Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics

Written by:
Daniel Gray , Linda Chavez
Narrated by:
Theresa Long

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
Narrator
Release Date
March 2004
Duration
9 hours 46 minutes
Summary
“Simply put, the leftist labor unions have the Democrats in their pockets. And we’re all paying the price.”

Linda Chavez, President George W. Bush’s original choice for Secretary of Labor and a former union official, is one of the foremost authorities on America’s labor unions. Now, in the explosive new book Betrayal, she and fellow union expert Daniel Gray expose the corrupt bargain between the labor movement and the Democratic Party.

Committed to a far-left political agenda—and to enhancing their own power—union bosses funnel at least half a billion dollars into Democratic coffers every year. And they do it, illegally, by using dues money that workers are forced to pay as a condition of their employment—dues money that each year brings the unions $17 billion, all of it tax-free.

What do labor bosses get in return? The power to call the shots in Democratic campaigns and on party policy, extraordinary influence at all levels of government, billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal grants, and special legal privileges that leave them free to act as they please, no matter the consequences for the American people. The cycle of corruption is seemingly endless.

Chavez and Gray name names, exposing the many politicians who are in Big Labor’s pocket—including the leading lights of the Democratic Party. Betrayal also reveals:

• Big Labor’s all-out efforts in the 2004 election, including how just one local union has launched a $35-million campaign to unseat President Bush

• How corrupt union officials use members’ hard-earned money to fund lavish lifestyles—and how their Democratic supporters let them get away with it

• How unions flout the law by failing to report any of their political spending to the IRS

• How a government report uncovered the Democrats’ sellout to Big Labor—but how the unions and the Democrats sued to keep the report from going public

• How the U.S. government lets unions practice legalized terrorism against American citizens

• How public-employee unions extort concessions from the government and put Americans at risk by refusing to provide vital services like policing and firefighting

• How Americans now live under a system of legal apartheid—one set of rules for labor bosses, another for the rest of us

All of us foot the bill for this corrupt system. Now it’s up to us to do something about it.
Reviews
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Anonymous

1) Expecting Linda Chavez to be an impartial judge of Labor in the United States takes a strong sense of naivete or willful blindness. She's virulently anti union, despite her long association with the American Federation of Teachers. The facts of American jurisprudence don't support Chavez' points: employers hold far more power over workers than the reverse or employee unions have. Employees may be fired without cause or for reasons other than poor job performance while employers don't face such risks. The power balance is unequal, and unions are the best proven method for maintaining a balance of power. Chavez is wrong that public employees' strikes put Americans at risk. Since 1981, when Reagan fired the ATCs, public safety employees have been barred from striking. Since she worked on that legislation, the conclusion to be drawn is left as an exercise to the student of truthiness.

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Anonymous

I learned a few things from this book. I always wondered why the police never arrested union guys when they were committing violent crimes against replacement workers and companies that did not honor the union pickett line. Now, I know that because FDR stacked the Supreme Court with progressives back in the 30’s that the unions were essentially placed “above the law” by two separate SCOTUS rulings from the FDR court. I did not know that. I also learned that union corruption and union ties with the Democratic Party were worse than I thought. One wonders if any democrat could win an election anywhere, if all workers in the US lived in "right to work" states, instead of being forced in many states to join a union and pay dues that are primarily used to fund campaigns for democrats. One also wonders how much more efficient government at all levels would be, if government employees were free to leave the unions as well.

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Paul Harbison

This is an excellent book explaining how the Democractic Party needs to mandatory dues of the National Education Association (NEA) and other labor unions in order to have some form of funding. 11 states require teachers to contribute to the NEA or the Teachers Association in order to work as a teacher. I would recommend all voters to listen to this audio tape and you will understand the corruption that goes on in the Unions and the Democratic Party.

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Anonymous

This was nothing more than a partisan republican bashing of the Clinton White House in particular Hillary Clinton. I was geared up to hear about the corruption on both sides. Instead what I got was what seemed to be a party campaign attack. This is something I could have easily gotten off of the Fox news channel.

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Mitch Goodrich

Good information, but the author tends to make the same points over and over. Considering the magnitude of the scandal she's exposing, maybe overkill isn't such a bad thing, though.

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