Posts tagged Politics
Commentary: Two huge California unions clash over money, political clout this election season
June 12, 2026 // This year’s race for governor is one arena for that rivalry. Service Employees International Union, the parent of SEIU-UHW, is backing former Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the leading Democrat. The CTA has supported billionaire Tom Steyer, who has repeatedly pledged to pursue one of the teachers’ holy grails, removing Prop. 13’s property tax limits on commercial property, which would generate more money for schools. The two unions also are at odds over details in the state budget, such as financing preschool programs. The state Senate’s version of the budget would shift preschool support into the Prop. 98 segment of the budget, thus freeing up money that could go to health care. CTA sees that as a raid on school funds.
‘Blue Power’ and the Rise of Police Union Politics
April 18, 2026 // "Everybody else can indulge in politics—every black group, every political party group, every church group," groused Carl Parsell, then president of the Detroit Police Officers Association, in 1969. "Why are police officers so different?" The question goes to the heart of Stuart Schrader's Blue Power, a new book charting how police unions accreted and cemented power in the decades following Parsell's query. It's a ripe subject for review: Police officers' savvy use of public sector unions and lobbying to largely immunize themselves from oversight is one of the greatest political coups in recent American history. In under four decades, police unions evolved from beer-drinking clubs to organized bargaining units to potent political forces at the local, state, and national levels.
Op-ed: Labor ‘Wins When They Run Union Members For Office’
March 30, 2026 // Today, less than 10% of the Nation’s voters are in a Union - down from more than 30% in the 1960s when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saw the writing on the wall and decried “Right-To-Work” as a false slogan meant to eviscerate Labor Unions. And yet right now, the percentage of candidates we’re trying to send to Congress who also happen to be Union Members is nowhere close to 10%. The CWCP took the trouble to identify all Congressional Candidates between 2010 and 2022 and found that just 5% have been Union Members.
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.)
Union support for immigration protests proves workers need freedom
December 4, 2025 // Yet while union leaders are fighting the president, union members are divided. More than 40% voted for Mr. Trump in November, and union members are increasingly a key part of Republican and Democratic coalitions. Yet even in cases where workers lean to the right, unions use their dues to fund liberal causes that have little to do with their members’ interests, including nationwide protests. Unions have heavily spent their members’ money to bus workers to protests, buy anti-Trump placards and foment disruption on city streets. Even when unions have organized press conferences to denounce the arrest of the SEIU California president, it cost money they took from their members, many of whom support Mr. Trump and his immigration crackdown
The Absurdity of the Nation’s Largest Teachers’ Union
December 3, 2025 // Membership training for the National Education Association (NEA), America’s largest teachers’ union, makes the organization’s priorities unmistakably clear. Defending Education, a watchdog group, recently obtained pre-attendance and participant materials for the NEA’s training session, “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice,” which begins today. The documents, considered alongside other union programming, reveal the NEA’s fixation on identity politics.
Unions spend big on politics — often at the expense of their members
December 2, 2025 // “When I signed my union membership card, I did not check the back saying I wanted to contribute to the union political action committee,” writes Marie Dupont, a teacher and NJEA member, in The Wall Street Journal. “That was a contract stating my dues wouldn’t go to the union political apparatus, but a handful of insiders ignored that choice and broke that trust.” 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.
Congress Can Empower Workers Through Choice—Not Coercion
November 24, 2025 // A case in point is the legislative package that Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced on Nov. 10, joined by others including Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C). They’d protect workers’ paychecks by requiring unions to get approval before spending dues money on politics. They’d also protect workers’ privacy by letting them choose what contact information unions get during the organizing process. And they’d protect workplace democracy by requiring that at least two-thirds of workers participate in union elections — preventing a minority of people from determining the fate of every employee. Another praiseworthy reform is the Employee Rights Act, which Scott introduced in the shutdown’s early days after Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) previously introduced it in the House. Among its many good ideas, the Employee Rights Act guarantees the secret ballot and protects workers from intimidation and harassment. It also gives unionized workers in the 26 right-to-work states the freedom to negotiate their own contract with their employer, so they can better address their individual needs. And the Employee Rights Act guarantees that self-employed workers have maximum flexibility to design their jobs to fit their lives.
UAW President Shawn Fain: “We Need More Than A Party – We Need A Movement”
October 14, 2025 // Fain, Speaking At A Center For Working-Class Politics & Jacobin Event, ‘Emphasized The Need For A Political Program That Addresses Workers’ Most Basic’ Issues - And ‘How A Broad Strike In 2028 Could Put Them Front & Center’
Two years after the UAW strike
September 26, 2025 // Two years ago, tomorrow (September 26, 2023), then-President Joe Biden became the first president to participate in a striking worker picket line. The occasion was the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against General Motors. Biden addressed the UAW members outside the Willow Run parts center near Detroit, Michigan.