The Great Union Breakup: Getting Dirty Money out of Politics
It appears that soon I will be forced into the Communist Party of Champaign an NEA labor union. Sure, this only applies to visiting academic professionals, not permanent ones, but this arrangement isn’t going to last long. Out of 350 people eligible to vote, 62 voted yes, 41 voted no, and about 250 people didn’t vote. This groundswell has apparently justified the raiding of paychecks to send the Democratic campaigns everywhere.
The only comfort about this prospect (besides the fact that I look stunning in a Soviet military uniform which I will don once forced into this union) is that the AFL-CIO is cracking up. While pundits insist that the union breakup won’t hurt the DNC, one of the key issues that has sent three of the biggest unions out was over political campaigning. The Change to Win Coalition says it’s time for the AFL-CIO to start focusing on member issues instead of on politicians. The coalition seems to be giving way to the fact that about 1/3rd of member households are Republican and are getting tired of there money going to Democrats. Of course this is going to hurt Democrats.
The purpose of a labor union is not political campaigning, it is to represent workers needs to their employers. You want to change politics, join a PAC. As an example, the NEA at their recent annual meeting came up with a list of action items. Almost none of the 90+ items had anything to do with education (the E in NEA). More items had to do with Social Security, a program that none or almost none of the members of the NEA are eligible for because they are in pensions systems and exempt from Social Security contributions, than with education. The NEA is less of an organization having to do with education than a political action committee supporting the DNC.
Hopefully, the AFL-CIO crackup will lead unions to realize that if they want to attract new members they need to be organizations that deal with workplace issues and employers alone. If people wanted to join MoveOn, they would. The rest of us don’t take kindly to having our money taken away out of our control supporting policies we find abhorrent (the last story down about a lawsuit being allowed to procede against a union for forcing a member to financially support abortion groups against their conscience) with union bosses skimming off the top. Either represent us in collective bargaining, or stop wasting our time and money. Breaking up the behemoth of corrupt national unions is a good first step to getting big money out of politics.
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