Socialist group turns on labor unions, Kshama Sawant

A socialist group, which claims to lead the world socialist movement, is not happy with how labor unions and Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant have shaped higher minimum wage and paid sick leave policies. Specifically, the group is upset that unions have exempted themselves from these policies and that Sawant has supported them. And, they’ve expressed their discontent in a recent editorial on their website. Via the Washington Policy Center,

“The Fourth International’s (the group founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938) ‘World Socialist Web Site’ said labors’ push for a higher minimum wage and paid sick leave in many cities, followed by a move to allow employers to hire unionized workers without paying the higher wage or providing the paid leave benefit, is ‘damning exposure’ that ‘far from speaking for the ‘employees,’ the unions bargain to protect the business interests of the executives who run them—at the direct expense of the workers they falsely claim to represent.’

“The editorial calls the union-sponsored campaigns to mandate a $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave ‘Trojan Horses for unions to gain a foothold among employers.’”

As Shift has reported, the minimum wage/paid sick leave bills, a.k.a. the “workers’ rights” bills, sponsored by Democrat lawmakers contained exemption provisions for labor unions. The true motivation behind the legislation was to encourage “employers to become union shops in order to take advantage of the exemptions.” The bill would make unionization a “low cost option for employers to avoid paying the otherwise mandated benefits.” More unionized employers means more union members which means more union dues, which means more campaign money for Democrat politicians.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce explored the “union escape clauses” and concluded that they are, in fact, “designed to encourage unionization by making a labor union the potential ‘low-cost’ alternative to new wage mandates, and it raises serious questions about whom these minimum wage laws are actually intended to benefit.”

The socialist group’s editorial strongly condemns labor unions for “decades of betrayal” that has resulted in them being “incapable of boosting membership through appeal to workers.” They must use workers’ rights policies in order to “entice employers to install unions in their workplaces and funnel money from workers’ already meager paychecks into the bank accounts of the union executives.”

Worse, unions get away with it because they have the “backing of a host of pseudo-left supporters.”

That’s when the editorial then takes aim at for her “support of union exemptions during the minimum wage debate in that city and in neighboring SeaTac, noting with cynicism that the union behind the wage hikes and proposed exemptions in both cities, SEIU, has supported Sawant.” While we wouldn’t call Sawant a member of the pseudo-left, the analysis of Sawant is spot on.

Sawant has defended the hypocrisy of unions time and time again. When KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson challenged Sawant on hefty paycheck of union bosses the likes of SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry and AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka, she refused to condemn their high salaries, dodged the question then ultimately hung-up the phone. Of course, Sawant must have sympathy for the hypocrisy of these union bosses because of her own stunning hypocrisy. As Shift reported, Sawant structured payments to her campaign staffers in a way that allows her to avoid payroll taxes, paying them overtime, and offering them insurance.