I’m very pro-union. I support much stronger labor laws that would make it easier for workers to organize and flourish. However, while most of the work unions do benefits all workers, some of what unions are doing is preserving a deeply corrupt political system where both major parties serve the Donor Class through a legal system of bribery. It’s this corrupt system that produced President Donald Trump and is keeping us from properly addressing the most pressing issues of our time.
Unions negotiate with employers for fair wages and benefits, but they also engage in political behavior that is important. For example, teacher’s unions like mine, the Oregon Education Association, have organized around school-funding measures that clearly and directly benefit our public school system. Another way unions get politically involved is by endorsing and funding political candidates through political action committees, and this is where we have a big problem.
I became aware of this problem in 2016 when Sen. Bernie Sanders was running against the quintessential corrupt establishment candidate Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party presidential primary. When my national union, the NEA, endorsed Clinton, I was shocked. She was corrupt, and Sanders, a person of integrity, had incredible support from teachers. I was skeptical and wanted to understand the endorsement process, which also triggers the funding. As a dues-paying member, I e-mailed the NEA asking basic questions. I was ignored.
Fast forward to 2022. I decided run in the Democratic primary for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District. As a candidate, I learned about the major union’s endorsement processes, including the OEA, the SEIU and the AFL-CIO. What became immediately clear is that these organizations, whose duty it is to represent workers, have created secretive, insider-friendly endorsement systems that favor corrupt candidates and don’t bother to consider minor party candidates. They are effectively rubber-stamps for Democratic Party establishment candidates. We will not fix a corrupt system by electing more corrupt political insiders.
Not surprisingly all of Oregon’s major union PACs passed over some very serious progressive anti-corruption candidates and endorsed a corrupt political insider for OR-4: Val Hoyle, aka, the Pipeline Candidate. She earned this label for her notorious position in support of Canadian energy giant Pembina, running a 234-mile liquid natural gas pipeline through Oregon. Hoyle was featured in a story by The Lever, an elite investigative journalistic organization. The story, “A Pipeline Election,” details her support of the very unpopular Jordan Cove Project pipeline as well as her willingness to accept donations from just about any corporate interest, including lobbyists for the atrocious pipeline project. She’s a perfect fit for the cesspool of corruption that is Washington, D.C.
When Hoyle was officially endorsed by my union, I inquired about the process. Being a candidate, I knew that you had to complete a questionnaire and qualify to be interviewed, but that’s about all I knew. I asked some basic questions. Was there a vote? Who voted? How many people got to vote? Even though I lived in OR-4 and was a dues-paying member I never had a chance. How many votes did Hoyle get? How many votes did the other candidates get?
I was told that this information was not available to the public. In fact, my concerns about fair representation, transparency and corruption were met mostly with disdain and dishonesty. If the unions are proud of what they are doing, they would be fully open and transparent. Clearly they know they’re doing something that they don’t want the public or their members to know about.
I have been closely engaged in politics for decades. I’m convinced that the out-of-touch privileged union leadership who are managing the political arms of their unions will not reform their corrupt endorsing and funding systems until large numbers of members opt-out or threaten to opt-out of paying dues. Reform would not be difficult. If unions want to continue to endorse and fund political candidates, they can create systems that are completely transparent and give every member a voice.
Unions are not just made up of Democratic Party loyalists. They are made up of Socialists, Progressives, Libertarians, Republicans, Conservatives, Greens and more. By creating political endorsing and funding systems that rubber-stamp corrupt Democratic Party insiders, unions are preserving a corrupt system, risking losing the gains workers have made, damaging unions and hurting workers.
Joshua Welch lives in Eugene and is a public school teacher, licensed in social studies, language arts and physical education. He’s also a union member and a former candidate for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District. He can be contacted at joshuawelch@comcast.net
