Why do unions vote for Democrats?
Union members are more aligned with the Republican Party on a host of social and cultural and economic issues.
Is it because Democrats have bought them off with taxpayer money?
Recently, Joe Biden angered unions after signing legislation that prevented a nationwide rail strike.
Now, he is set to announce a $36 billion bailout for the Central States Pension Fund – one of the nation’s biggest multiemployer plans.
President Joe Biden will announce a $36 billion bailout for the Central States Pension Fund, helping to shore up one of the nation’s biggest multiemployer plans and delivering help to union allies after a contentious rail deal that frayed ties with organized labor.
Biden will be joined by International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at an event Thursday to promote the aid, according to a White House statement, which called the assistance “the largest ever award of federal financial support for worker and retiree pension security” and the largest from a program created by Biden’s pandemic relief law, the American Rescue Plan.
The president angered some of his labor allies last week by signing legislation imposing a contract he personally helped to negotiate between freight railroads and their unions, averting a possible strike that threatened to cripple the economy. Rank-and-file union workers, however, opposed the deal. Four of the 12 unions involved in the negotiations — representing roughly 54,500 workers — rejected the contract.
The pension fund has been spending $2 billion more each year than it takes in.
The Washington Times reported:
The Central States Pension Fund has $7.4 billion in assets, according to its most recent quarterly financial report. It is spending more than $2 billion per year more than it is taking in from contributions.
Like other ailing pension funds, Central States has been plagued with a variety of problems. Rising costs, a weaker stock market and a drop in the number of active workers participating in the fund have crippled its revenue.
A payoff for votes?
