WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A national educational labor union spent double the money on political activities than it did on worker representation, according to IRS records.
The National Education Association (NEA)’s most recent LM-2 form shows that out of $377 million in dues and agency fees collected in 2021, only $32 million was spent on workplace representation compared to $66 million spent on political activities.
“It includes lobbying government officials, get-out-the-vote activities, and even internal targeting or messaging towards union members in getting them to try to vote a particular way,” said Maxford Nelsen, director of labor policy at the Freedom Foundation. “It’s a fairly broad range of activity that falls under the heading of political activities and lobbying and it is broader than just writing checks to candidates for office.”
The tax form also revealed that the NEA spent more than $55 million on benefits for union officers.
“By the time you get to the NEA headquarters, salaries for full-time staff working in the NEA headquarters are definitely far higher than most teachers are getting,” Nelsen told Legal Newsline.
The current highest-paid employees include Rebecca Pringle, who is the current president of the NEA, earning nearly $350,000, according to Nelsen.
“The executive director is paid about $324,000 and the former president of the union who has actually not served in an official role with the union in four or five or six years is still on the payroll earning $320,000 as a special advisor,” he said.
In another example of public sector union spending, $64 million, or 20% of $320 million in dues collected from 1.9 million members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was spent on political activities and lobbying, according to records obtained by Freedom Foundation.
“Member dues are also going toward the local union and the statewide affiliate,” Nelsen added. “Generally, the closer you are to the workplace, the more gets spent on traditional union functions and the less gets spent on politics but the higher up you go the more gets spent on politics and the less gets spent on representational activity.”