House Republicans investigate six labor unions over political spending claims

AFT president Weingarten also faces probe over 2025 book funding

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce opened the investigations this summer in response to multiple reports from two organizations: the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), described by the Guardian as a “dark money” nonprofit that counts the Heritage Foundation — identified by the Guardian as the architect of Project 2025 — among its donors, and the Freedom Foundation, a conservative thinktank whose chairman once protested against Labor Day, claiming: “I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor.”

Under federal labor law, unions may advocate for political causes but are prohibited from using member dues to directly fund specific candidates or political action committees, according to the Guardian’s reporting. Union members may voluntarily donate to a labor union’s political action committees.

“The industrial unions the [House] committee is investigating have become glorified political arms of the Democrat Party,” Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, said in a statement. “When these unions care more about their friends in Congress than their members in the factories and railroads, it becomes clear they’re not serving the working men and women of America!”

Among the AAF’s specific allegations, the foundation said the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) supported a lawsuit filed by the United Auto Workers to halt the Trump administration’s attempt to end collective bargaining. The AAF also highlighted the BLET’s criticism of Project 2025, which has advocated for policies that would weaken labor unions and collective bargaining rights.

A United Steelworkers spokesperson said the union is “working diligently on fully addressing the committee’s request,” adding: “Our union values transparency and annually reports our spending with the Department of Labor.”

Separately, House Republicans are investigating AFT president Randi Weingarten after the Freedom Foundation alleged, citing speculation around the union’s annual financial filing, that union member dues funded her 2025 book, “Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.” The Freedom Foundation’s analysis suggested: “Perhaps Weingarten’s next book should be entitled, Why Teachers Fear Teachers Unions.”

In a letter responding to the allegations, Michael Bromwich, an attorney representing Weingarten and the AFT, called the Freedom Foundation’s report “a partisan attack masquerading as investigative journalism.” Bromwich wrote: “Its claims are premised on factual inaccuracies, misleading characterizations, and a willful disregard for the complete record. The documents produced to the House committee refute these allegations and demonstrate that the book project was lawfully and ethically undertaken to advance AFT’s mission, with appropriate oversight and transparent financial arrangements.”

The Freedom Foundation and House Republicans on the investigating committee did not respond to multiple requests for comment, the Guardian reported.

The House investigations follow reports that the Trump administration conducted surveillance of labor unions in Minnesota during a mass anti-immigration enforcement operation earlier this year, including the Communications Workers of America and the Service Employees International Union.

Cathy Creighton, director of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab, said union finances are strictly controlled, with disclosure requirements on how money is spent — which is how the conservative groups obtained the information for their reports. Most union members vote Democratic, Creighton said, because the party “has a platform that supports the labor movement, the right to organize [and] the right to bargain.”

“The labor movement is allowed to spend money on political actions, and they do,” Creighton said, adding that the motivation behind the reports appeared political. “The Trump administration has been trying to eliminate bargaining rights and unions, full stop.”

A 2024 Gallup poll found 62% of Americans say the Democratic Party best serves the interests of union members, compared with 27% who said the same about the Republican Party.

US labor unions have historically supported Democrats over Republicans since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. Republican presidents, up until Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, refrained from taking hostile positions toward labor unions and collective bargaining. In 1976, Republican Gerald Ford’s presidential campaign stated: “Free collective bargaining remains the best way to insure that American workers receive a fair price for their labors.”

Under Reagan, the Republican Party began to emphasize so-called “right to work” laws over collective bargaining and adopted more hostile, pro-business stances toward labor unions. Under Trump’s second term, he issued an executive order to rescind collective bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal workers and made cuts to federal agencies tasked with enforcing labor laws.