NEA AND THE LABOR DEPARTMENT

When President Bush appointed Elaine Chao as the head of the Department of Labor, some thought she was an affirmative action hire. Unfortunately for the nation's largest labor unions, that was not the case. One of her first actions as Secretary of Labor was to order the unions to disclose how they spend the dues of their members.

Big unions like the National Education Association (NEA) fought the rules hard at the congressional level and then in the courts and now we know why. Under the new rules the NEA was forced to report it gave $65 million of the hard earned dollars of America's teachers to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance and a litany of other socially liberal advocacy groups in 2005. The NEA even gave funds to People for the American Way. There were also big contributions to organizations seeking to move voters toward "progressive" candidates. It was thought that the NEA took its marching orders from the Democrat Party, but looking at the way the money flows it may be the Democrat Party that takes its marching orders from the NEA.

Elaine Chao: http://www.dol.gov/_sec/aboutosec/chao.htm

Wall Street Journal:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007761

Posted January 6, 2006 04:04 PM
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