Thread: Union dues go to pay for political campaigns not pensions?

No wonder the pension funds aren't funded.

Union says its efforts could help stave off Senate defeats for Dems
By Michael O'Brien - 10/18/10 06:20 AM ET

A top labor union says its efforts to mobilize members for the election are finally coming online and making an impact in key Senate races.

AFL-CIO political director Karen Ackerman, in a new memo on Monday, said the union's direct-mail and member-to-member efforts are driving up support for Democrats running in key Senate races.

"Since Labor Day, we have doubled the margin of support for our Senate candidates among union members," Ackerman wrote, pointing to internal data, for instance, showing that support among union members for Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in Pennsylvania's Senate race had grown from 6 percent on Labor Day to 29 percent now.

The union said it was seeing similar results in Nevada, California, Washington state, Wisconsin and Illinois, respectively.

"Pennsylvania is not the exception," she added. "Over the last month we have seen similar margins reached for Sens. Reid, Boxer, Murray, Feingold and for Giannoulias’ s campaign."

Those races are some of the most competitive Senate races, and key battlegrounds where unionized populations can help boost Democrats. If Republicans win 10 Democratic-held seats in the election, they will retake the majority in the Senate. JMO

The AFL-CIO has been among the largest groups to assist Democrats in their efforts to keep the House and Senate in Democratic hands. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said earlier this month that, by his union's math, 75 House seats were in play.

Ackerman said that union volunteers have distributed 17.5 million leaflets, made 23.6 million phone calls and knocked on 1.3 million doors as part of their efforts to avoid such losses. The AFL-CIO has sent out 18.6 million pieces of direct mail so far, and will mail 4.1 million pieces this coming week alone.


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... s-for-dems

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 57 national and international labor unions.

http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/

Oops. Those international labor unions wouldn't be contributing to U.S. political campaigns would they? If the Chambers of Commerce is under attack for foreign contributions, why not American and International labor unions?

heck just look at the SEIU and all the money that went to obama.
its been reported it was as much as 80 million

Do they keep their International dues separate from their US dues so that they can't be contributing to campaigns with foreign money - I sort of doubt it, but I could be wrong.