Why The Union Facts Website is a Farce

Executive Summary

  • What Americans don’t appreciate about unions
  • Why Union Facts is filled with false information.

Union Facts as False Front Specialists

The website unionfacts.com is a false front or AstroTurf organization that refuses to reveal its funding. Their website is essentially a web of lies and not even misrepresentations about unions. All the old stereotypes persist on this site. They have everything except a clip from Goodfellas.

Who is Rick Berman?

This is one of the many false fronts run by the lobbyist Rick Berman, who dislikes labor standards, food safety, cigarette smoke restrictions, and anything good for ordinary people. Bergman and his unethical wife make many millions from his false fronts.

It’s hard to find anything true on the site. It would be considered a humor site….much like the Onion, except it’s intended to look real. Several associates and I have spent over an hour reading, sharing, and laughing at this ridiculous site. It is a site that should be shared with others. It’s that stupid and that false. The Union Facts website seems to oscillate between hardline propaganda and pure fantasy.

What Americans Don’t Appreciate About Unions

Americans, particularly those below 50 years of age, are largely ignorant of the place unions have had in improving working conditions. Whenever we hear a comment about how extreme unions were regarding their demands, we always ask, “Compared to what?” For instance, did unions ever ask for compensation, which is 500x what most workers make?

Question #1: Bleeding Out Pension Funds?

Did the unions ever bleed out pension funds the way management has on routine occasions?

Question #2: Pushing CEO to Worker Compensation Ratios to Over 500:1?

Has a union ever pulled out $450 million in compensation from a hospital system as executives have done several times? No union in history can approach the abuse of power, greed, and corruption displayed by executives and CEOs daily. Union members did not cause this present financial crisis — CEOs of the financial industry primarily caused trillions in losses. ….how many trillions of losses have been caused by union “bosses” again?

Question #3: Bleeding Out Pension Funds?

What if the financial industry had been unionized? Could it have helped reduce the excesses that occurred? Could they have helped serve as a counterbalance against excessive concentrations of power by financial executives?

We think it’s possible they could have.

It’s Time to Start Blaming Unions for the Financial Crisis?

The old story, brilliantly disseminated by pro-business groups, was that unions caused manufacturing jobs to go overseas because they were so unreasonable (unlike Nicaraguan sweatshops where workers can be beaten and raped by guards, and heavy metals from industrial waste can be dumped into their shantytown drinking water).

Yes, with Nike paying workers 9 cents for a shirt that sold for $35 in the US, foreign workers turned out to be much more “reasonable.” With the powerful propaganda apparatus at their disposal, why hasn’t Wall Street done a better job of laying the blame for the financial crisis on the doorstep of those evil unions? The fact that unions don’t buy into considerable finance operations should not stop the industry and unionfacts.com from taking a shot at it. If they were to pay Rick Berman $500,000, he would be happy to create a website entitled unionscausedthecrash.com.

The Video Exxon, GM, Bechtel, and Wal-Mart Don’t Want You To See

This is a good video that talks about some of the things unions bring to workers. Of course, it is not approved by “unionfacts.com.” Note to Union Facts: if you refuse to declare who your funding sources are, your credibility evaporates. If a lobbyist creates your site, your credibility goes into negative digits.

Explanation of Union Activities on The Real News Network

References

A full description of union facts is listed here.

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Union_Facts