Photo Credit | LIUNA.org
For years, union bosses have claimed to speak for America’s workers. But like anything, the money and messaging tell a different story: one that puts the Left first and America’s workers last.
Our newest report exposes the glaring disconnect between union leadership and the rank-and-file, this time at the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA).
Like most unions, LIUNA paints itself as a blue-collar champion. In reality, its leadership acts more like a Democratic Party subcontractor with union dues on autopilot. From 2017 to 2024, LIUNA poured $1.2 million into Democratic groups while giving a mere $250,000 to Republicans. That’s not hedging bets, that’s ideological alignment—epecially when groups receiving LIUNA cash back Black Lives Matter and push policies that undermine ICE.
Most construction workers, laborers, and tradesmen didn’t sign up for funding leftist pet projects. As the Daily Caller recently reported, this is part of a broader pattern where union leadership is drifting further left at the exact moment their members are moving in the opposite direction.
We know for a fact that working-class voters are America First: they voted for secure borders, energy independence, law and order, and economic freedom.
It would be too charitable to say that LIUNA leadership has simply misunderstood this shift among their members. They’ve decided to embrace the priorities of Washington insiders, no matter how harmful they are to union members.
It pays, too. LIUNA General President Brent Booker lives in a $1.4 million home in the D.C. area and spent the run-up to the last election at the Democratic National Committee endorsing Kamala Harris. That tells you everything you need to know about where his focus is.
Because it certainly isn’t on the average LIUNA member making roughly $50,000 a year. These are workers dealing with skyrocketing costs, unstable job markets, and policies that directly threaten their industries. They’re not asking for Green New Deal mandates and immigration policies that drive down wages and strains job sites.
What they’re getting instead is activism. LIUNA’s official X account has repeatedly attacked Donald Trump and conservative policies while promoting green energy mandates and rhetoric that aligns with open-border advocates.
That’s not representation. That’s political messaging—funded, ironically, by the dues of workers who disagree with it.
LIUNA’s leadership has become a pipeline for left-wing priorities, treating members less like constituents and more like a funding base. The result is a growing fracture, one that the union’s leaders seem unwilling to acknowledge.
But workers are noticing. They see where their money is going and who their leaders are standing with. And they see that their own values are being sidelined in favor of an elitist, progressive political agenda.
Union leadership has a choice to make. They can continue acting as an arm of the Democratic Party, pushing policies their members reject, or they can course-correct—realign with the workers they represent and stop blowing member dues on causes that undermine their livelihoods.
Until that happens, the old labor-left alliance will continue to crack.
Tom Jones is the President of the American Accountability Foundation.
Reprinted with Permission from DC Journal – By Tom Jones
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.