Candidate
Endorsements
On the UE Web
Under federal election law — and given our
union's policies and structure — we have no way of letting
you know when our national union, or an autonomous UE local union,
has taken democratic action to endorse a candidate for federal
office on this website.
Here's
Why
To post endorsements for candidates to any federal
office on our website, UE would have to have a separately
constituted "Political Action Committee (PAC)" that
could buy web space from the national union to make such
announcements. Without such an arrangement, unions are prohibited
from posting endorsements on their websites.
Proudly, and unlike most other unions, UE does
not have a national PAC. Why? Because our approach to politics
has always been independent and issue-oriented. In
short, we don't spend our members' dues money on politicians.
Frankly, we know that working people can't outspend corporate
America and the wealthy in buying power and influence — nor should
we try. We believe the only effective way to make our voices heard
in the political process is through organized and direct
political action.
In our political action work, we focus on, and fight
for, the issues of importance to our members (as
decided by delegates to UE's annual national conventions, or, in
rare cases, by the UE's General Executive Board). We depend on a mobilized
membership to convey our united message to all levels of
government, or, in the rare case of a UE endorsement, to
encourage our members to work on behalf of that candidate (we
have only endorsed four presidential candidates during all of our 65
national conventions). As a result, we do not have, nor have we
historically needed, a national PAC.
Regardless, it is unfortunate that we cannot
post endorsement information on our website, even when we can tell
you about any other decision we make. The law in question exists
only to limit the role unions can play in the electoral process
— which, as should be obvious, it does.
To understand more about UE's approach to
political action, see:
|
