ELECTIONS & POLITICS / HOTEL & RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES
(HERE)
Union Soft Money to RNC?
The Republican Nat. Committee received $15,000 in soft money from the
Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Int'l Union on May 5. Yes, you
read correctly; the RNC got money from one of America's most corrupt unions
according to a recent report from Public Disclosure, Inc. HERE was one
of four unions cited for corruption by President Reagan's Commission on
Organized Crime in 1986. The Commission said HERE was "substantially influenced
and/or controlled by organized crime." HERE has been linked to the Bruno-Scarfo,
Colombo and Gambino crime families in government lawsuits. And just last
year, Kurt W. Muellenberg, a U.S. Dist. Court-appointed monitor, issued
a scathing report on corruption within HERE.
This is the same RNC which in a recent fundraising letter said: "Now [the liberals are] going all-out to seize monopoly control of the government! ...Big Labor, trial lawyers, and the entire array of powerful left-wing interest groups are spending hundreds of millions on a vicious campaign of attack ads targeting Republicans nationwide!" The letter also said, "[Dick] Gephardt has made a career of catering to Big Labor [and] Education Unions...all-owing them to rewrite legislation and dictate how your taxes are spent."
To be fair, unions soft money to Democrats far out-paces contributions to Republicans this election cycle. The corrupt Am. Fed. of State, County & Municipal Employees alone has already given $410,000 to Democratic committees. But RNC committees also received $40,000 from the Nat. Education Ass'n on Feb. 18 and $15,000 from the Service Employees Int'l Union on Mar. 23. [http://www.tray.com/fecinfo/00sft.htm]
In addition to the unions and organizations covered in this Union Corruption Update, readers can look forward to news and information on other corrupt and abusive unions in future editions.
All back issues of the Union Corruption Update can be viewed at NLPC's website (www.nlpc.org). Also available is a union-by-union and state-by-state index of all Union Corruption Update articles.
If you have story ideas or suggestions for future editions of Union Corruption Update, please email NLPC at nlpc@nlpc.org. Thank you.
Union Corruption Update is part of NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project which is investigating and exposing corruption and extremism in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and many other union organizations. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.
Union Corruption Update Article Index (by Union)
Union Corruption Update Article Index (by State)
Organized Labor Accountability Project