 1982 collective-bargaining agreement. The district contributes an additional 4.2% of teacher salaries to cover this second pension. Teachers contribute nothing.

•Classified Pension. Most other school employees belong to the city's pension system instead of the state plan. The city plan is less expensive but here, too, according to the collective-bargaining agreement, the district pays the employees' 5.5% share.

Overall, for teachers and other employees, the district's contributions for pensions and Social Security total 22.6 cents for each dollar of salary. The corresponding figure for private industry is 13.4 cents. The divergence is greater yet for health insurance:

•Health care for current employees. Under the current collective- bargaining agreements, the school district pays the entire premium for medical and vision benefits, and over half the cost of dental coverage. These plans are extremely expensive.

This is partly because of Wisconsin's unique arrangement under which the teachers union is the sponsor of the group health-insurance plans. Not surprisingly, benefits are generous. The district's contributions for health insurance of active employees total 38.8% of wages. For private-sector workers nationwide, the average is 10.7%.

•Health insurance for retirees. This benefit is rarely offered any more in private companies, and it can be quite costly. This is especially the case for teachers in many states, because the eligibility rules of their pension plans often induce them to retire in their 50s, and Medicare does not kick in until age 65. Milwaukee's plan covers the entire premium in effect at retirement, and retirees cover only the growth in premiums after they retire.

As is commonly the case, the school district's retiree health plan has not been prefunded. It has been pay-as-you-go. This has been a disaster waiting to happen, as retirees grow in number and live longer, and active employment shrinks in districts such as Milwaukee.

For fiscal year 2011, retiree enrollment in the district health plan is 36.4% of the total. In addition to the costs of these retirees' benefits, Milwaukee is, to its credit, belatedly starting to prefund the benefits of future school retirees. In all, retiree health-insurance contributions are estimated at 12.1% of salaries (of which 1.5% is prefunded).

Overall, the school district's contributions to health insurance for employees and retirees total about 50.9 cents on top of every dollar paid in wages.

Together with pension and Social Security contributions, plus a few small items, one can see how the total cost of fringe benefits reaches 74.2%.

What these numbers ultimately prove is the excessive power of collective bargaining. The teachers' main pension plan is set by the state legislature, but under the pressure of local bargaining, the employees' contribution is often pushed onto the taxpayers. In addition, collective bargaining led the Milwaukee public school district to add a supplemental pension plan—again with no employee contribution. Finally, the employees' contribution (or lack thereof) to the cost of health insurance is also collectively bargained.

As the costs of pensions and insurance escalate, the governor's proposal to restrict collective bargaining to salaries—not benefits—seems entirely reasonable.

Mr. Costrell is professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576164290717724956.html

UNIONS, UNIONS, UNIONS seem to be the major US news stories of the Day.

It seems that some are now referring to the unions as GOONIONS !