Because government workers get their money
not from a free marketplace but from taxes, their
unions have a large incentive to advocate on behalf
of political leaders who support higher taxes
and bigger government, which can, in turn, produce
an ever-greater number of public-sector union jobs.
The wealth, power, and future of these unions
depend on the election of advocates of government
expansion.
As pollster Scott Rasmussen explained in the
Wall Street Journal, "Public-sector workers want
government to grow first, and the overall health
of the economy isn't as relevant to them."
This translates into overwhelming public-sector
union support for Democratic politicians who will
block efforts to reduce government and to lower taxes.
The two largest government unions in the U.S. today
are the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
and the American Federation of State, County
& Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
In 2002 these two unions made more soft-money
political campaign contributions than any others.
Their money - along with that of their fellow
public-sector unions, constitutes the lifeblood of
the Democratic Party.
The unions' direct financial support of Democratic
candidates is just one of many ways in which they
influence the political process.
A much larger and indeterminate contribution takes
the form of money funneled through party and other
organizations - to supply ground troops to man
telephone banks, do door-to-door campaigning,
or enact get-out-the-vote efforts on Election Day.
Such efforts, if paid for, would be worth many
millions of dollars.
In Michigan, the United Auto Workers union convinced
the automobile manufacturers to make Election Day
a holiday so that union workers could get paid by their
companies for last-minute, door-to-door, get-out-the-vote
campaigning.
The current president of the SEIU, the former New Leftist
Andrew Stern, in 1996 told his members that he expected
"every leader at every level of this union - from the
international president to the rank-and-file member -
to devote five working days this year to political action."
As Ryan Lizza, Associate Editor of The New Republic,
noted in 2003, today's SEIU leaders "tend to be radical,
even socialist."
Similarly, John Sweeney, president of the powerful
AFL-CIO, is a card-carrying member of the
Democratic Socialists of America and therefore believes
that capitalism itself should be eliminated.
He repealed an AFL-CIO rule prohibiting communists
from being leaders of its member unions.
The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), which enthusiastically
backed Sweeney's ascent, says it is now "in complete accord"
with the AFL-CIO's program.
"The radical shift in both leadership and policy is a
very positive, even historic change," wrote CPUSA
National Chairman Gus Hall in 1996.
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INFLUENCE OF UNIONS
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