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Friday, May 8, 2009

The Big Business of Big Labor

Handing Chrysler over to the UAW will be pitched as handing the automaker over to its workers. My Washington Examiner column today digs through the UAW's finances to argue that the UAW is, itself, a big business.
Peer deeper into the UAW’s finances, and it starts to look even more like a big business. The organization sits on nearly $1.2 billion in investments. This is money the UAW took from the paychecks of workers, money that now functions as an endowment out of which the union pays its staff and subsidizes its golf resort.

Black Lake Golf Club, which the UAW brags is "one of the finest anywhere in the nation," is owned by the union. Situated at the very top of Michigan, a drive of more than four hours from Detroit, it’s not exactly accessible to the union rank and file.

The resort is subsidized by workers’ paychecks, too—the union currently has $29.6 million in loans outstanding to the resort. That’s not their only posh real estate. The UAW’s Washington headquarters, home base for the union’s $1.6 million-a-year lobbying operation, is a beautiful $2.98 million townhouse in the DuPont circle neighborhood.
You can read the whole column here.

1 comment:

R G Sanders said...

Has the UAWs sliminess ever been in doubt?

Perhaps all big business should look in to moving their operations to "right to work" states...and we put this era of useless unionization behind us.