Taxpayers Pay Carpenters Union $105 Million For Noncompetitive Contracts

From 2009-2016 Taxpayers paid $105 million to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters union for “trainingâ€. The U.S. Department of Labor gave the Carpenters Union’s National Jobs Corps training fund an average of $14 million per year of taxpayer money through lucrative non-competitive government contracts.[i]

Non-competitive government contracts prevent the market from determining the best use for taxpayer money. Union officials have guaranteed money flowing into their coffers instead of having to compete and showing they provide the best results.

In 2016, Carpenters unions reported to the U.S. Labor Department over $1.1 billion in dues and fees. That same year Carpenters National Headquarters officials spent more than $20 million from the union’s treasury on political activities, while getting $14 million from its politically influenced no-bid-contract.[ii]

Labor unions spend large sums of forced-dues money on politics. During the 2016 election cycle, Big Labor exceeded $1.7 billion in political spending most of it coming directly out of union treasuries , a substantial amount obtained  through coerced-dues. Federal No-Compete Jobs Corps Training Funds are just another example of how forced-unionism skews power to a select group of union officials while depriving hardworking Americans of freedom and a substantial part of their paychecks.

 

[i] USA Spending Data on Government Contracts

[ii] LM-2 form data, accessed through Department of Labor