Lois Thompson – 12/7/11

This page was last updated on December 7, 2011.

Corporate campaign donations should be outlawed; Lois Thompson; Beaver County Times; December 7, 2011.

The only previous letter from Ms. Thompson of which I’m aware is here.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Unions being allowed to contribute to political campaigns is the voice of many.”

[RWC] Intentionally or not, Ms. Thompson misrepresents the situation. Citizens United v. FEC was about the ability of anyone (including groups of people) to take out their own ads, commercials, etc. expressing their position regarding candidates and issues. Sounds like a free-speech issue to me. As groups of people, the ruling applies to both corporations and labor union management. Direct contributions to federal candidates remain illegal for corporations and labor unions.

As for “[u]nions being allowed to contribute to political campaigns is the voice of many,” not exactly. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 6.9% of private-sector employees belong to labor unions. That number would be even lower were it not for closed-shop labor laws that give labor union management the power to make union membership a job requirement. Further, are we to believe all labor union members support the leftist agenda of union management?

The primary business of today’s labor unions is advocacy for leftist politicians and lobbying for leftist policies/programs. According to their Department of Labor LM-2 forms, USW management spent over $6 million in 2010 on “Political Activities and Lobbying” and AFL-CIO management spent over $29.6 million in 2010 on “Political Activities and Lobbying.” Representing employees is simply a fund-raising chore labor union management must endure to provide funds for its lobbying and political activities. Heck, AFL-CIO CEO Richard Trumka conceded as much when he said, “I got into the labor movement not because I wanted to negotiate wages. I got into the labor movement because I saw it as a vehicle to do massive social change to improve the lots of people.” “Unions being allowed to contribute to political campaigns is the voice of” labor union management, not the employees.

“Corporations being allowed to contribute to political campaigns is intolerable and should be outlawed.”

[RWC] As I mentioned above, direct contributions to federal candidates remain illegal for corporations and labor unions.

While only 6.9% of private-sector employees belong to labor unions, as of early-2011 about “54% of Americans said they own ‘individual stock, a stock mutual fund or in a self-directed 401(k) or IRA,’ down from 65% in 2007.” This doesn’t include indirect ownership a person may have via a pension plan’s investments.

Setting aside the fact neither corporations nor labor unions may “contribute to political campaigns,” Ms. Thompson didn’t tell us what is “intolerable” about “[c]orporations being allowed to contribute to political campaigns.”