Organized labor poured almost $765 million into Democratic groups and liberal causes between 2012 and 2016, including about $300 million specifically to Democratic Party organizations and liberal activist groups such as the Center for American Progress and Planned Parenthood.
That’s according to a recent estimation by the Center for Union Facts, a conservative nonprofit group. The data was drawn from unions’ annual financial filings with Labor Department.
CUF Communications Director Luka Ladan said the left benefited from those donations even though an estimated two-fifths of union households voted for President Trump in 2016, according to election exit polls.
“In recent years, Big Labor has become the personal ATM of the Democratic Party, with no regard for employees’ actual political preferences. While many union members lean Republican, union elites are spending millions in dues dollars every year to curry favor from Democrats and left-leaning interest groups,” Ladan said.
CUF is advocating for legislation called the Employee Rights Act that would require unions to get written permission from workers to use dues for purposes other than collective bargaining, among other changes labor law. A House version was introduced in June, and Senate Republicans introduced a version earlier this month.
Union leaders have conceded that Trump did exceedingly well among their rank and file. “In the last election, President Trump got 3 percentage points more of our members than Mitt Romney did. Unfortunately, Hillary [Clinton] got 10 percent of our members less than Barack Obama did. They either didn’t vote or they voted for a third-party candidate,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters last month.
