SEIU 503 — Oregon’s largest and most militant public employee union — tells a lot of lies, but none so often or as laughable as the whopper about its selfless concern for its members.
Please. The union’s first and foremost objective is to increase its revenue and clout every single day.
Beyond that, SEIU — like all unions — is simply the funding arm of the political Left, spreading around hundreds of millions of dues dollars it’s begged, borrowed or swindled from its members to support the most radical candidates and causes imaginable.
If the workers paying for all of this rate anywhere on the union’s list of priorities, it’s way down the list. Still, things could be worse: SEIU 503’s leaders care even less about taxpayers or the state of Oregon’s economy.
Because it represents public employees, anything that makes Oregon government at any level bigger, more expensive or less accountable directly benefits the union.
As offensive as the comparison would be SEIU 503, the best way to understand its motivations is by thinking of it as a business. In order to keep operating, the union needs to have the ability to constantly recruit new members/customers so it can take their money.
The difference is that a business has to provide value in return. Because government employee unions have a monopoly over the public labor force, it has no such obligations.
Keeping revenue flowing in the form of employee dues is what keep SEIU 503 alive. And in order for that to happen, it has to be politically active.
The politicians SEIU 503 buys with someone else’s money, in turn, sign off on ever-larger union contracts, approve programs that require government to hire more and more dues-paying union members, and pass laws making the whole wretched enterprise legal.
But if the revenue stream is choked off at the spigot, everything stops. That’s where the Freedom Foundation comes in.
A recent post on SEIU 503’s own website concedes the union is involved in politics and, “Sometimes the connection between who is elected to public office and the contracts we bargain for is difficult to see.”
Is it really? Again, SEIU 503 needs money. That means it needs politicians who support them and rubber stamp whatever the union wants at the bargaining table.
If that doesn’t happen SEIU 503, is in trouble.
Going along with this thought, AFSCME’s Officers Handbook states, “Political action allows us to directly elect our bosses and sets the table for the rest of the union’s activities since the political climate can make or break our efforts…”
For unions like SEIU 503 and AFSCME, buying politicians isn’t a sideline; it’s the key to their whole way of life. Only through buying politicians can public-sector unions such as these continue to make money.
The problem with that arrangement is that America was built by the people, and its governing bodies were created to serve people, not the largest and most ruthless special interests.
Any union that has another goal in mind is already in the Freedom Foundation’s sights.
