Carefully crafted public image: labor unions are alliances of downtrodden workers, solely concerned with bettering their pay and working conditions.
Reality: unions are politically-protected non-profit businesses that spend a great percentage of the dues money they’re able to skim off from the workers (who can’t quit or shop around for a better deal) on perks for the executives and maintaining their political clout. Paul Kersey of the Mackinac Center has written a most enlightening paper that digs into the truth by examining union financial disclosure forms.
If Obama wins, look for the new Secretary of Labor to ditch Elaine Chao’s detailed disclosure forms and go back to the old days when union officials could easily avoid scrutiny by lumping their spending into extremely vague categories.
