MyDD :: Is a New Anti-Union Group Abusing Its Tax Status?

Is a New Anti-Union Group Abusing Its Tax Status?

by Matt Stoller, Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 12:00:01 AM EST

I've written periodically on unions, and on astroturf groups abusing their tax status. It's so nice when two trends come together.

You might have noticed a new site called UnionFacts.org, which is designed to push right-wing content into wider media channels. The site is completely bunk, of course, but that's not what's interesting about this story.

Unions are critical to the progressive movement and the Democratic Party. If you want to know why, read 'The Role of Labor in a Political Campaign; labor provides a critical slice of the machinery that elects Democrats. So attacking unions is key to the right-wing ascendancy that right-wing business interests seek.

Which brings us to UnionFact.org. Let's just do some background, and a little debunking. Via David Sirota, we learn that the guy behind the site, Rick Berman, is a major league sleazoid who led attacks on Mothers Against Drunk Driving and has worked on union-busting for the right-wing Chamber of Commerce. Nathan Newman debunks the site itself. For instance, the site points out that $400 million plus in fines and restitutions has been awarded in Department of Labor racketeering investigations." Newman reveals the dishonesty by digging into the numbers, and showing that "almost all of the big money associated with the $400 million figure in labor racketeering was committed by private industry AGAINST unions, not by union officials."

So the site, if it weren't misleading, would probably make an effective case against management. But who's behind it? According to the web site:

The Center for Union Facts is a non-profit organization supported by foundations, businesses, union members, and the general public. We are dedicated to showing Americans the truth about today's union leadership.

Really? That's fascinating. A business lobbyist working for industries fighting against unions is suddenly running a 'charity' just to educate the public. How charitable. CREW is on the case:

Mr. Berman is the president and sole owner of a for-profit lobbying and public relations firm, Berman & Co., Inc. (BCI), which has long served the interests of the tobacco, alcohol and chain restaurant industries. In November 2004, CREW sent a letter to the IRS asking for an investigation into Berman's and CCF's multiple violations of IRS law. CREW had copied Sens. Grassley and Baucus on the complaint, but never received a response.

CREW asked Sens. Grassley and Baucus to investigate whether CCF and CUF are engaged in charitable activities or whether they are in fact, merely front organizations for for-profit industry entities.

This abuse of tax status isn't new by right-wingers, but it's getting worse. Americans for Job Security is organized as a 501c6, a trade association, when it is engaging in electoral advocacy. And now The Center for Union Facts is filed as a charity - isn't this something to investigate?

Maybe Democratic Senator Max Baucus should look into the matter.

Tags: Rick Berman, Chamber of Commerce, CREW, David Sirota, Nathan Newman (all tags)

Permalink :: 9 Comments :: Post a Comment

Sleaze points (3.00 / 1)

One of the sleazier things unionfacts.com does is list by name the "salaries" of officers and staffers at union headquarters, which is publicly available information. But in order to make the unions look like a herd of top-heavy fat cats, the "salaries" listed are actually (though this isn't explained on the site) the COMBINATION of salary-plus-expenses.

Since a lot of union staff spend their time out in the field, traveling from place to place to, you know, help people who want to organize their workplace and win a chance at a decent paycheck and fairness in the workplace, expenses can run high, once you add up a year's worth of airfares and hotel rooms. So an organizer getting by on, say, $40 or $50 thou a year, is represented as pullling down a sweet $120,000 or more.

by Sierra Volk on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 07:04:31 AM EST

Re: Sleaze points (none / 0)

Source?

by Matt Stoller on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 09:17:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Sleaze points (none / 0)

First-hand knowledge of my salary and expenses, and the published salaries by grade levels of my coworkers.

by Sierra Volk on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 09:31:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Sleaze points (none / 0)

I assure you that this is correct. If an organizer earns $35,000 in salary, but like many organizers spends 200 nights a year at various Motel 6 at $60/night, the $12,000 spent by the union on accomodations for the organizer is reported to the DoL as part of that organizer's "expenses." Let's say that the organizer has a further $8,000 in expenses spent on gas, tolls, and road food. That $20,000 worth of expenses is clearly not compensation in the way that normal people think of salaries or wages, and to lump it together with the organizer's salary is intellectually dishonest. But that's just what Berman is doing here.

by Trapper John on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:46:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Sleaze points (none / 0)

Also of interest is the site's launch exactly one week before the AFL-CIO launches its own new blog, AFL-CIO NOW. I hear it'll be up by next Monday, at www.aflcio.org/blog .

by Sierra Volk on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 04:53:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Is a New Anti-Union Group Abusing Its Tax Stat (none / 0)

Berman is involved in a string of corporate-front attack organizations. They "attack the credibility" of the tobacco opponents, animal rights proponents, environmentalists, nutrition proponents, and others who try to fight for a better, safer, more humane America.

Paul Krugman wrote about the Center for Consumer Freedom here.

They put out lots of "toxic waste is good for you stuff, like Obesity is Not a Disease, Says Center for Consumer Freedom (echoed, of course, by FOX News) and Atkins-Blasting 'Physicians' Committee is a Front Group for PETA and PETA's Violent Dream is Animal Liberation Front's Reality

This release from just yesterday: Rock Icon Endorses PETA, Violence

There's some good info on Berman and other front organizations at SourceWatch. Other sources here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

This is worth studying up on, because of the way this kind of propaganda works. Outlets like FOX echo this stuff, and it spreads. WHenever you hear the "fat isn't really bad for you" or "PETA is a violent organization" it is likely coming from a well-funded "credibility attack" front-group like this.

-- Seeing the Forest

by davej on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:09:47 PM EST

Re: Is a New Anti-Union Group Abusing Its Tax Stat (none / 0)

Above I wrote that Berman's MO is "toxic waste is good for you." Take a look at this Village Voice story about Berman: Mercury in Fish? Baloney! Lobbyist tells pregnant women to eat more tuna

-- Seeing the Forest

by davej on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:17:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Berman (none / 0)

If Berman had been alive in a border state like Kentucky in 1860, and if the internet had existed the, he'd have been the proprietor of AbolitionistFacts.com (ostensibly funded by "concerned free white citizens, Irishmen, and Negro slaves", but in actuality secretly funded by the Consolidated Slavers League).

If Berman had lived in South Africa in the '70's, and the internet had existed, he'd have run the MandelaExposed.com site (ostensibly funded by "concerned citizens, Cape coloureds, Indians, cricketers, springboks, and blacks", but in actuality secretly funded by a coalition of DeBeers and the National Party).

by Trapper John on Thu Feb 16, 2006 at 01:55:18 PM EST

Re: Is a New Anti-Union Group Abusing Its Tax Stat (none / 0)

I think that this union needs a drug treatment because as it is said in this article, the union has somehow transformed in something that it wasn't meant to be and this transformation created a high wall to protect something but what?

by tiberiu on Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 01:57:58 PM EST

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