Category Archive: AFSCME (page 2)

• Christmas Craziness: Unwrapping a Connecticut Politician’s Conflict of Interest

  Posted on Dec 22, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team

  As 2016 comes to a close, one state legislature is grappling with a conflict of interest between a state representative and a powerful labor union. Representative Joe Aresimowicz, Connecticut’s incoming House speaker, also work as the education coordinator for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). (AFSCME pays Rep. Aresimowicz more than $95,000 a year.) Aresimowicz was hired by AFSCME almost […]

• Union Bosses Talk Wage Inequality, Rake in Six-Figure Salaries

  Posted on Jul 29, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team

  Six of America’s most powerful union bosses appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, decrying income inequality and advocating for reckless minimum-wage hikes. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka urged voters to “stand up to Wall Street” and “build a new era of shared prosperity.” Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), praised the “[fight] for […]

• Unions Squabble about New Super PAC

  Posted on May 18, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team

  Some of America’s major labor unions have decided to form a (surprise, surprise) pro-Democrat super PAC for the 2016 election. Led by the AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and National Education Association (NEA), the so-called For Our Future PAC is projected to raise about $50 million to boost the […]

• Despite Government Efforts, Union Density Slips Further

  Posted on Jan 28, 2015 by LaborPains.org Team

  In December, a reporter for Politico proposed that a series of Obama Administration actions were proof of “Labor’s big comeback.” We were skeptical, to say the least: Year after year of reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that an ever-shrinking percent of employees bother to actually join unions. Now we can add […]

• Hypocritical “Union Shop” Flails in Defense of Union Funding

  Posted on Jan 26, 2015 by LaborPains.org Team

  We recently questioned the timing of the Center for Media and Democracy’s decision to allow itself to directly take funding from unions. A reporter with Watchdog.org contacted CMD head Lisa Graves for comment, and received a curious reply. We’ll let Watchdog explain: Graves called the undisclosed union donations “a small percent of its overall funding.” […]

• Anti-Walker Group Changed No-Union-Funds Rule Just After 2010 Elections

  Posted on Jan 19, 2015 by LaborPains.org Team

  The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a left-wing organization that is a critical cog in the Wisconsin liberal-progressive infrastructure network. The group has taken significant funding from major labor unions in recent years—in 2013, $118,000 in identifiable union expenditures to CMD amounted to 13.6% of the organization’s contribution and grant revenue. Prior to […]

• AFSCME Spins Membership Declines

  Posted on Nov 14, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team

  In 2012, Michigan became the 24th state to pass a right-to-work law. Unions were outraged, but had little to complain about: Michiganders had just rejected a union proposal to rewrite the state’s labor laws to unions’ benefit (and prohibit right-to-work measures) despite over $23 million that was spent to pass it. For good measure, Michigan […]

• For Big Labor, Is Politics More Important than College?

  Posted on Jul 14, 2014 by LaborPains.org Team

  Among the adversaries of labor unions’ politics and power plays, few inspire quite as much hatred from union bosses as libertarian businessmen-philanthropists Charles and David Koch. Unions have fought desperately against the Kochs’ efforts to fund pro-business candidates and causes, even when it traps them in hypocrisy when they buddy up with left-wing financiers (see: […]