Posts tagged pension funds
Michael Watson: Big ESG’s Big Partner: Big Labor
April 20, 2025 // Unions’ principal interest in the ESG activism movement is on the “S” or “social” prong of the acronym. Both unions themselves, like the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and critics of unions, like the Institute for the American Worker, will argue that Big Labor views ESG as a category for advancing union organizing and other core union priorities. Proxy Preview shows unions and union-aligned groups (like city and state pension funds and the largely union-owned and union-controlled Amalgamated Bank) pushing shareholder resolutions demanding that companies “adopt a noninterference policy respecting freedom of association” or “respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining”—euphemisms for neutrality in union organizing. Under a neutrality agreement, the employer agrees not to present its views on the potential consequences of union organizing to employees, and it may agree not to confirm union majority support by a government-supervised secret-ballot election, instead using public union-card signatures (known as “card check”).
The Teamsters’ Trojan Horse
April 16, 2025 // Hawley may believe that Sean O’Brien and his Teamsters Union speak for a new faction of a political coalition he hopes to one day lead. But in an era when fewer than 6 percent of private-industry workers are unionized, O’Brien does not. For that reason, organized labor comfortably lives in the house of the political left — no matter what rhetorical blandishments union bosses like O’Brien contribute in Republican Party meetings, no matter what chump change union PACs give Republicans like Hawley who abandon the party’s traditional labor policies, and no matter what union members like the majority-pro-Trump Teamsters might want their dues to do.
Act 10, Scourge of Wisconsin Teachers, Faces Uncertain Future in Court
March 4, 2025 // According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proportion of union members in Wisconsin’s workforce fell by nearly half, from 14.2% to 7.4%, between 2010 and 2023 (since that figure includes workers from all sectors, the drop for government employees is likely much steeper). A report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a right-leaning think tank, showed that the total number of unions holding annual recertification votes across the state declined from 540 in 2014 to 369 in 2018. The largest teachers’ union in the state, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, experienced a dizzying loss of manpower and organizing heft. A 2019 study conducted by a pair of researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that WEAC was forced to restructure and cut its staffing by about two-thirds. The retrenchment was made necessary by a freefall in the collection of dues, the payment of which was made voluntary by Act 10. The loss of paid organizers could be offset, in part, by the efforts of teacher volunteers. But the union had no ready replacement for the millions of dollars in government relations funds that had suddenly evaporated; WEAC went from being one of the biggest lobbying forces in Madison to a second-tier player virtually overnight.
How the Mafia Infiltrated American Labor Unions
August 12, 2024 // While law enforcement agencies continue to monitor Mafia infiltration of labor unions, labor racketeering has become less prevalent than it was decades ago. In part, that’s because union membership plummeted after the McClellan Committee exposed the extent of labor racketeering. At its zenith in the mid-1950s, union membership comprised one-third of the labor force, but now union members only represent approximately 10 percent of American workers.
Has Pushback to Full of ‘S’ Labor Unions Finally Arrived?
June 10, 2024 // Written by I4AW’s Sam Adolphsen and F. Vincent Vernuccio, the study warns that the initial “Environmental” focus of ESG is being supplanted by labor leaders, who are focusing on the leftist acronym’s “social” component in order to intimidate companies and force membership growth: With help from the whole of Biden’s big government, Big Labor is replicating the ESG strategies used by environmentalists and other activists. These groups aim to cajole fossil fuel-producing companies and other businesses they consider socially unacceptable into abandoning profitable business ventures. The tactics of the Big Labor plan call for hijacking the shareholder resolution process through proxy voting and shareholder activism to force pro-union policies. Unlike typical shareholder proposals, those supported by Big Labor do not seek to advance shareholder value. Instead, they seek to increase union membership and strengthen Big Labor’s power.
Fran Drescher Says George Clooney, Et. Al Proposal To Lift SAG-AFTRA Dues Cap Wouldn’t Be Legal
October 20, 2023 // Drescher outlined why the proposal wouldn’t work. “We are a federally regulated labor union and the only contributions that can go into our pension and health funds must be from the employer. So what we are fighting for in terms of benefits has to remain in this contract.”
Who’s on strike and who’s close? Labor unions are flexing
August 8, 2023 // Recent decades suggest there won’t be a strike at more than one at once. UAW (United Auto Workers) typically picks one “target” at which to focus negotiations and possibly strike and then demand that the other two unionized automakers agree to the same “pattern” deal. That one really has the chance to hurt the Democrats since the union is very upset about the auto industry plans to shift to EVs (electric vehicles). They see EVs as a jobs killer because of so many fewer parts – it takes about one-third fewer jobs to build an EV than an internal combustion engine (ICE) car. And many of the EV jobs are at battery plants being built nationwide right now, but which are joint ventures between the automakers and foreign battery companies, and thus not guaranteed to be unionized. Even if those battery plants end up with a union, it’s not clear the joint venture will agree to UAW-level wages. The one UAW-represented plant in Ohio pays roughly half of what workers are paid at an engine or transmission plant owned by one of the Big Three (US automakers) and represented by the UAW.
ESG Is a Front for Labor
July 24, 2023 // House Republicans have declared July “ESG month,” planning hearings and bills to push back against politicized environmental, social, and governance investing. Yet so far, lawmakers have almost exclusively focused on environmental issues. Republicans should also pay attention to the “S” in ESG, which labor unions are using to advance their agenda at the expense of workers, their own members, and even taxpayers — a problem that President Biden has significantly worsened. The 2023 proxy season, which started in January and ended in June, shows the union campaign in action. Union funds and their allies, such as the New York City Employees’ Retirement System and like-minded investment managers, introduced many ESG-focused shareholder proposals designed to accelerate unionization. Consider Apple, which was targeted by five New York City pension funds, multiple investment managers, and the SEIU Master Trust Pension Plan, among others.
Judge sentences former Illinois state lawmaker Thomas Cullerton to a year in prison for embezzlement
June 22, 2022 // Prosecutors said that within weeks of being sworn in as a state senator, Cullerton was added to the payroll of the Teamsters union as an organizer. As a union organizer, Cullerton was expected to work 40 hours a week to attract new members, support union picket lines and attend union events. During his three years with the union, Cullerton collected $248,828 in payments and benefits. "Indeed, he was a ghost payroller who invariably did little to nothing over this three-year period," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. "The defendant’s immediate supervisors tried to get Cullerton to work, but he was, in the words of one supervisor, 'never available.' ... So rare was the defendant present for work that the union did not even bother to keep track of his use of vacation time – because he was effectively on a permanent vacation." Brett Rowland, Judge Robert Gettleman, John Lausch Jr., Amarjeet Bhachu, Erika Csicsila,
Ousted carpenters chief decries ‘hostile takeover’ of St. Louis union
May 12, 2022 // In September, Bond’s position was eliminated and the St. Louis council was terminated with little explanation. UBC President Doug McCarron later said the national union was investigating “financial malfeasance” in the St. Louis-Kansas City Carpenters Regional Council, and union officials said they planned formal, internal charges against Bond for “defrauding” the union.