ILL-inois: Despite drop in membership, Big Labor campaign contributions soar

Writing for the Northwest Herald, the Illinois Policy Institute's Scott Reeder brings up an interesting fact. Despite a decline in labor union membership in the Prairie State, political campaign contributions are way up.

For years, organized labor has boasted of its strength in numbers, but as its membership has dwindled, increasingly its political clout has come in the form of dollars going to politicians.

In fact, between 2005 and 2011, the number of union workers in Illinois has dropped from 927,000 to 876,000.

Despite the 5.5 percent membership drop, the amount of money Illinois unions have given to politicians has increased 41 percent during the same period.

“Unions aren’t persuading people to join, so the only way they can exert influence is through lobbying and political campaigns,” said my Illinois Policy Institute colleague, Paul Kersey.

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