Comment & Debate
Sean Parnell. “A campaign finance ‘reform’ twofer from Think Progress.” Center for Competitive Politics. October 5, 2010: “if the question can and should be asked of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, what about other entities that receive funds from foreign entities? For example, the Wikipedia entry on the Service Employees International Union states: Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Likewise, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters also reports members (and therefore, member dues) from Canada, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has members not just in Canada but also Panama and several Caribbean nations. And the AFL-CIO includes several member unions that include foreign members, such as the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers. In fact, nearly half of the membership of the AFL-CIO have the term ‘International’ in their names or some other indication of foreign membership (the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada), and it is a certainty that other unions also have foreign membership. So, both the U.S. Chamber and the AFL-CIO have involvement with affiliated foreign entities, but only the Chamber’s foreign members are of concern to the “reformers” at Think Progress and the Center for American Progress. I guess we can file this away as yet another example of why few believed the “reform” spin that the DISCLOSE Act treated corporations and unions equally.”