There's Something About Mary Johnson

As we all know, government agencies have been closely scrutinizing corporate financial documuents to help root out fiscal mismanagement on the part of its top officers. Corporate leaders should go through all government financial filings with with a fine toothed comb to make sure there's no sign of accounting irregularities or fraud occuring within the organization. Playing games with other people's money isn't something the government takes to very kindly.

And so we're quite shocked by what seems to be a glaring omission on the YWCA's most recenlty available Form 990 filing with the IRS. From July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004, the YWCA organization claimed to not have spent one single dime on legal services. We'd be inclined to applaud Mary Johnson for being so frugal with the YWCA's funds. The problem is, however, that it's almost impossible to believe. You see, Mary was smack in the middle of a union busting campaign during that period and had a Springfield high-priced employment law firm, Abbot, Skolar, & Presser, advising YWCA management on how to bust our effort to bring a union to our workplace. It's cetainly not likely an anti-union law firm would do pro bono work. And it's well known amongst the YWCA workers that Mary often complained bitterly at staff meetings about the legal fees incurred, as a result of the anti-union campaign, totaling in excess of $100,000.

So how exactly is it that Mary claimed none of YWCA's money was spent on legal fees that year? If there's a valid explanation, we'll never know because Mary refuses to speak with us. But we like to think that maybe, just maybe, Mary is a little ashamed of her union busting ways. Maybe she really does understand that unions are about justice, empowerment, and equality---principles that she claims to espouse and embrace. And maybe she knows she would suffer some public embarrassment if it was determined that a good chunk of the YWCA's charitable donations and state funding went towards making her workplace less fair and her workers weaker.

Yes, maybe Mary has a conscience after all.