Posts tagged Arabella Advisors
AFT’s Weingarten speaks at launch event of new progressive group
June 27, 2023 // Both AFT and the National Education Association (NEA) were listed as key partners on UFD’s website, along with SEIU, League of Conservation Voters, and the Center for Popular Democracy. It begs the question why unions, who should be focused on serving their members, are lining up alongside clearly political organizations to support–even headline–partisan political causes. UFD’s funding sources and its official registration status are not available online. However, several of its partner groups are well-known recipients of funding from progressive, dark-money organizations such as the Sixteen Thirty Fund. The Sixteen Thirty Fund received $91 million in 2020 from another progressive group called Arabella Advisors, which pulled in $1.6 billion in funding in 2020. Arabella Advisors, through the Sixteen Thirty Fund, spent $44 million in the 2020 elections in addition to funding progressive news network States Newsroom. AFFT previously reported that Arabella Advisors also funded a unionization effort in Congress through the work of an organization called Demand Progress Education Fund.
Progressive group pressures congressional office on staff unionization rule
March 21, 2023 // “Capitol Hill staffers’ unionization attempts are not about worker’s rights but building political power and political capital,” said Brigette Herbst, AFFT organizing director, “Unions today are a far cry from unions in the past because they care more about organizing ‘elite’ employees, such as university graduate students or Capitol Hill staffers, than taking care of blue-collar basic concerns. It’s just a new money grab from worker paychecks for union bosses to siphon to politicians.” “As with all public employees, when Capitol Hill staffers unionize, then they will directly negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the politicians that they work for and help elect,” she added, “how is this not a conflict-of-interest and a breach of public trust?”