Billionaire's tax union spends dues on luxury travel

A union watchdog has concerns about how labor groups are spending members' money, including luxury resort travel for staff.

Charlyce Bozello of Center for Union Facts said the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is one area of concern.

While SEIU-UWH advocates for taxing the rich and is the primary sponsor of a billionaire tax initiative on the November ballot in California, Bozello said that financial filings reveal union dues have been spent over the years on luxury items, including resort trips for staff.

"They have a bunch of controversial line items that just make it seem pretty hypocritical that they want to tax the rich when we can see that they're spending members' dues on sending staff to luxury resorts," Bozello told The Center Square. "When the union is going out there and saying, 'oh, we're supporting workers,' it just makes you question whether they're really good arbiters of their own members' dues dollars."

Center for Union Facts, via its LaborPains.org and SEIU Exposed projects, frequently analyzes union LM-2 filings to critique union expenditures.

The LM-2 form is a detailed financial report required by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Private sector unions with $250,000 or more in total annual receipts must file these annually with the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Luxury properties listed in the union's filings include The Langham Huntington hotel in Pasadena, Kona Kai Resort in San Diego, Asimolar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, Town and Country Resort in San Diego, and Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico.

The trips occurred over a period of several years with a combined total of $1,343,338 spent by key union members, records show.

Still, Bozello said it remains "difficult for union members to figure out how their union is spending their dues." According to Bozello, people and members have to look through what she described as archaic union forms online.

As a result, Bozello said union members often have no idea where their money is going and how it is being spent.

"They think the money that they give their union in dues is directly coming back to benefit them in representational activities," said Bozello. "But there's so much more that unions are spending money on that workers just deserve to know about."

Bozello added that more media coverage would help bring awareness to these issues. However, Bozello said news outlets have not been interested in deep dives on "what unions are really spending money on" these days.

Until that happens, Bozello said it is up to union members to do their homework and ask questions.

"Union members should be the ones who decide if their leaders are really good stewards of their dues or not," said Bozello. "They can't do that unless we're putting out helpful, accurate information about union spending. The unions aren't putting that stuff out. Someone has to."

The Center Square reached out to SEIU-UHW for comment, and they did not respond by the deadline they agreed to provide an interview.