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Thursday, April 30, 2020
well when you have a teamster politician & a scam union
cojoined to pump cash into a bankrupt union you have a party?
staff@peoplespolicyproject.org.
“I was just joking” is not an uncommon thing people say in response to unfair labor practice charges based on coercive statements. This is not usually tolerated as a defense because, as the Eight Circuit (326 F.2d 910) wrote quite elegantly in 1964, “executives who threaten in jest run the risk that those subject to their power might take them in earnest and conclude the remarks to be coercive.”
Even as far back at 1977, NLRB joke cases (231 NLRB No. 40) were repeating boilerplate like “it is well established that the coercive and unlawful effect of a statement is not blunted merely because interrogations of, warnings to, or disparaging statements about union adherents are accompanied by laughter or made in an offhand humorous way.” In that case, the manager had asked some workers why they were wearing union buttons, and when they replied “because everyone else is,” the manager said “I’ll be damned if y’all can’t fuck up a wet dream,” which caused the workers to laugh. Following precedent, the NLRB ruled that the manager’s statement violated the NLRA.
The NLRB case law is littered with these cases, and there is nothing special about Domenech’s case. He threatened to retaliate against workers who engaged in protected activity. The fact that he did so in an “offhand humorous way” is no defense, according to well-settled law.
Unhappy with his loss, Domenech is now attempting to play the media game, writing in the Wall Street Journal that he is the victim of some extreme government overreach fueledby political enemies. He even got his friend Dan McLaughlin (the Baseball Crank) to write up a similarly histrionic piece at the National Review.
The purpose of these articles is not to make legal arguments — neither of them do, even though the Crank claims to be a lawyer — but instead to try to get the word out to conservative appointees either in the NRLB or in the circuit courts that this is a case they should get “creative” about, if you know what I mean.
Although this strategy has failed so far (the Trump-appointed NLRB General Counsel did not spike the case, even though he could have), this strategy could ultimately work. Judges are
fundamentally politicians, not people who interpret and apply laws and precedents in a neutral
fashion. So if you can get enough of them primed to understand what their side wants to happen, they can often make that happen.
But even with that said, it’s important to underline how completely without merit this whole crybaby performance is.
The Federalist was not targeted for political reasons. Dave Portnoy, of Barstool Sports fame, was hit with an identical joke-threat case last year over a tweet he sent, a case that was instigated by at least one of the same individuals who instigated the Federalist case. (I filed charges in both.) But Portnoy apparently hired an actual labor lawyer who explained that his case was a sure loser, causing Portnoy to settle the case by deleting the tweet and posting a notice that he would not interfere with union activities.
Domenech could have done what Portnoy did and could still do what Portnoy did right now. He is the one who is choosing to waste time and money litigating a case where he has clearly broken the law on some kind of prayer that a conservative judge will ignore a half-century of settled law in order to let him skate.
Nassau GOP chair intends to collect fat paychecks for 3 jobs
On the heels of pay-to-play corruption scandals that have tarnished the Long Island GOP, the Nassau County Republic Party has elected a one-time disbarred lawyer to be its new leader — and the retirement-age politico intends to collect fat paychecks from three different jobs simultaneously.
Joseph Cairo, 72, the new chairman of the Nassau County Republican Party, is also head of the Nassau County Off-Track Betting Corporation. He’s paid $198,000 at OTB.
The long-time No. 2 to former Nassau GOP boss Joe Mondello had his law license yanked in the 1990s for misusing client funds. His license was reinstated and the politically-connected lawyer now has an established law practice, GOP sources said.
He also has not ruled out collecting a third paycheck from the Nassau GOP.
Mondello, his predecessor, made more than $250,000 last year as GOP boss, and pulled in $1.5 million from his private law practice and real estate investments, records filed with the government show.
At one time, Mondello also simultaneously headed the Nassau GOP and OTB.
Cairo’s law office is in Valley Stream, his OTB’s corporate office is in Mineola and Nassau GOP headquarters is in Westbury.
A Post reporter found him at GOP headquarters.
Cairo said he was not relinquishing his OTB executive job or suspending his law practice after taking the reins of the GOP.
“I’ve been at OTB. This is a crucial time at OTB with possibly sports gambling coming so we’re deeply involved with that there now,” Cairo said.
“This is a political position. My attorneys tell me there is no conflict and I think having a position in a political party is such that it’s been done in the past by people on both sides of the aisle. And I think it’s currently done, too, in some other counties — their elected officials are also party chairmen,” he said.
But watchdogs have long complained that allowing people to simultaneously hold top positions in government and party leadership opens the door to conflicts of interests and potential corruption.
“It’s business as usual. This is an example of the rotten political system in Nassau County,” said George Marlin, who formerly served on the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, a state agency set up to monitor the county’s shaky finances.
Marlin said the multiple paid gigs for Cairo is remarkable, especially after the Nassau Republicans lost the county executive’s race and the Town of Hempstead supervisor’s race last year amid concerns over corruption.
Cairo chalked up the suspension of his law license to a mistake from the distant past.
“I think that’s something that happened — it was earlier than ‘95, that’s 25 years ago, and I think people who know me know the type of person I am,” he said.
With that, Cairo grabbed a suit jacket from a parked black Cadillac before jumping into the passenger seat of a Jaguar driven by a friend.
Cairo is right about one thing. On Long Island particularly, politicians simultaneously collecting hefty paychecks from top government and political party posts is a time-honored tradition.
The Post reported last week that Rich Schaffer is drawing down a combined $350,000 from three paychecks as head of the Suffolk County Democratic Party, as the full-time Town of Babylon Supervisor and from a law practice that includes representing plumbing contractors.
But Long Island Democrats have their scandals, too.
Gerard Terry, the former North Hempstead Democratic Party chairman, was convicted of tax evasion for failing to report his income that included payments from legal services provided to eight different local government agencies.
New Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat who won the election on anti-corruption platform last year, passed executive orders barring county government officials from holding party positions or from accepting gifts.
New York City has a law that bars top government officials from serving as party bosses, following the municipal corruption scandals of the 1980s.
Nassau OTB reprimands worker who criticized union chief Kevin McCaffrey
Nassau OTB has reprimanded a union activist for criticizing his union leader, Teamsters Local 707 chief Kevin McCaffrey, seen in 2016. Credit: John Roca
Nassau OTB has reprimanded cashier and union activist Jackson Leeds for criticizing his own union leader, Teamsters Local 707 Kevin McCaffrey, who also is a Suffolk County legislator.
Without mentioning McCaffrey by name, Arthur Walsh, Nassau OTB general counsel and corporate secretary, said in an April 22 letter that Leeds was “insubordinate” for presenting “verbal objections to the staff and public about the current union leadership.”
Walsh said OTB policies bar workers from setting up information tables or engaging in similar conduct without written OTB consent. Her also said workers are not allowed to enter branches while off-duty except to make a bet or collect a paycheck.
Walsh said the reprimand will be placed in Leeds' personnel file and if uncorrected, “future discipline may be imposed up to and including firing.” Leeds can file a grievance if he is “unsatisfied with this letter,” Walsh said.
Leeds concedes he criticized McCaffrey but said the OTB policy is improper because “people have an absolute right to talk about labor matters among themselves whether at work or not.”
McCaffrey, a Lindenhurst Republican who represents the Suffolk Legislature's 14th District, said Nassau OTB put the policy in place because Leeds not only criticized him and the agency but was disrupting employees’ work.
“Some people are never happy,” said McCaffrey. “If he wants to pursue a grievance, we will follow the proper procedures and represent him properly.”
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