Marathon Pundit: Illinois tactics in DC: Union utilizing "pay-to-play"

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Illinois tactics in DC: Union utilizing "pay-to-play"

Home of pay-to-play

Illinois has taken over our nation's capital. Writing for the Washington Examiner, Mark Tapcsott explains what I'm talking about.

Local officials for the International Association of Aerospace Workers and Machinists (IAAWM) boasted about how political donations by the union's political action committee "gains your Union access to officials, which is critical to get our issues addressed and ensure our input is heard."

That sounds like the union is up to its eyeballs in a "pay-to-play" lobbying game with officials in the government, so Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, put two and two together and fired off a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

DeMint asked for copies of all documents concerning consultations, meetings, emails, and all other communications between the panel and the IAAWM that reference Boeing Aircraft Co's plan to erect a new plant in South Carolina. The new facility is to build three examples of the company's new 787 commercial jetliner each month.

Earlier this year in a decision that has sparked a nationwide uproar, the NLRB said Boeing had to cancel its plan despite the fact the new plant is almost finished, more than a thousand new workers have been hired, and the new facility would result in zero reductions in the amount of work assigned to the unionized workers in the company's existing facilities in Washington state.