Two Corporate Leaders Face Federal Indictments … and the Phony Meme on Union Corruption

You don’t want to be Barbara Bennett-Byrd right now. Or ever. She worked as an executive for SUPES, a highly touted private-sector educational consulting firm. When she was hired to be the CEO of the Chicago Board of Education, she received secret promises of $2.3 million in kickback money from her SUPES bosses. To get the money, she steered a $20 million no-bid consulting contract to her former employer. SUPES, by the way, has an all-star board of trustees that included Bruce Rauner at the time that SUPES won the grant. Bennett-Byrd pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges this week. She will do a lot of talking to U.S. attorneys in the comings weeks and months. You also don’t want to be Don Blanckenship. He’s the former CEO of a large coal mining company, Massey. He is on trial for violating safety rules that led to an explosion that killed 29 miners in West Virginia. He’s the same CEO who bought—that is, contributed to— a state supreme court justice for $5 million. That justice cast the deciding vote in a civil lawsuit that originally led to a $50 million judgment against him. He made a ten-fold return on that investment; but now, tape recordings of his meetings with company safety managers show that he ordered officials to bypass safety procedures. He faces 31 years. What makes these two stories so interesting is the unions who dealt with these CEOs—the Chicago Teachers Union, and United Mine Workers—are frequently portrayed by Gov. Rauner and Blanckenship as corrupt. The facts show otherwise. See here.