The Symbiotic Relationship that Short Changes Americans

Wealthy democratic donors met with Big Labor and high interest liberal groups in Chicago this week to plot strategy for the 2014 Mid-Term Elections. The approaching elections, however, may very well be the beginning of the end for these symbiotic partners.

The liberal left has already begun to suggest that their pending demise is due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case in 2012 (see Supreme Court Rejects Corporate Campaign Spending Limits). In that case, the Court opened the door for unrestricted corporate spending on political elections stating that, “Political speech does not lose its First Amendment protection simply because its source is a corporation.”

Listening to the democrats’ complaints, one would have thought that the Democratic Party had been put at a tremendous disadvantage. However, statistics show that the fact is that Union money overshadows Koch influence in politics. Big labor and the Democratic Party suggest that it is the Koch brothers, major corporate donors to the Republican Party, who are the largest donors to political causes. This is simply not true. In the 2011 – 2012 election cycle, labor unions donated approximately 91% of its $143 million, or $130 million, in contributions to Democratic candidates for federal office (state and local campaign spending, and lobbying expenditures, are not included in this total); while the Koch’s donated approximately $36 million to conservative candidates. In addition, big labor spent an additional $3.3 billion from 2005 through 2011 on political “ground” activity as exposed in Big Labor’s Expense for Election Foot Soldiers, Finally in Media Spotlight. It is easy to do the math and understand that political spending to support the progressive/liberal cause far out paces conservative donors. These numbers do not include donations from non-union, progressive donors like George Soros or Tom Steyer.

It is no wonder Union Members are Not Happy with Their Leader’s Political Spending. Its political bent is a primary reason why the unions have been declining (see Why the Unions Declined). Big Labor’s identity crisis is directly related to the fact that it continues to utilize an outdated business model to politically bribe Democrats to pass new laws and regulations that would allow big labor to force unionize employees through Corporate Campaigns instead of providing true value to its membership outside the realm of politics.

The fact is, big labor is The elephant in the political spending room. In cooperation with the Democratic party, they continue to use a Divide and Conquer strategy against the American people as they are desperate to reinforce their failed strategies such as the minimum wage hike and bribing politicians (see Democrats See Doomed Minimum- Wage Plan as Election Boost and Dem Honda’s Silicon Valley Campaign Office is Inside SEIU HQ).

Conservatives need to wake up and utilize the one weapon unions fear most, which is personal contact with people/voters of all stripes. Discussion with, and education of the people ultimately served as the demise of the SEIU’s Death by a Thousand Cuts Corporate Campaign against my company as chronicled in The Devil at Our Doorstep.

David A. Bego is the President and CEO of EMS, an industry leader in the field of environmental workplace maintenance, employing nearly 5000 workers in thirty-three states. Bego is the author of “The Devil at My Doorstep,” as well as the just released sequel, “The Devil at Our Doorstep,” based on his experiences fighting back against one of the most powerful unions in existence today.