Unfortunately, there are a number of ways union bosses can use their members’ dues to advocate positions that members might not like or respect. The honchos at the Service Employees International Union, for example, act as the piggy bank for America’s anti-corporate set. Thanks to the Department of Labor’s continually improving ability to track union finances, the Center for Union Facts is able to provide more information about how members’ money is wasted used.

In 2006, SEIU’s national office threw all sorts of money around to anti-corporate groups. It gave:

• $3.2 million to Five Stones, which runs the Wal-Mart Watch smear machine
• $1,010,365 to 7 different ACORN organizations, including money specified for Wal-Mart campaigns (plus $21,885 paid to ACORN chief Wade Rathke in salary as a “project coordinator” and $10,064 in official disbursements)
• $125,000 to American Rights At Work, a labor front that acts as an attack dog and as an incessant source of dubious statistics in support of Big Labor’s efforts to end secret ballot elections
• $100,000 to the Economic Policy Institute (we’ve told you about them before)
• $100,000 to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
• $89,000 to Progressive Legislative Action Network (now the Progressive States Network)
• $75,000 to a partisan faux watchdog group called CREW

Other recipients of SEIU member dues money include beleaguered left-wing radio network Air America, the billionaire hangout Democracy Alliance, and the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

Oh, and then there’s the hypocrisy of paying $935,623 in fees to the Prewitt Organizing Fund, which has been accused of busting union drives by its own employees.