Posts tagged ethics
This union cut a check to a business watchdog. Weeks later, they were doing its bidding
August 10, 2025 // Between March 2024 and February 2025, the Office and Professional Employees International Union paid out $144,000 to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, also known as Financial Services Stakeholder Action, public records show. After the initial payment landed, PESP began writing blog posts, publishing reports, and hosting events targeting Sorenson Communications and ZP Better Together, both of which are owned by private equity firms, arguing that their workers should unionize through OPEIU. Expand article logo Continue reading Nowhere in the materials published by PESP, however, does the organization disclose that it was paid well over six figures for an “organizing program” by the OPEIU, opening the door to ethics concerns.
Complaints allege Idaho school districts’ collection of union dues violates state law
March 23, 2025 // According to Freedom Foundation research, Idaho school districts collected at least $4.4 million in union dues from the paychecks of about 5,000 teachers’ paychecks in 2023 alone. The funds are divided among the district affiliate, the statewide IEA, and the Washington, D.C.-based NEA, which received about $1.1 million of the dues collected that year. Using government records, the complaints document how the NEA spends tens of millions of dollars on political activity and lobbying each year, including $1.8 million spent on Idaho since 2018 including, most recently, a $20,000 contribution to Idaho Students First, a political committee focused on backing the union’s preferred state legislative candidates in the 6th District in the 2024 general election. Bonneville, Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Falls, Kuna, Lake Pend Oreille, Marsing, Middleton, Mullan, New Plymouth, Post Falls, Shelley
Former teachers union official accused of violating ethics pledge
December 12, 2022 // The Biden Administration Ethics Pledge specifically bans political appointees from communicating with their former employer in official communications, such as emails, but Harris-Aikens “was in regular contact with officials at the NEA from virtually her first moment at the Department.” Protect the Public’s Trust discovered this information from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which uncovered direct, official communications between Harris-Aikens, the NEA, and American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
New California Law Forces Taxpayers to Pay for Union Members’ Dues
October 17, 2022 // On its surface, the law, Assembly Bill 185, provides $400 million of taxpayers’ money to a select group of people who purchase a private, optional service. (The so-called tax credit is refundable, or available to people who do not pay state income taxes, which makes it a payment instead of tax credit.) The stated intent “is to help individuals with the cost of being a member of a union.” But California lawmakers haven’t passed or proposed bills providing hundreds of millions of dollars to help individuals with the cost of becoming members of AAA or their local gym or farm bureau. So, why the special handouts for labor unions alone?