Posts tagged campaign contributions
Michigan’s Repeal of Right-to-Work Law Helps Democrats, Not Workers | Opinion
April 5, 2023 // More importantly, preventing right-to-work protections ensures a steady flow of funds into the coffers of a union movement that has been bleeding members for decades. That's been true, even in Michigan, where the UAW—the auto workers' union that has now expanded to other industries—formed the activist heart of the movement, providing organizers, foot soldiers, and a bottomless well of campaign contributions for the Democratic Party. But after a sweeping victory in last year's midterm elections, Democrats found themselves back in control of both houses of the state legislature as well as the governor's office, where Gretchen Whitmer survived the blowback from her heavy-handed COVID regulations to win reelection. Among the first items on Michigan Democrats' agenda was to reward their loyal union supporters by repealing the state's right-to-work law. Helping ensure the cash flow to their union donors makes sense and might even be good politics in Michigan—which remains bluer than many pundits assumed during the Trump era. But the notion that repealing right-to-work laws is the path to bringing working-class voters back to the Democrats is a mistake.
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.