Union Pension Trouble

The AFL-CIO is spending "an estimated $200 million on the 2008 elections".   It's not just them, either.  Others are going in heavily, as well.   But why are Unions spending so much money on this cycle?   This is why...

[I]t turns out — as disclosed in unions' mandatory annual financial reports to the Labor Department — that the Sheet Metal workers' union pension plan is underfunded and so risks the future pensions promised to its members. Many other union pension plans are in similar straits.  The histories of several union pension funds demonstrate why they are in poor financial condition:

•  In 2008 the significant liabilities of the Sheet Metal workers pension plan required it to negotiate combinations of increased contributions and decreased benefits.

•  The Teamsters implemented only modest reforms of their pension plans, too late to forestall automatic penalties.

•  The Plumbers and Pipefitters Union lost millions to former trustees, who made investments favoring family members that yielded low returns.

•  A bookkeeper of the Laborers' pension fund embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions.

Unions are in trouble.  If Democrats can't bail them out in upcoming years, Labor Unions will join the ranks of S&L's, WorldCom, Enron and Bear Stearns.  Rather than risk greater transparency, exposure and collapse, Labor Unions are betting a lot of money on 2008.  

If they win, they'll get the playing field tilted their way.  If they lose...the consequence should be rapid accounting transparency, reform and more attention paid to the problem of public employee unions who can spend and lobby to create and maintain their monopoly.

UPDATE

You need to read the comment by reader bconc. 

The Labor Unions are doing to workers what Enron did to investors.  And they're hoping the Democrats will bail them out.