When Politics Replaces Paychecks: How Major Unions Lost Sight of Workers
This weekend’s “No Kings” protests weren’t spontaneous. They were planned, organized, and funded by two of the nation’s most politically active unions: the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
These demonstrations weren’t about wages, workplace safety, or economic growth. They were about politics in an effort by partisan union leaders to mobilize against Donald Trump and the tens of millions of Americans who support him.
More than 77 million Americans (nearly half of all voters) supported President Trump in 2024. Many of them are the same working men and women these unions claim to represent. Yet instead of fighting for their members, SEIU and CWA spend their time, money, and energy organizing protests designed to vilify them.
Union Leaders Against the Workers They Represent
The unions’ own words make their political motives clear.
“[The Trump administration’s] policies are designed to take power from the people, create more avenues for corporations to exploit workers, and transfer trillions of dollars from programs that benefit working people, retirees, and children into tax cuts for the super-rich.” — CWA Statement, October 2025
“NO KINGS! WORKERS RULE! As authoritarian crackdowns escalate and billionaires pour money into policies that strip away wages, health care, and rights, we are rising in unity to demand a future of dignity and democracy.” — Leslie Frane, SEIU Executive Vice President
The irony is hard to miss. The same unions condemning “billionaires buying politicians” are among the nation’s largest political spenders, funneling nearly all their money to Democrats.
Data from OpenSecrets shows how deep that alignment runs. In the 2024 cycle, SEIU spent $35.4 million, with 99.35 percent of donations going to Democrats. The CWA contributed $14 million, almost entirely to Democratic candidates and committees. Between 2021 and 2022, the four largest public-sector unions spent over $700 million on political activities, with 95 percent benefiting Democrats, while teachers’ unions alone poured $43.5 million into liberal advocacy groups and PACs from 2022 to 2024.
These unions invest tens of millions more into campaigns and causes aligned with the same party that appointed their allies to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Biden administration, creating a self-serving political machine.
The Biden NLRB: Politics First, Workers Last
Under the Biden administration, the NLRB stopped functioning as an impartial referee. It became a fundraising and regulatory arm of the Democratic Party, rewarding its union allies with rulings that tilted the scales in their favor.
The Cemex decision allowed the Board to impose union representation without private, secret-ballot elections, which removed the privacy that protects workers from coercion.
The Fair Choice–Employee Voice rule reinstated blocking charges, letting unions stall or derail elections simply by filing complaints.
New restrictions on captive-audience meetings silenced one side of the debate, ensuring workers hear only the union’s narrative.
Each of these moves benefits politically active unions like SEIU and CWA, not the rank-and-file Americans who depend on fair elections and open dialogue to make their own choices.
Two Very Different Visions for Labor
There is a stark difference between pro-worker unions, like many of the trade organizations and politics-first unions that act as partisan machines. The former focus on jobs, wages, and safety. They’ve found common ground with leadership that shares their goal of restoring American industry, rebuilding infrastructure, and protecting working families.
The latter (CWA, SEIU, and others) have chosen to pour millions of their members’ dues into campaign rallies and ideological causes that have nothing to do with their members’ paychecks.
When unions become political arms of one party, that’s not representation. It’s ideology.
Restoring Worker Freedom and Accountability
America’s labor system was built on balance: workers, employers, and government each playing a role under the law. That balance has been shattered by political unions using federal agencies as weapons and campaign tools.
Restoring integrity means protecting secret-ballot elections so workers can decide representation privately without intimidation; ensuring transparency so members know exactly how their dues are spent and can stop funding causes they don’t support; and rebuilding a neutral NLRB that enforces the law, not political favors.
These reforms aren’t anti-union. They’re pro-worker principles that built the most prosperous labor force in the world.
Unions that embrace these principles, those that put workers ahead of politics, will continue to play a vital role in America’s economy. But those that act as partisan megaphones risk losing the trust of their members and the support of policymakers who actually stand with working people.
The Bottom Line
The No Kings protests may have made headlines, but they exposed what SEIU and CWA have become: partisan organizations advancing a political agenda that attacks not just a president who won both the popular and electoral vote, but the 77 million Americans who voted for him.
Good unions build. Bad unions divide. And when union leadership and the Biden-era NLRB rewarded the latter, it didn't just erode trust in labor law; it alienated the very workers unions were meant to serve.
Working Americans deserve better than to see their paychecks turned into political donations. It’s time to put workers back at the center of labor policy and restore a system that serves the people who make this country run, not the politicians or union leaders trying to control it.