Are you ready for another one of Elaine’s shady appointees? Meet Mark Knouse, husband of Elaine’s executive assistant, Pennsylvania lobbyist and former head of the NAFTA-related Commission for Labor Cooperation (CLC). The tri-national CLC is supposed to research and uphold labor law and labor standards in North America.

But according to a recent report from the Labor Department’s Inspector General, Knouse improperly used CLC funds…to the tune of nearly $10,000 in travel expenditures and about $1 million in shady contracts and vendor payments.

While he was head of the CLC, Knouse maintained a private lobbying business, despite CLC rules to the contrary. In 2006, it surfaced that Knouse used taxpayer money from three countries to fund his own private lobbying efforts. Knouse was asked to resign, but because the CLC is an international body, Knouse has diplomatic immunity for his actions while in office.

Guess who has authority to waive immunity? That’s right: Elaine and her CLC buddies. Despite the Inspector General’s request that immunity be waived, Elaine and CLC has done nothing.

Last week, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Elaine, asking her to waive immunity. If she doesn’t, Mark Knouse will be another one of many unqualified cronies Elaine has allowed to wreak havoc on America’s workers with taxpayer dollars.

This just in: DC Labor reports that even Elaine Chao’s cafeteria workers are struggling for their fair share from Chao’s Department of Labor (from DCLabor.org newsletter, no permanent link yet):

…Department of Labor (DOL) cafeteria workers - who have been working without a contract for over a year - are fighting employer demands for major concessions. FAME - the contractor who took over DOL cafeteria services in 2007 - has demanded workers agree to a 412% increase in their healthcare contributions, lower wages rates and wage freezes, reports the workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 25

Ouch. Metro Washington Labor Council President Jos Williams called Elaine out on Wednesday. Williams spoke at the DOL before a screening of “Mother Jones,” a documentary about the legendary labor activist Mary Harris “Mother” Jones:

Metro Council President Jos Williams noted that Mother Jones was called “the most dangerous woman in America” because of her battles on behalf of workers, adding that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao “is the second most dangerous woman in America, because of her actions against workers.”

More on why Elaine doesn’t want San Franciscans to have health insurance, after the jump.

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Elaine’s former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, Emily DeRocco, was responsible for handing out millions of taxpayer dollars in questionable, non-competitive grants.

So when DeRocco wrote a $500,000 check to the business-backed National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in 2004, they just had to return the favor, and offered her a lucrative position for her generosity at the beginning of this year.

Apparently Elaine’s former sidekick has done such an impressive job of enabling corporate interests at the expense of workers that she’s just been promoted as president of the Manufacturing Institute, the research, education and workforce arm of NAM.

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Elaine’s senior economist at the Labor Department, Jay Berman, yesterday advised lawmakers on Capitol Hill to amend last year’s increase in the minimum wage to exclude American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, two territories of the United States.

Though one of America Samoa’s largest employers only pays workers an average of $3.60 an hour, Elaine Chao’s Department thinks that’s adequate – and even goes as far as arguing that increasing the minimum wage “would have damaging effects on the economies of American Samoa and the Northern Marianas.”

Except Berman later testified that a lack of available information “significantly impaired the department’s efforts to measure or to project the impacts of scheduled increases.” But then he went ahead and made conclusions about “damaging effects” anyway.

Sketchy, eh? Let’s take a look at Berman’s boss, who is yet another example of Elaine and hubby Sen. Mitch McConnell’s revolving door of employees. Berman is the senior economist to Elaine’s Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Labor. And who is the Assistant Secretary? Leon R. Sequeira, who used to be Mitch McConnell’s personal legal counsel. Mitch McConnell recently voted to abolish the federal minimum wage.

It’s always a family affair at the Department of Labor these days, isn’t it?

Elaine certainly has been paying attention since we first launched this campaign exposing her numerous failures as Secretary of Labor. Elaine unleashed her official attack dog, David James, to distort the facts behind her record (locked link, reg req’d).

“These are baseless smears from a Democrat group and their attacks do not diminish the department’s achievements in setting enforcement records in protecting workers health, safety, wages and benefits,” said David James, assistant secretary, Office of Public Affairs, Department of Labor.

“Achievements in setting enforcement records?” Is James referring to:

• MSHA’s failure to impose fines on 4,000 mine safety and health violations?
• MSHA’s failure to inspect nearly 15% of the nation’s mines in 2006 alone?
• Elaine’s dismantling of ergonomics protections that ultimately led to the plight of Carolina poultry workers?
• Elaine’s unwillingness to shield workers from popcorn lung disease?

Apparently the Labor Department is so out of touch with reality that its own spokesman is perplexed and confused by the definition of “achievements.”

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Elaine’s Labor Department has given substantial favors to political allies over the years, including its aggressive assault on organized labor and its willingness to hand out noncompetitive grants to powerful business interests.

The favors have been returned, especially through two recent job announcements.

As administrator for the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, Paul DeCamp supported weakening overtime pay protections for America’s workers. A controversial nominee for the position who couldn’t even get confirmed by the Senate and had to be given the position by President Bush’s recess appointment, DeCamp’s efforts were rewarded recently when he left the Labor Department to become a partner at Jackson Lewis, a well-known unionbusting law firm.

But that’s not the only example of the Labor Department’s revolving door….

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