Posts tagged government unions
Op-ed: Why is Government Empowering Public Sector Unions?
February 26, 2026 // Government empowers unions, and unions use that power to protect themselves. Forget any potential harm to taxpayers. The irony here is that union members are also taxpayers. So, in effect, unions are hurting their own members. But union leadership doesn’t think about that. Leadership is more interested in keeping their power and clout.
Op-ed: Public employee unions facing final showdown
January 5, 2026 // Some have even been caught locking employees in rooms until they sign membership cards, as plaintiffs in one California lawsuit allege. When you’re spending 86 percent of your dues revenue on political causes that only a fraction of your members support, transparency becomes a threat. The $47.5 million workers are keeping this year represents more than a financial loss for unions. It means a loss of power to expand the size government, raise taxes, resist accountability and fund progressive causes and politicians
Op-ed: Government unions put politics before workers
January 3, 2026 // Unions can sidestep PAC contribution limits and disclosure rules by setting up 527 organizations or super PACs. They can avoid accountability by transferring funds through multiple intermediaries, thereby obscuring the source and any direct association with the union. The result is a shell game that gives the illusion of independent political action. Despite member-facing claims that dues cannot be used for politics, Department of Labor filings and Federal Election Commission reports tell a different story. Union executives frequently use workers’ dues to further political agendas. Often, the money funds a litany of leftist causes, including abortion, “defund the police” advocacy and opposing school choice and, in cases like Mr. Spiller’s, quixotic Democratic campaigns. (About 99% of union-funded candidates are Democrats.)
Report: Government unions spent $915 million on politics in 2024
December 17, 2025 // The Commonwealth Foundation’s most recent report found the top four public sector unions: the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees spent over $915 million on politics during the 2023-2024 cycle. The unions spent $755 million on federal elections and policies while their state affiliates spent $160 million on state races and policies.
Editorial Board: America’s veterans deserve better care than government unions provide
December 8, 2025 // The smarter approach would be for Congress to affirm Trump’s decision to strip collective bargaining rights while dispensing with his flimsy national security justification. Consider the legacy of pro-union President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who opposed collective bargaining and strikes for federal employees. As Roosevelt and other pro-union leaders understood in the 1930s, collective bargaining is carried out against an employer. The government’s employer is the public. Allowing unelected labor union bosses to negotiate against the public’s elected representatives to determine how the government gets run is undemocratic.
David Osborne: Unions spend big on politics — often at the expense of their members
November 17, 2025 // NJEA funneled general funds through Garden State Forward, Working New Jersey, and Protecting Our Democracy—all election-focused organizations that not only backed Spiller but also were headed by the NJEA president. These questionable activities landed NJEA in court with a lawsuit alleging that the union misled its members, including Dupont, who is a lead plaintiff.
Commentary: When fighting Trump, take union claims with a grain of salt
October 7, 2025 // Government unions faced another momentous reform seven years ago when the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME. The court held that public sector workers have a First Amendment right to completely withdraw from union membership and dues. In essence, the court created a nationwide right-to-work law for all public sector workers, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, and all other federal, state, and local government workers. No longer would they have to join or pay a union to keep their job. Government unions hated this ruling, of course. In a desperate attempt to sway the Supreme Court, union-paid prognosticators predicted massive negative economic effects if the court ruled against unions.
Connecticut Union Raises. Incompetence or Worse?
August 25, 2025 // By telegraphing guaranteed raises, Lamont places unions on offense, emboldened to demand wage and benefit enhancements, rather than defending existing gains. As negotiation expert Chester Karrass once said, “You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate.” Revealing your playbook isn’t negotiation — it’s surrender. State unions, representing 45,000 employees, already secured a staggering 33% in raises and step increases under the 2017 SEBAC agreement, far outpacing the wage growth of the private-sector workers whose taxes pay their salaries. These contracts, negotiated in the name of taxpayers, are meant to balance fairness to employees with fiscal responsibility. Yet, taxpayers are left out, footing the bill for what resembles a feast.
Op-ed: It’s Time to End Government Unions’ Post-Janus Coercion
July 8, 2025 // These include, but aren’t limited to: acknowledging the workers’ right to opt out of union membership and dues, but refusing to honor their request to do so except during an arbitrary, union-determined two-week “opt-out window” of which the worker is unaware; inviting union operatives to make high-pressure, often-deceptive recruiting pitches to all newly hired public employees while denying the same privilege to organizations anxious to offer the workers an alternative point of view; refusing to open mail suspected to contain member opt-out requests; passing laws and filing lawsuits intended to prevent disclosure of government employees’ contact information — which is clearly a matter of public record — solely to keep organizations such as the Freedom Foundation from informing workers about their constitutional right to decline union participation; arguing that Janus provides no protections for union members, not even a constitutionally protected right to resign from the union; and, when all else fails, simply forging an employee’s name on a dues-authorization form.
Illinois General Assembly passes 3 bills boosting government union power
June 24, 2025 // Illinois law already requires school districts to provide their local unions the personal information of all teachers and other education employees represented by those unions. That includes the employee’s name, worksite location, home address, home telephone number, mobile numbers and personal email address. Currently, that information must be turned over to the local union, even if the employee is not a union member. HB 3309 takes it farther.