Unions

Taxpayers Fund Unions

Labor unions benefit from billions of dollars each year doled out by the federal government, analysts say. While exact totals are difficult to determine and the amounts are less than business subsidies, they are substantial.

For instance, taxpayers spent $20 million to fund a tainted Teamsters election last year -- and the Justice Department wants $7.4 million for another one.

But most of the subsidies unions receive go for worker training programs.

  • Direct grants to unions total $1.5 billion a year, two-thirds of which are provided under the Job Partnership Training Act, according to the Heritage Foundation.

  • Several years ago, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research estimated that more than $110 million in direct non-JTPA money flowed to unions from a half dozen federal agencies in 1993 and 1994.

In addition, unionized government workers can get paid time off to attend to union activities:

  • The General Accounting Office has estimated that such employees at just four federal agencies spent nearly three million man-hours on union business in 1995.

  • If workers at other federal agencies participate to the same extent, the cost to taxpayers would be $200 million to $300 million a year, not counting state and local government employees.

Source: Jeff A. Taylor, "Unions Feeding at the Trough," Investor's Business Daily, October 22, 1997.

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