Posts tagged campaign contributions
A new try for unionization of legislative staff
December 14, 2022 // It’s fair to say that Democrats would not have attained their immense majorities in the California Legislature – more than 75% of its 120 members – were it not for money and other resources from the state’s labor unions. In return, Democratic legislators have bent over backwards to help unions increase their memberships and expand members’ wages and benefits. Notable examples are the famous – or infamous – Assembly Bill 5, which tightly restricted employers’ use of contract workers, this year’s bill to make it easier for the United Farm Workers Union to win representation elections, legislation making child care and home health care workers employees so that they could become union members, and innumerable measures essentially mandating union labor in public and private construction projects. Assembly Bill 1
California teachers union spends over $2.8 million on school board elections
November 13, 2022 // This year, unions backed multiple ballot propositions on topics such as the “Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond” in New York or Colorado’s Proposition FF to raise taxes to fund a school meal program. The trend of union involvement in politics is nothing new. Unions bankrolled over $1.8 billion in political lobbying and political activities in the 2020 election cycle, $1.4 billion of which came from union dues. AFFT offers detailed breakdowns of union spending on our website.
Watching Democrats debate unionization of legislative staff is a popcorn-worthy spectacle
February 25, 2022 // One guaranteed beneficiary would be IUPAT District Council 5, a stridently partisan union looking to organize legislative staff. In addition to representing Democratic Party employees, nearly all 143 candidates the union endorsed in 2020 were Democrats. Using members’ dues, the union and its national affiliate have spent $700,000 influencing Washington elections.