Posted on Mar 07, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team
Labor unions overwhelming support Democrats and closely aligned left-wing causes—it’s been a fact of life for decades. But the extent of it is downright startling: From 2012 to 2014, Big Labor sent nearly $420 million to hundreds of special interests, think tanks, party committees, pro-labor organizations, and political candidates closely aligned with the Democratic Party. Recipients included […]
Posted on Feb 17, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team
One pressing issue in the Democratic presidential primary is campaign finance and its impact on policy, with Senator Bernie Sanders pressing his rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on her record taking money from various business groups. This caused one Clinton surrogate, former Democratic National Committee chair and Vermont Governor Howard Dean, to speak […]
Posted on Feb 08, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team
Washington State campaign finance laws are very rigorous in their reporting requirements, and last week, Service Employees International Union Local 775NW (SEIU 775) found out the hard way. The state attorney general (a Democrat, incidentally) had sued SEIU 775 for improper reporting of transfers between the union and its political action committee (SEIU 775 PAC), and […]
Posted on Feb 02, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team
An interesting item crossed the wires: Politico reports that the Teamsters Union’s court-appointed Independent Review Board (IRB) filed a subpoena for some Uber transportation account records. Court records show that the IRB believes that a Teamsters headquarters employee (who makes six figures in total compensation, according to DOL filings) was using the union’s credit card […]
Posted on Jan 26, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team
Why spend money on collective bargaining when you can buy movie tickets and luxury handbags? For Big Labor, it’s a valid question. Union bosses spent millions of dollars in member dues on activities completely unrelated to collective bargaining in 2015. The National Review reports: On 2015 filings, six private-sector unions together reported that they had spent nearly $347,000 at […]
Posted on Jan 12, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team
As we noted last week, Big Labor is already preparing for a possible big blow in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a Supreme Court case that could allow millions of public-sector employees to opt out of mandatory union dues. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is no exception. Appearing on David Axelrod’s radio show last week, Mary Kay Henry, president […]
Posted on Jan 05, 2016 by LaborPains.org Team
Teachers unions are ringing in the New Year with a lot of politics—and a little lawbreaking on the side. They’re doing it by funding a Colorado-based nonprofit group called Jeffco United, which claims to support education reform on behalf of school-age children. Jeffco United has received more than $265,000 in total from national and local teachers unions since its inception in […]
Posted on Nov 13, 2015 by LaborPains.org Team
Union political spending is widely discussed but poorly understood. Much is made of the millions of dollars in contributions that union PACs make, of which roughly 90 percent go to Democrats while roughly 40 percent of union families support Republicans. Unions argue that this isn’t an issue because those contributions are opt-in. However, unions also have […]
