Posts tagged PHILADELPHIA
Closing arguments are underway in John Dougherty embezzlement trial
December 4, 2023 // Dougherty threatened to “beat up,” “run over” and put potential witnesses “under the water” in a speech secretly recorded by an FBI informant. Costello, addressing the jury Monday morning, pointed to the frequency with which those supposed mistakes occurred. “This conduct was not a one-time mistake,” he said. “It was something that was done all the time. It was pervasive. It was intentional. In fact, it was so pervasive it just became routine.”
Op-Ed: Union bosses or real estate moguls? Tracking the PFT’s finances
December 3, 2023 // Financial documents reveal that between excess cash in the benefit fund and dues collected from its membership, the PFT has spent over $12 million dollars to bail out its failed real estate endeavors. The Health and Welfare Fund paints a good picture of financial health. According to the latest financial disclosure which covers 2021, the Philadelphia School District deposited $65,133,008 into the fund. In total, the benefit fund brought in $9 million in excess revenue and holds a net financial position of $36 million. The Health and Welfare Fund’s financial position was so strong that it was able to dole out money – $4.8 million – to an entity known as the 1816 Chestnut Street Corporation (1816). This loan dates back over a decade. Investigative reports revealed that the Health and Welfare Fund loaned this money interest-free and without any terms of repayment. Today, the loan balance is the same, with no payments made and no interest accruing. What does 1816 have to do with providing health benefits to Philadelphia teachers? As it turns out, not much.
Trial of Philadelphia labor leaders exposes the rampant corruption plaguing the country’s unions
November 16, 2023 // On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Grenell showed evidence of Burrows billing the union for more than $65,000 “for renovations done on his New Jersey home and other properties he owned,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Last week, lawyers showed the jury proof that Dougherty spent $7,000 of union dues on a birthday party and lavish gifts for his wife and mistress, the union’s political director, “at separate Atlantic City shindigs within weeks of each other." Union corruption is nothing new, and Burrow’s and Dougherty’s trial details are relatively unsurprising. Those organizations have a long track record of dishonesty and exploitative tactics, such as forcing a company’s employees to pay union dues or strong-arming the city of Philadelphia to use union contractors for projects.
Unionization momentum at Temple Health continues with workers at Fox Chase, Chestnut Hill Hospital
November 14, 2023 // The research staff at the Fox Chase Cancer Center filed union petitions with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, becoming the fourth group to do so at the Northeast Philadelphia specialty hospital this year. The 91 workers run clinical trials at the National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. On the same day, about 200 registered nurses and 80 technical specialists at Chestnut Hill Hospital filed paperwork with the NLRB. Temple acquired the hospital less than a year ago. All three groups would be represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP. Temple Health and Fox Chase declined to comment on the organizing efforts.
Philadelphia Starbucks Workers File Petition Demanding Vote to Remove SBWU Union
November 9, 2023 // Simonelli and his colleagues join Starbucks workers and other coffee employees across the country in banding together to vote out SBWU union officials. This year, Starbucks employees in Manhattan, NY; two Buffalo, NY locations; Pittsburgh, PA; Bloomington, MN; Salt Lake City, UT; Greenville, SC; and Oklahoma City, OK, have all sought free Foundation legal aid in filing or defending decertification petitions at the NLRB. In Philadelphia, workers at Good Karma Café, an independent coffee shop in Philadelphia, successfully voted out the SBWU union in September with Foundation help. This growing wave of decertification attempts is occurring after SBWU union agents engaged in a multi-year, aggressive unionization campaign against Starbucks employees. As part of the campaign, SBWU spent over $2 million to target the coffee chain with paid union agents – including “salts” who obtained jobs at Starbucks locations with the covert mission of installing union power. After achieving this goal, many “salts” abandoned the stores. Many workers targeted by this campaign are demanding decertification votes roughly one year after an SBWU union was installed at their store, which is the earliest possible opportunity afforded by federal law to do so.
Ex-union boss John Dougherty’s embezzlement trial starts this week. He could get jail time.
October 31, 2023 // Dougherty, who was once a hugely influential political force in the city and statewide, is trying to avoid another loss in court — and possible jail time — following his conviction on corruption charges two years ago. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has already secured guilty pleas in the embezzlement case from four former employees of the union he led, Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). They’re now trying to convict Dougherty and a codefendant, former union president Brian Burrows, who will be tried separately.
Vibrant Coffee Roasters baristas and bakers want to unionize
October 18, 2023 // Korshak Bagels, which was the first workplace to unionize with Local 80, closed last month. Theirs was the only Local 80 bargaining unit that had ratified a contract. Others are still bargaining. Employees of Korshak Bagels told Billy Penn that they had pushed for changes in the store’s process and practices that would have allowed greater profits, but the store’s owner resisted those changes. Owner Phil Korshak has said the proposed changes, like automating doughmaking and using computer kiosks for orders and payment, would not be “on brand for Korshak Bagels.” Caiside Ní Chuinn was part of the organizing committee at Good Karma, where they worked for a year-and-a-half, and is now working at Vibrant. Ní Chuinn worked at the Good Karma location that closed in January.
Working Families Party kicks off first-ever national convention in Philadelphia
October 11, 2023 // The convention began in Philadelphia Friday night with hundreds of members, who came from Pennsylvania, New York and the party’s 19 state chapters nationwide, in attendance. Local and federal lawmakers joined national party leaders, labor leaders and community organizers at the Downtown Sonesta hotel to celebrate the party’s growth over the past 25 years – and to discuss its future. The progressive Working Families Party, established in New York in 1998, aligns itself with major labor unions and grassroots community organizations. The party’s priorities include fairer treatment of workers, a higher minimum wage, universal paid sick leave and more equitable education, environmental and tax reforms. Despite its progressive leanings, the party has consistently punched above its weight in recent elections. WFP has endorsed and campaigned for President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, and Gov. Josh Shapiro – and recently announced an endorsement of Judge Daniel McCaffery, the Democratic candidate for state Supreme Court, one of this year’s most contested races.
UAW caught using threats and coercion to illegally seize workers’ dues
September 27, 2023 // Green’s federal charges against the union maintained not only that UAW officials had made her jump through unnecessary hoops to exercise her right to cut off union dues, but also that UAW bosses made threats against her job when she tried to resign, with one union official warning her “if it were up to me, you’d lose your job for leaving the union.” Green’s settlement also forced UAW officials to refrain from such illegal threats in the future. Meanwhile in Iowa, four employees of air filter manufacturer Donaldson won a recent settlement in which UAW officials were required to return over $1,000 in illegally-seized dues. In each Donaldson worker’s case, UAW bosses had either refused to stop dues deductions despite producing no original documentation showing the workers had consented to such deductions in the first place, or had kept seizing money after an employee resigned union membership and revoked authorization to deduct dues, which should have been effective in stopping the flow of dues.
PHILADELPHIA: SEPTA must negotiate contracts with nearly all its labor unions amid looming financial crisis
September 18, 2023 // The authority projects an annual operating deficit of $240 million beginning next July 1 as the last of its federal pandemic aid is spent, a situation dubbed the “fiscal cliff” that afflicts most transit systems in the United States. Riders have not returned in pre-COVID 19 numbers, and changing travel patterns have accelerated in the last three years. SEPTA and the state’s other public transit agencies are pushing for the legislature to adopt a measure that would give them a greater share of the sales tax to support operations. Uncertainty about finances makes it difficult to say “yes” to increased pay and benefits for TWU Local 234, which represents operators of buses, trolleys, and transit trains, SEPTA CEO Leslie S. Richards said Tuesday during a hearing of the state House Transportation Committee at the agency’s headquarters.