Don’t Read this Post

Unless you want to get very, very angry.

It’s hardly news now that even though the Detroit 3 autobailout failed in the Senate, and even though conservative lawmakers urged the President not to spend TARP funds the failing manufacturers, President Bush handed over a Christmas gift to the tune of  $17.4 billion.  What is news is what those taxpayer dollars go toward.

Last week Chrysler took out a $100,000 full page ad in USA Today thanking Americans for our largess.

And if you saw Drudge this morning, you saw this.  A story about the UAW’s $33 million posh resort and $6 milion golf course.  When you see an organization with assets like this demanding a bailout to sustain their lifestyle on our dime – it’s rather nauseating.  None of that could go toward say, all the legacy costs that are dragging down their industry or toward the modernizations Chrysler et al say they  need to compete.  Or even, say, back into the pockets of the very workers the union is feeding off of.

To see a disgusting example of union greed and abuse, head over to RedState where they highlighted an expose on some union bosses who are ripping off their employers (and hence, other workers, and their new employers – the taxpayers) with fake time cards and undeserved overtime compensation.

One of the bosses, Ron Seroka, a union job security officer, takes off half a day nearly everyday to go home to lounge around the house while he is on the clock. Seroka punches in at the plant at 6AM every single day and is home by 11:30 AM for some nice leisure time at home. Yet he gets a steady 10 hours pay every single day despite the fact that he is rarely at work.

Seroka’s union boss is even worse. Union chairman Jim Modzelewski buys beer on a daily basis while on the clock and clocks himself in for overtime pay hours before he even wakes up to go into the plant. TV 4 found that after he punches in, he typically leaves for a beer run mere hours later. Again, all this is on a daily basis. He is also paid overtime pay on a daily basis as he sits home drinking his daily beer. With over 2,500 hours of overtime, Modzelewski made a six-figure salary last year. TV 4 also discovered that Modzelewski even played in a bowling tournament while on the clock — as at overtime pay, too!

The whole video is well worth watching.

At The Daily Beast, John Avalon points out that just like the albatrosses around the necks of the Big 3, unreasonable union contracts are weighing down states like California and New  York that are on the brink of bankruptcy.  And the solution, of course, isn’t going down the legal road to get out from under those arrangements, it’s more taxes and more government.

If you read this entire post, and followed all the links to all the infuriating stories, you’re probably pretty angry.  As you should be, though you can’t say that you weren’t warned.  Hopefully, you’re angry enough to want to do something about it.  If so, then join up or donate and bring your friends along.  Because next year the battle for more freedom isn’t going to get any easier.