The facts of this story hardly qualify as news. Everybody knows Big Labor is indistinguishable from the Democratic Party. But the brazenness with which the president of California’s largest Service Employees International Union local used nonprofit staffers to campaign for Democrats is stunning. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Six people who worked for either the union or the charity told The Times that [Tyrone Freeman], and others at the labor organization acting on his behalf, ordered the nonprofit’s staffers to join partisan get-out-the-vote drives and other campaign efforts during and after their regular hours. The former employees spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation and legal jeopardy. …
The former workers say that employees were required to distribute fliers, walk precincts and staff phone banks for individual candidates and the Democratic ticket during the days leading up to primary and general elections.
“Generally, it was door-to-door,” said a former union employee. “Every single person was required to work.”
Also unsurprising, SEIU headquarters is claiming complete ignorance:
An SEIU spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said the union knew nothing about any campaign work by the charity workers or an IRS examination.
