Donald Trump’s candidacy may expose a major divide between union members and their leadership.
According to unionfacts.com, “Every day, millions of union members have money taken from their paychecks to support some union presidents’ political agenda… the National Institute for Labor Relations Research estimated that total union political expenditures reached $925 million in the 2004 cycle. Over time, this has added up: According to The Center for Responsive Politics, eight of the top ten all-time political contributors are labor unions. Labor leaders have made the use of employee money for political causes a popular practice — but it’s far less popular among the public and the members themselves…. A 1999 Zogby poll found a majority of union members—nearly 55 percent—thought people should be given a choice of investing their Social Security taxes in some form of personal retirement accounts. But union officials spent millions of dollars to oppose private accounts in the Social Security system.
“The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Communications Workers of America v. Beck (1988) lets union members get a refund for the part of their dues that are used for political activity…Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010) altered the ways that unions can spend money in federal elections.” Since the contributions by union leaders consistently went to left-wing candidates, it’s easy to understand why progressives continue to strenuously object to that decision, which removed their inappropriate special treatment.
It’s not just private sector unions involved in this practice. Watchdog.com provides an example: “American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees funneled more than $65 million to politicians, lobbyists and activist groups last year… Unions aren’t permitted to use agency fees on politics, but the ability to collect forced fees lets unions spend more member dues on politics. AFSCME did not respond to questions from Watchdog about how the union’s spending decisions are made and communicated to members. Because AFSCME takes its revenue from government workers, the union’s funding of Democrat politicians and political activist groups amounts to indirect support from taxpayers.”
There is a divergence between the monolithic support of union leadership for left wing candidates and causes, and the actual political beliefs of the members they are supposed to serve.
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In essence, these battles tend to be about the steadfast loyalty of union hierarchy to the left wing of the Democrat Party, even over the true interests of the dues-paying members.
Now that Donald Trump has become the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, these long-standing splits are about to erupt.
Breitbart reports that “The far-left progressive leader of the huge SEIU union admits that many or most of her blue-collar members are sympathetic to Donald Trump’s pro-American populist message… Sixty-four percent of our public members identify as conservative, and are much more interested in the Republican debate than the Democratic debate at the moment,” [said Mary Kay Henry, the international president of the Service Employees International Union]… To stomp on Trump’s support, union’s leaders are personally pressuring the members, she said…“We’re doing one-on-ones with every one of our members right now,” said Henry. “We’re going into hyperdrive, especially in the pockets of our membership that have a lot of Muslim leaders to stand against what is being said” by Trump, she said.”
The New York Times reports that Thomas Hanify, the president of the Indiana state firefighters union…said that Mr. Trump has so far dominated the “firehouse chatter” in his state. While he allowed that his members tilt Republican, he estimated that most followed the lead of the union’s international leadership and supported Mr. Obama in 2008 and 2012…The potential pairing of Mr. Trump and union members could be helped along by a sense that Mr. Trump, unlike more conventional Republicans, has historically enjoyed a cordial relationship with labor on many of his real estate projects.”