Shadowbosses is chock full of stunning revelations that illustrate the toxicity of government unions. One such revelation is that American taxpayers are currently paying government workers for the time that they spend working on union related matters, commonly referred to as “release time.” Just how much time and money does “release time” amount to? 23 million man hours and $1 billion. Another revelation is that teachers unions extract an obscene amount of money from teachers and use it to gain political influence. Teachers unions collect over $2 billion a year between at the local, state, and federal levels. 77% of teachers dues are paid out by the 22 states without right-to-work laws, despite these 22 states employing less than half of America’s teachers. To ensure control over education policy, teachers unions maintain paid political operatives in every Congressional district.
In addition to these revelations, Mr. Factor explores the relationship between big union bosses like Richard Trumpka, Andy Stern, and James Hoffa and President Obama. Thanks to his investigative work, we can see how these shadowbosses left their mark on Obama’s signature legislative achievements. Shadowbosses makes clear the danger government unions pose to our country’s future. Fortunately, the author offers suggestions for how to defeat the harmful agenda of government unions. Shadowbosses is a needed indictment of destructive government unions, and necessary reading for concerned citizens.
This column was authored by Townhall.com editorial intern Kyle Bonnell.