Just when you thought the Purple People Eating union known as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and their thug-like tactics couldn’t sink any lower comes this story from Allentown, Pennsylvania.
In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.
Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.
Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union,
told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.
Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said “there’s to be no volunteers.” No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.
“We would hope that the well-intentioned efforts of an Eagle Scout candidate would not be challenged by the union,” said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in an e-mail Friday. “This young man is performing a great service to the community. His efforts should be recognized as such.”
Balzano said Saturday the union is still looking into the matter and might cut the city a break.
“We are probably going to let this one go,” Balzano said.
[Read full story here.]
Back in July, after two weeks of negotiations with the SEIU failed to reach an agreement, the City of Allentown was forced to lay off 39 SEIU-represented employees. According to Allentown’s newspaper the Morning Call:
[Allentown Mayor] Pawlowski wanted members to defer roughly half of a 8.9 percent increase that kicked in on Saturday in exchange for no lay offs, but members narrowly rejected the offer two weeks ago.
On Monday, the mayor made a second offer that included a second pay cut in the form of a shorter work week for the remainder of the year. That offer was rejected by union heads and not taken to members for a vote.
“During the current economic downturn, the city has been attempting to reduce costs to avoid the layoff of city staff,” Pawlowski said in a written statement this afternoon.
“Unfortunately, the union rejected both of these offers leaving the city no choice but to reduce the workforce through layoffs.”
Now, when an Eagle Scout does something good for the City of Allentown, the SEIU bosses make a stink!
Does this mean that whenever a cub scout helps a little old lady cross a street SEIU bosses will file a grievance too?
Unbelievable!
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Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.
sounds like it's from the onion
mom2oneson Sunday, November 15th at 8:38PM EST (link)Balzano said “there’s to be no volunteers.” mom2 is shaking her head
It's from the Allentown Morning Call...
LaborUnionReport Sunday, November 15th at 9:07PM EST (link)which is the newspaper in Allentown, PA.
sorry Labor
mom2oneson Monday, November 16th at 12:03AM EST (link)I meant it reminded me of something I would read from the onion. I recommend it when I read it earlier. Sorry that was a bad sentence I posted.
I totally disagree with you on this one
bk Sunday, November 15th at 8:49PM EST (link)It’s not unbelievable at all. It’s impossible to underestimate the lack of class from these people.
Yeah, ok...
LaborUnionReport Sunday, November 15th at 9:09PM EST (link)Perhaps being surprised at the depth of the union spirit is a bit naive.
Perhaps…
These people are scum.
Leopard1996 Sunday, November 15th at 8:56PM EST (link)That path was probably a problem long before this issue, and now they want to say that they don’t want anybody cleaning it up.
“The accumluated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout, “Save Us!”….and I’ll look down and whisper, “No”…The Watchmen
Still loving the quote....
LaborUnionReport Sunday, November 15th at 9:11PM EST (link)From The Watchmen.
As someone else commented
Leopard1996 Monday, November 16th at 2:11PM EST (link)That quote is starting to sadly become more reality everyday.
“The accumluated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout, “Save Us!”….and I’ll look down and whisper, “No”…The Watchmen
Unions are SCUM....they are the bottom feeders in our society....
JadedByPolitics Sunday, November 15th at 9:00PM EST (link)and NO I don’t mean all the union “workers” but I do mean a whole hell of alot of them. They NEVER give an inch to save a company NEVER! They will KILL an industry while pushing to get OVERPAID and OVER COMPENSATED and then whine about it!…..disgusting!
Whoever has his enemy at his mercy &
does not destroy him is his own enemy
There was a day when Unions were a good thing.
nessa Sunday, November 15th at 9:18PM EST (link)That day was when they actually were made up of working class men and women, they actually fought for the employees. I would cite the coal mines of Appalachia as an example.
Unfortunately that day has long passed. These scumbag POS are as bad as the Democrat pols they control.
“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams
Contributor to The Minority Report
I'm not sure I believe that anymore.
The_Gadfly Wednesday, November 18th at 12:25AM EST (link)The unions come out of the Progressive movement, which was name chosen for the early forms of American fascism-socialism. It may be that they were always bad, we just didn’t know how bad until recently.
We’ve been called racists enough now that it shouldn’t bother us any more.
-AChance, http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2009/11/03/what-men-may-do-we-have-done/#comment-24463
If NY23 was a beat down for Conservatives, what do you call what happened to Progressives in NJ and VA?
inspired by ColdWarrior, http://www.redstate.com/hooah_mac/2009/11/04/ny-23-the-agony-of-defeat-not-so-much/#comment-156
Comments with the article prove the folks get it
SteveLA Sunday, November 15th at 9:23PM EST (link)I took the time to scan the comments accompanying the article, about 99 percent going what the heck are these idiots doing?
At least the people who read the article see things right, the major of the town….not so much it appears.
______________________________________
Competency over ideological purity
I first read the article from Erick's front page links.
Steph C Monday, November 16th at 12:53PM EST (link)My first thought was greed trumps charity.
The union is a profit making entity. For the money they bring in, they make promises to its members who join and what is left over is used to elevate the condition of the leaders via perks and luxuries they might never have otherwise. So, Mr. Anderson, out of the charity within his heart, put his labor to good use. He could have chosen something else to do but he sought to do something,within his capabilities, that would benefit the maximum number of people.
And the SEIU is unhappy because they didn’t get to make money off the thing. I thought they were anti-capitalist. Like the Democrats they support, only when it’s not their money that’s being lost, eh?
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Union Greed at Members' Expense...
LaborUnionReport Monday, November 16th at 12:59PM EST (link)“My first thought was greed trumps charity. The union is a profit making entity…”
You’ll really like the most recent post…the SMW members in Chi-Town are having their dues increased nearly 70%.
http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2009/11/16/as-union-bosses-spend-money-its-the-members-who-are-told-to-pay/
I mostly likely will.
Steph C Monday, November 16th at 1:47PM EST (link)If you haven’t noticed already, I typically end up in the list of recommenders for your posts.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Thanks!
LaborUnionReport Monday, November 16th at 2:54PM EST (link)At least all the writing is not all for naught!
Cheers!
that is disgusting
lycurgus Monday, November 16th at 3:55PM EST (link)Nothing worse than a union. I hate the idea of people banding together. We are a nation of naked individuals. No group larger than a Christian nuclear family should be trusted.
Then again, I’ve long thought the Scouts need to be more paramilitary. After 15, they should just go straight into our military. The whole movement has been ruined by PCism and non-martial ideas.
Wow - a particularly toxic spill here
Jack_Savage Monday, November 16th at 5:02PM EST (link)I just don’t get why you guys hate the Scouts. Perhaps it’s the fact that they feel the urge to actually act like men, while you have signed the vestigial remnants of your liberal testicles over to your messiah, Obama?
Oh, never mind
Jack_Savage Monday, November 16th at 5:05PM EST (link)I see you are a ghost. Best of luck with the primal biscuit making therapy.
Well, Jack, even though he was ghosted before you
eburke Monday, November 16th at 5:15PM EST (link)had a chance to get your shots in, if nothing else it was worth your time just so you could pen this priceless pearl:
“while you have signed the vestigial remnants of your liberal testicles over to your messiah, Obama?”
You owe me a new keyboard
“All that need be done for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
“Dead fish go with the flow” ~ izoneguy
“We have a Statue of Liberty not a Statue of Necessity” ~ ColdWarrior
Agreed. It seems to gets better each time I read it. nt
mschmitt Monday, November 16th at 5:22PM EST (link)Put it on my tab
Jack_Savage Monday, November 16th at 7:04PM EST (link)I’ll be happy to cover that and the drinks.
I’ll also spell “vestigal” correctly next time, but I was winging it. The only bright spot I see is that liberals won’t be able to reproduce in the next generation or two, so our problem might be solved.
There's an easy fix that should make everyone happy.
Vladimir Monday, November 16th at 6:59PM EST (link)The kid joins the union & pays his dues.
The kid doesn’t get his kneecaps broken.
There. Everybody’s happy.
There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Isn't Anne Duncan...
LaborUnionReport Monday, November 16th at 10:10PM EST (link)…the lead organizer in the schools?
And, besides, with the AFT and NEA controlling the classrooms, the kids may as well be joining the unions, ‘cuz they’re sure being indoctrinated with the same collectivist ideology.
AS A FELLOW EAGLE SCOUT
twally Wednesday, November 18th at 12:09AM EST (link)I am up hauled by this. Like the article states. 200 hours of community service.
To become an eagle scout like I or this Kevin Anderson the biggest or most infamous part of becoming is doing your eagle scout project which where you…
Personally must take an idea from concept to construction.
The main focus being in charge of a project and demonstrating leadership skills learned thorough boy-scouting.
Now to any average adult that is no big task any more BUT think about doing this as a minor at the oldest you can do something like this is at the age of 18 with extenuation circumstances.
Because once your a legal adult (18) your not a boyscout anymore, you are a adult leader you must have a board of review of the council and numerous recommendations to achieve it all hitting the deadline before your 18th birthday.
So back to the project. Think of yourself 17 years old trying to scrap it together being young thinking of better things to do. And all of this is with volunteer hours. You are supposed to not make one dime of profit. All from your own will to help the community as you can. That is asking a lot of a minor!
One in every 300 boys is a boyscout and about 5% become an eagle scout. If you do the math the is a remarkably small percentage of the population.
From one fellow Eagle Scout to another when it comes to achieving what seems impossible proving them wrong that your not just another teenager is worth holding your head up high.
Letting someone take his pride away as a developing citizen and young man is terrible. I’d like to see what others have done when they were seventeen. Not this.
This is a fine example of loyalty to god and country at it’s finest and devotion to community. I sure hope they did drop the charges of whatever was going to happen to Kevin.
I hold my head high when I say I am an Eagle Scout even though others laugh because I know when it comes to receiving my first career job EVEN my high school job, I was chosen over others just for that accomplishment. It is something you cant take to your grave.
On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to god and my country and to obey the scout law. To help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong mentally awake, and morally straight.
God Bless Kevin Anderson and every Other Eagle Scout out there.
-A Fellow Eagle Scout
The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!”… and I’ll look down and whisper “No.” They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father or President Truman. Decent men who believed in a day’s work for a day’s pay. Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn’t realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don’t tell me they didn’t have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody Hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth-talkers… and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.
-Rorschach from Watchmen
What....“there’s to be no volunteers.”
Patrick_Murdock Wednesday, November 18th at 4:56PM EST (link)What….“there’s to be no volunteers.” Didn’t these guys know that his “Oneness” thinks there needs to be more volunteering in this country?
http://www.patrickscartoons.com
I read this on Fox News
Lisa in Maryland Wednesday, November 18th at 6:45PM EST (link)Are you surprised? The SEIU are a bunch of thugs–how about the guy they beat up because he was black and didn’t support government health care? No volunteers? I can’t imagine that the SEIU wouldn’t want to give the tax payers a break–(yeah right!) What a ding bat!!!
Anti Tax and Spend Loud Mouth Lost in Liberal Land
“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,”
Amy Miller Thursday, November 19th at 6:56AM EST (link)What in the HELL is that supposed to mean?
I feel like in a few weeks, we’re going to see this kid plastered all over TMZ with allegations that he subscribes to Playboy, once drank a beer in the garage, got a speeding ticket, shows signs of being a Nazi sympathizer, and once made a sex tape with Carrie Prejean.
These people will stop at NOTHING.
~A
Tweet Me, It’s Trendy!!!: @amy_m_miller
“Ah, yes, it’s the apocalypse alright. I always thought I’d have a hand in it.”