Growing Union Power Under Obama Threatens National Security, New Book Claims
- Posted on August 22, 2012 at 7:26am by
Glenn Hall
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Government union leaders are amassing greater power within the federal government under the Obama Administration and their growing influence poses a threat to both national security and deficit reduction efforts, according to the newly released book “Shadowbosses
” by Mallory Factor, a professor of International Politics and American Government at The Citadel.
The influence of government unions has grown while President Barack Obama has been in the White House, Factor claims, with some union officials meeting more often with the president and his staff than cabinet officials.
“Some of the union bosses talked about how they talked with somebody at the White House every single day,” Factor said in an interview.
Factor contends in his book that union influence within government agencies, including the Obama Administration’s decision to allow the TSA to be unionized, represents a growing threat to national security. According to Shadowbosses, Unions represent 20 percent of the Department of Defense’s workforce and a third of Homeland Security employees, including border patrol, Customs and Immigration and FEMA agents.
While a federal statute passed in 1978 prevents active-duty military, the CIA, FBI, Secret Service and National Security Agency from being unionized, Shadowbosses reveals that the law doesn’t apply to civilian employees working for the military. As a result, more than 20 percent of U.S. military employees are union members, according to Shadowbosses.
The power of union leadership, which Factor says pursues political agendas that are not always supported by their membership, is reflected in the billions of dollars of annual union dues that it can spend in support of politicians and issues the leaders favor, he said.
Author Mallory Factor in the New York studio.
“They have huge power,” Factor said. “Take a look at just the teachers unions – they have $2 billion a year in dues. A lot of that they use for political purposes. Remember, money is the gasoline that runs the engine of our socialism in this country — and these government employee unions have tons of money.”
All told, Factor said that his book documents that government employee unions collect at least $14 billion in annual dues, much of which are used for political purposes.
The total amount of dues is probably closer to $20 billion a year and is likely to go up as a result of Obamacare, which Factor said union leaders played a key role in helping to get enacted through their influence on members of Congress and the hundreds of millions of dollars government unions spent in support of the legislation.
“They got it passed for one simple reason – there’s going to be 21 million people in healthcare because of Obamacare,” Factor said, adding that union bosses were motivated by the opportunity to add more of those employees to their union rolls. “Keep in mind this little number – for every million new members they get, it’s approximately $1 billion, yes one billion dollars, in dues and most of that gets used, or a lot of that gets used, for political purposes.”
Factor’s book also makes the case that government unions are among the reasons for the growing size of the federal government and the national debt. He points out that there are almost 500,000 federal government employees earning more than $100,000 a year and receiving up to 10 weeks of annual vacation. Union leaders, meanwhile, typically earn more than 10 times as much as rank and file members, with salaries reaching more than $800,000 a year.
In addition, Shadowbosses reveals that taxpayers subsidize unions to the tune of $1 billion a year in the form of salaries paid to government employees while they are doing work for their unions — which adds up to about 23 million total work hours a year.
Shadowbosses concludes by questioning whether union bosses are usurping taxpayer control over the political process, saying “it is a battle for the heart and soul of our country.”
It’s a provocative ending to a book that is clearly intended to stir up the debate about the role of unions in government.
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Arshloch
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 2:53pmA union boss is a communist pig, ala biden, and a union = slavery.
Report Post »Carlinpa
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 1:00pmWe need to END the public sector unions NOW!
Report Post »denkat56
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 11:37amthe unions only stand up for the almighty dollar, they could care less about the worker, or his family.
Report Post »Zeke48
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 10:51amObama’s VP Biden calls the Republications Pig. This man is a joke that even his own party would agree. As for the liar in chief, well he is the Village Idiot, that has to have that dumb broad who tells Muchell and Odumbo what to do in every situation. Obama is a POS just like his parents were. He is teaching his kids to be morons also. I hope the suprise that Mr. Trump is going to spring at the GOP convention is about this liar, no good POS idiot that is in our White House. when they kick his moldy ass out they better clean that place three times. Take the Churchill bust back if they let us have it and put it back in the Oval Office where it belongs. Obama should be stripped from all reference as an American President, and put in jail, along with his Racist AG, and all the other jerks that did everything to cover for this liar POS.
Report Post »razvedka
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 10:44amThe Soviets claimed that the “LABOR UNION” was the school of communism – i guess they should know. But it is troubling to find these same “BOSHEVICS” in the DEM party. BOLSHEVIC literally means “one who wants more.” That’s a pretty good discription of union members and Demokpats in general. The trouble is their strategy to get “MORE” means others get less and they’ll buy any politician or rig any election to get it.
Report Post »The_Jerk
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 10:22amWhen Obama was elected president America experienced its 1917 version of the Russian Revolution. We have a communist regime in place, and that is not hyperbole.
Report Post »turkey13
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 9:56amThe problem is that the government employees are not only supervised by their boss, but also a union boss. No employee should ever be under the control of more than one person. At J&J I always told my employees that if another supervisor told them to do something to try to do it and then call me and I would take care of them. Government employees should have never been allowed to come under the thumb of the union.
Report Post »SAMADI-SOUL-CRUSHER
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 9:00amPublic unions are the problem . Since they have a unfair advantage over private secter unions.
Report Post »The political class have no problem with the incestuous support between themselves and public unions . I have no problem with private secter unions as long as the individual has freedom to join
or not. Forced unionization is forced extortion!! I know as the state I live in has no right to work law.
I have to pay protection money to a union that endorses a party I have opposed my entire adult life.
Just one more form of slavery on top of the government slavery that is imposed on every private secter citizen.
biffo
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:28amGovernment union members down here in FL sneer in our conservative faces, while they hold the taxpayer hostage, using our children and safety as lame excuses for their lopsided pay and benefits. The teachers unions care not one wit about the education and safety of our children. When contract time comes around they pile the poor brainwashed pawns up and hide behind them. They are easily the most despicable bunch of lying thieves in modern history.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:26amRemember the discussions of a ‘shadow government’ structure being prepared under Obama, to take place of the current one when the Republic collapses?
One more part is made manifest into the light.
Report Post »marybethelizabeth
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:15amOh My!
The horror of giving working people a voice.
The working man should know his place, kicked to the curb out of the way .
Report Post »502_eagle
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:27amUnions stand up for Unions. Not for the working guy.
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:35amDo you think one man should have that much power? Unions are a collective in mind and body and many of the people within the collective are made smaller by its mass, by threat of job you will vote the way they want, how very democratic.
“One man is a mob and a mob is one man” Seneca
Report Post »TX_Ag_Engineer
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:56amUnions don’t give working people a voice; they give democrats campaign and lobbying money. Is anyone foolish enough to still believe that unions function to listen to their members? Unions abuse their power worse than the government does, at least most politicians can be voted out. I worked in construction for years and every union member I worked with was lazy and better paid. Who’s kicking the working man to the curb? UNIONS ARE! They don’t help the working man; they help the lazy man get more for doing less. Sounds a whole lot like the ******* motto!
Report Post »marybethelizabeth
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 8:56amYou do not seem to be of like mind.
Do unions stand for unions or do they stand for one guy?
Get your act together. You are shaming Glenn Beck and all his keys.
Report Post »TX_Ag_Engineer
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 9:01amSeriously editors? I was unaware that a conjunction of Liberal and a slang for a slow thinking individual constituted a curse word!
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 10:20amA collective is one guy! Do you not understand the concept of collective mass mindedness?
Report Post »TX_Ag_Engineer
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 10:31am@RLTW
Report Post »That would require the ability to reason through complex thought, not vomiting the mantra that they have been trained to repeat.
Walkabout
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 11:47amGee Mary, both my parents were blue collar & became white collar. They never told me of a plan to kick blue collar people to the curb.
Are you reading The Socialist or are you taking some drugs?
Report Post »LakeHartwellSailor
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 2:17pmNo one is advocating to “kick the working man to the curb”, or taking away their “voice”. This is not the 1930′s, where private sector unions were necessary. But that was long ago, and there are so many regulations now….not “union regulations”, but federal, state and local regulations, that protect the “worker”, it renders unions irrevelant. It is my contention that it is the union bosses…both private and public that take away the workers voice. And face it, the only people who benefit from unions are the union bosses.
Get a grip.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 7:59amThis country will rue the day we allowed unions in America,they‘re all run by communists and they’re good for sending jobs overseas and bankrupting cities and states.We need to rid our nation of these unions public and private once and for all.
Report Post »Retired369
Posted on August 22, 2012 at 7:51amSince most unions are run by Communists, it would be wise to keep close tabs on them and consider them to be the “fifth column” in any future conflict. When the new McCarthy Era begins, there will be no pitiful claims of innocence by these treasonous bastards since their views are prolifically chronicled in their videotaped outbursts. Long Live the Republic!
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