ABC - Card Check Would Increase Union Political Spending, Report Says

Home >> Newsroom >> Newsletter >> 2009 Archives >> Issue 23 >> Card Check Would Increase Union Political Spending, Report Says

CARD CHECK WOULD INCREASE UNION POLITICAL SPENDING, REPORT SAYS (06/10/2009)

If signed into law, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or card check legislation, would result in at least $1.7 billion in additional political spending by labor unions over a 10-year period, according to a June 9 analysis compiled by the Workforce Fairness Institute. The analysis was based on a union projection of increases in total membership and the resulting dues that would go to political activity.

The analysis also noted that members of Congress who voted for the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007 received an average of 10 times more from union political action committees during their careers than those who did not.

“Now the unions are expecting a return on their political investment,” the report stated. “This cycle suggests that through EFCA, unions seek to create a self-perpetuating funding mechanism that generates greater revenue to be invested in political activity designed to yield changes in law that yield even greater flows of dollars to unions. EFCA’s passage into law could generate billions of additional dollars for unions to spend on political activity to advance their agenda.”

The increase in union political spending would represent a relatively small percentage of the overall expansion of at least $35 billion in total union revenue that the bill would produce over a 10-year period, according to the analysis.

ABC has been working closely with the Workforce Fairness Institute to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, and Jerry Gorksi, 2009 ABC national chairman and president of Gorski Engineering, Inc., Collegeville, Pa., will be appearing in their upcoming card check video.

To read the complete Workforce Fairness Institute report, visit www.WorkforceFairness.com.

To learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act, visit TheTruthAboutEFCA.com.