Unions are upheld by the Left, and even some on the Right, as a virtuous development in the American economy: a valiant protector of workers fighting for fairness and leverage in a sea of greedy corporations. But when it comes down to it, unions are no different from the corporations they fight against. They are self-serving entities that care first about preserving their own money, power, and influence. The real difference is that public-sector unions often operate as monopolies and are sustained, directly or indirectly, by taxpayer money in a way private businesses are not.
Nowhere is that clearer than in California, where, according to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, the ten largest public-sector unions collected more than $1 billion in member dues and fees in the year ending in 2024, much of it drawn from taxpayer-funded payrolls.
For California’s public-sector unions, higher taxes are good business. More taxes means more state workers, which means more union members, more dues, and more power for union bosses. Read more from @christopherrufo and @kennethschrupp: https://t.co/vHpQPEsjv1 pic.twitter.com/13i08ODxC2
— City Journal (@CityJournal) August 26, 2026
The ten unions analyzed by City Journal include the California Teachers Association (CTA), the California Nurses Association (CNA), and the California School Employees Association (CSEA). Together, they represent more than one million members and list more than 1,500 employees and officers tasked with administering the organizations, organizing workers, and advancing the unions’ interests.
These unions carry significant political weight. Their membership represents at least 6 percent of California’s 2024 general-election electorate and at least 29 percent of Democrat primary voters, making them a formidable organized bloc in the state’s left-wing politics. The ten unions also reported at least $29 million in political and lobbying expenditures in 2024.
And, as usual, that political spending is not detached from their institutional interests. Consider California’s proposed one-time billionaire tax, sponsored by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. Most of the revenue would flow toward healthcare services, including Medi-Cal, programs that fund hospitals and other workplaces where the union can organize employees and expand its membership. In other words, the union is lobbying for a tax that would also strengthen the industry from which it draws workers, dues, and political power.
This is the cycle. Unions lobby for policies that advance their political and institutional interests. Those bills and regulations pass, funneling more taxpayer money into an industry or government program. That expansion gives the unions more members, more dues, more benefits, and more influence, resources they then pour back into political campaigns and lobbying efforts to repeat the process.
And this is what few people are prepared to admit: public-sector unions are among the country’s most powerful special-interest groups, often wielding more direct influence over state policy than the large corporations and “Big Tech” companies Democrats routinely denounce. They are the ultimate monopolies, the ultimate corporate lobbying groups, and the ultimate example of a greedy organization looking out for little beyond its own self-interest. At least a private business must persuade people to buy a product or service.
A public-sector union, on the other hand, can operate behind the well-defended language of “protecting workers” while the same party that claims to oppose monopolies continues to empower them across the country.
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