For the second time in a week, a major Washington public employee union has been sanctioned for attempting to obscure the true extent of its political activities.
On Monday, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office announced it had fined Service Employees Union (SEIU) 925 a total of $31,715 for failing to disclose cash and in-kind campaign contributions to its own political action committee.
One week to the day earlier, SEIU 775 was hit with a $40,000 judgment for also failing to report cash and in-kind political contributions of more than $1.4 million.
Also last week, the AG’s Office announced it would file a similar lawsuit against the Washington State Labor Council.
All three cases are the result of complaints filed by the Freedom Foundation legal team with the Washington Attorney General’s office.
“If you’re sensing a trend here, it’s no coincidence,” said Freedom Foundation General Counsel James Abernathy. “These aren’t isolated incidents, and they’re not mistakes. “The fact that all three organizations got caught doing the very same thing just proves this is considered business as usual for them.”
In the newest announcement, SEIU 925 agreed to file its reports in accordance with state campaign finance law. If it does so, $6,948 of its $38,663 judgment will be suspended as long as it complies with campaign finance laws going forward.
The union’s political action committee, SEIU Local 925 Public Service PAC (SEIU 925 PAC), will also pay $6,000, with $1,500 of that suspended as long as it also updates its reports and complies with reporting requirements.
Abernathy said the union’s failure to disclose its union activities was just an effort to deceive state regulators and the taxpaying public. “They’re also reluctant to let their own members know how much of their dues and fees are being spent on a political agenda that has nothing to do with workplace conditions.”
Following a review of the PDC’s report, the Attorney General found evidence that SEIU 925 and SEIU 925 PAC failed to properly file reports of both in-kind and cash contributions.
The Attorney General filed a lawsuit in October alleging that SEIU 925 failed to file reports of monetary contributions totaling $635,000 as well as in-kind contributions — including staff time, office space, postal and Web services, and telephones — made to SEIU 925 PAC from 2010 to 2015.
While SEIU 925 PAC reported receiving the monetary contributions, the PAC failed to properly file reports of any in-kind contributions received from SEIU 925.
