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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-01-03

Gotta Love How Unions Look Out For Their . . . um, Members

From Tuesday morning's OJO:

If we told you that an organization gave away more than $65 million last year to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Amnesty International, AIDS Walk Washington and dozens of other such advocacy groups, you'd probably assume we were describing a liberal philanthropy. In fact, those expenditures have all turned up on the financial disclosure report of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union. . . .

When George Soros does this sort of thing, at least he's spending his own money. The NEA is spending the mandatory dues paid by members who are told their money will be used to gain better wages, benefits and working conditions. According to the latest filing, member dues accounted for $295 million of the NEA's $341 million in total receipts last year. But the union spent $25 million of that on "political activities and lobbying" and another $65.5 million on "contributions, gifts and grants"

Exactly. Feel good about those union dues, friends?

It would be interesting to see to exactly what causes the local versions give their members' money to. For a thorough and ongoing discussion of this type of thing, check out Ben's site--he's been on this for years.

Posted by: Michael / 1/03/2006 12:38:00 AM

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