Did ACORN get too big for its own good? (NLRB case accusing ACORN of unfair labor practices)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inR1M_vhtS2lkl_cEpH5gTRVtPXwD9AQQHT03

By SHARON THEIMER and PETE YOST (AP) – Sep 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — Activist group ACORN started in 1970 to help poor people in Arkansas and by decade's end went national, expanding into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate with a mission so far-flung that schools now bear its name, two radio stations are affiliates and a man its political arm endorsed is the president. Oh yeah — and it's the unwilling star of a hot Internet video featuring a couple dressed as a hooker and her pimp.

And that last bit is just one of its problems.

The organization praised for its Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and treated by federal, state and local governments as a valuable public resource has had nearly $1 million embezzled from it by its founder's brother. The openly Democratic-leaning group has seen its employees accused of voter registration fraud, and taking it down has become a cause celebre for Republican lawmakers, activists and pundits.

As if volunteers allegedly signing up cartoon character Mickey Mouse to vote didn't give ACORN enough bad publicity, the public is enthralled with new videos distributed on the Internet and aired on television news shows showing ACORN employees in Brooklyn, N.Y., advising a couple posing as a hooker and pimp to lie to get housing aid, and employees in other cities counseling the pair on tax, banking and immigration issues.

Many Democrats used to advertise their ACORN connections. Now, however, the Democratic-led Senate has voted to cut off its grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Democrat-dominated House doesn't want it to get any federal money, period.

Snip: According to an NLRB case accusing ACORN of unfair labor practices, "field organizers were expected to work long hours each week — 54 hours — and were paid at a salary of $16,000 annually until January 2001, when the salary was raised to $18,000."

The NLRB documented a high turnover rate for ACORN employees: In 2000, far less than 10 percent of Dallas office employees stayed in the job for six months, and "most did not even complete their training period, but quit within a few days or weeks of being hired," according to the NLRB.

During the Clinton administration, the Labor Department accused ACORN arm Citizens Consulting Inc. of failing to pay workers overtime.

FULL story at link.