This blog is not affiliated or endorsed, by Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, subject to the New York Freedom
of Information Law, NY Pub Off Law Sec 84 et seq.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
put some salt on the glass of tequila for otb employees
and its collusive scam union and compare and contrast the NLRB with NY's PERB
How My Joke on Twitter Became a Federal Case
The NLRB is investigating me for a humorous tweet about Vox’s labor dispute.
I’m under federal investigation for making a joke on Twitter.
In June 2019, employees at the left-liberal Vox Media Inc. walked off the job demanding a new collective bargaining agreement. As the publisher of a conservative website, the Federalist, I found the clash ironic. I tweeted: “FYI @fdrlst first one of you tries to unionize I swear I’ll send you back to the salt mine.”
Although Twitter leftists were enraged, my employees were amused. They joked about selling branded salt-shakers and writing sympathetic vignettes about union rebels from Federalist salt mines.
Then things took an unfunny turn. The National Labor Relations Board informed me that the leftist writer Matt Bruenig had filed a formal complaint about my tweet. He withdrew it, but Joel Fleming, a Massachusetts lawyer, filed another.
Mr. Fleming alleged I had violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Wagner Act, which states that “it shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7”—namely the rights “to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”
The accusation was laughable. No employee had expressed a desire to unionize. If anyone had, my joke wouldn’t have stood in the way. Mr. Fleming was an interloper anyway—he had no association with the Federalist. But according to the NLRB, anyone can file such a complaint against any company.
The NLRB proceeded to invade our publication, heedless of the freedom of the press. Members of my staff were subpoenaed to testify in New York, where none of them lived and we had no office. The NLRB attempted to subpoena all emails and communications
between staff members going back years—including about editorial decisions, hiring decisions, and confidential sources during our coverage of the Russia-collusion hoax.
Help arrived in the form of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit set up by legal scholar Philip Hamburger that defends constitutional rights against overreach by the administrative state.
The NLRB proposed a settlement: I delete the joke, I post information on the rights of employees to unionize, and the complaint goes away. I said no.
That meant the NLRB’s case against me would be adjudicated by an NLRB employee, Administrative Law Judge Kenneth Chu. As expected, we lost. The board called no witnesses. It submitted my tweet and printouts of Federalist articles and asserted we were not a publication but an “anti-union website.”
The government lawyer claimed that “the editorial positions of the website are reasonably . . . understood as Mr. Domenech’s own,” even though we publish thousands of conflicting opinions under various bylines. Federalist employees filed affidavits stating they viewed my tweet as a joke. Mr. Chu dismissed their opinions as subjective and irrelevant.
Eventually we’ll get to a real court, where we’ll be able to assert our rights and prove our case. Why bother when the stakes seem so low? Because they aren’t. It’s a matter of principle.
It is my good fortune to know many brilliant lawyers who are willing to stand up against abuses of the administrative state. Most people aren’t so lucky. What happens when another small-business owner on social media makes a similar joke? When a neighbor decides to make a federal case out of an impoliticFacebook post? What happens if freedom of speech is only worth what the common business owner is willing to pay in legal fees, missed work and the cost of flying employees to other states to testify in front of bureaucrats?
It’s understandable that those who can’t afford to fight often bend the knee. But in that America, the bureaucrats, and the trolls who use them to shut down speech they don’t like, will keep rolling on until someone stands up and says no.
Mr. Domenech is publisher of the Federalist.
Nassau OTB to employees: Retire, use time owed or work without pay
A Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting location in Franklin Square. Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin
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Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting has asked its 132 employees to use accumulated sick and vacation time, work temporarily without pay or retire as the agency copes with the shutdown of its betting parlors during the coronavirus pandemic.
But Suffolk County OTB is paying its 300 employees as it seeks a loan under the new federal Payroll Protection Program designed to help businesses pay their workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, agency spokesman Jon Schneider said.
Suffolk OTB's annual payroll is approximately $16.6 million. Nassau OTB has $6.98 million in annual payroll.
"We're hopeful as a public benefit corporation, that we will be able to access some of these funds for employees," Schneider said. "We are able to retain our entire workforce."
Nassau OTB officials said they don't believe the federal program covers gambling entities.
Nassau OTB, also a public benefit corporation, is "ineligible as a gambling business for loans" from the PPP program, Nassau OTB general counsel Arthur Walsh said. But the agency has filed paperwork to qualify for the program, though officials are not hopeful the application will be successful, agency spokesman David Chauvin said.
Members of Congress and gaming industry leaders have urged the federal government to make clear that casinos are eligible for the loans if they retain their workforce during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Nassau OTB president Joseph Cairo said closure of the public benefit corporation's betting parlors and its 12 Fast-Track digital terminals in taverns and bars last month has meant "our operation basically shut down.”
“We took a big hit, our revenue went down drastically,” said Cairo, who also is chairman of the Nassau County Republican Committee.
Nassau OTB employees were paid through April 4.
Of the agency's 132 full- and part-time employees, 104 are using accumulated time, 14 will take furloughs, and two have retired, officials said Monday, while 12 have until Monday to make their intentions known, a spokesman said.
Nassau OTB officials said a limited number of employees who are essential to operations are working and receiving full pay.
Cairo said he will continue to work, and draw down his accumulated sick and vacation time.
Kevin McCaffrey, president of Teamsters Local 707, which represents Nassau OTB employees, said "everyone’s situation is different. Some people have a lot of accrued time. Some people have no accrued time."
McCaffrey, also a Republican Suffolk County legislator from Lindenhurst, said he was encouraging OTB to apply for the Paycheck Protection Plan.
“The odds are in their favor," McCaffrey said.
On Wednesday, William Miller, chairman of the American Gaming Association, wrote President Donald Trump to urge him to make clear that small gaming entities can receive assistance from the Payroll Protection Program.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) argued in an April 4 letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that PPP, "is a totally new program that is separate and distinct from" the law that governs federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
Businesses that derive more than one-third of gross annual revenue from legal gambling activities are not eligible for the disaster loans, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Nassau OTB staff operate six branch office locations, the teletheater in Plainview and online and telephone betting.
Suffolk OTB operates betting parlors, QWIKbetz locations and has online and phone operations. Also, Delaware North operates Jake's 58 Casino Hotel for OTB, which leases space at the video lottery casino from the company and receives a portion of the casino’s earnings.
Scott Eidler covers Nassau County government and politics for Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.
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