Marathon Pundit: Big Labor funds Obama inauguration

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Big Labor funds Obama inauguration

"Hope and change" is now "Show me the money." From the Washington Guardian:

Unlike his first inauguration, Obama is allowing $1 million donations to help fund this weekend's festivities, taking corporate donations that were banned last time around and refusing to provide full information about the donors.

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Likewise, Big Labor also has made a big impact on the inauguration. More than a half dozen unions are listed as benefactors to the inaugural parties. They include the Laborers International Union, the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Postal Workers Union, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

With record declines in membership, unions have been backing Obama as an ally in hopes of repelling Republican governor’s effort to reduce union influence in collective bargaining. They got a major win from the administration in October when the National Labor Relations Board ruled Boeing workers had the right to discussing union issues and organizing during work hours.

With more right-to-work initiatives spreading in conservative states, unions will be looking for more help from the administration in a second term, making their substantial investment in get-out-the-vote efforts in the November elections as well as their largess to the Obama inauguration a good investment.