Gov. Shapiro’s Pennsylvania Budget Proposal Rewards Union Donors

Unions donated copiously to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) during last year’s gubernatorial campaign and they’ll reap a handsome reward if the legislature approves a particular item in Shapiro’s proposed budget. 

The Fiscal Year 2023-24 spending plan includes a $1,274,000 initiative to increase by one-third the number of labor law compliance investigators at the commonwealth’s Department of Labor and Industry. The text of Shapiro’s proposal expresses concern that more labor cases need to be probed and that businesses need more education on workers’ right to organize. 

Read the full story

Industry and Unions Warn Pennsylvania Senate RGGI Will Kill Jobs, Hurt Consumers

Blue Collar Worker

In a rare moment of concord between industry and unions, representatives of both interests exhorted Pennsylvania state Senators on Tuesday to resist Pennsylvania’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Eleven states in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions have joined the pact to impose prices on carbon emissions for power plants. Unlike most member states, however, Pennsylvania entered into the agreement without legislative approval though an executive order by Gov. Tom Wolf (D) in 2019. The emissions pricing has not yet gone into effect; the governor wants to implement it in the next fiscal year.

Read the full story

Joe Biden Jokes About Accusations While Hugging Boy

by Neetu Chandak   Former Vice President Joe Biden cracked a joke in reference to his inappropriate conduct allegations while hugging a boy at a labor union conference in Washington, D.C., Friday. Biden wrapped his arm around a boy onstage as he was speaking to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). “By the way, he gave me permission to touch him,” Biden said. Biden also hugged the union’s president, Lonnie Stephenson, before the child. “I just want you to know, I had permission to hug Lonnie,” Biden said, The New York Times reported. Former Democratic Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores accused Biden on March 29 of sniffing her hair and kissing her head without her permission in 2014. A second woman, Amy Lappos, claimed Biden inappropriately touched her during a 2009 political fundraiser in Connecticut. “It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head,” Lappos said Monday to The Hartford Courant. “He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.” A total of seven women have come forward against Biden’s alleged acts so far,…

Read the full story

Embezzlement, Theft Charges Against Pennsylvania Labor Kingpin May Cripple Dems’ 2020 Machine

by Tim Pearce   Pennsylvania Democrats are worried about the short-term future of their political machine after authorities charged a Philadelphia labor leader with numerous counts of embezzlement, bribery and theft, Politico reports. John Dougherty, the business manager of Philadelphia’s branch of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and six other labor officials were indicted on 116 charges related to lavish misuse if union funds and buying influence with corrupt politicians, Philadelphia’s The Inquirer and CBS Philly report. The 159-page indictment was released by the federal court in Pennsylvania Friday. It details more than two years of FBI and IRS operations and raids launched against IBEW Local 98 offices, union officials and their homes. Dougherty used union funds as his “personal bank account and as a means to obtain employment for himself, his family, and his friends,” the indictment says, according to The Inquirer. “I got a different world than most people ever exist in,” Dougherty says according to the transcript of a 2015 FBI wiretap put in the indictment. Dougherty has wielded significant influence across the battleground state, throwing the union’s power and purse behind politicians, largely democrats, running for local, state and national offices. “I would argue they’re the single-most effective political organization in the…

Read the full story