Center for Union Facts Launches Site Exposing Workers United's 'Alter Ego'
The Center for Union Facts, a 501(c)(3), a nonprofit organization that “fights for transparency and accountability in America’s labor movement,” has launched a new website focusing on Workers United, the SEIU affiliate behind the campaigns to unionize Starbucks.
The timing of CUF’s launch, which was announced with full-page ads in both the New York Times (in PDF) and Wall Street Journal (in PDF), coincided with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ hearing last week, that was held primarily to castigate Starbucks’ former CEO Howard Schultz.
The new CUF site, called Workers United Facts, exposes Workers United’s ownership in the Amalgamated Bank and its history of “hypocritical investments in industries – including fossil fuels, tobacco, gun manufacturing, and more – that the union and bank have opposed.”
The site includes link to a downloadable 30-page report entitled “Progressive Posers: Workers United and its History of Hypocritical Investments.”
"Bernie Sanders and Workers United have gone after Starbucks for not living up to its 'progressive' reputation,” stated Charlyce Bozzello, communications director of the Center for Union Facts (CUF) in a release.
“Baristas and other workers no doubt paying attention to this testimony should be shocked to learn that Workers United is the largest shareholder at a bank whose SEC-reported investments include oil and gas, private prisons, tear gas manufacturers and even gun/ammunition companies,” Bozzello stated. “How's that for not living up to a progressive reputation?"
The purpose of CUF’s campaign, according to its release, is to “educate the public, and demand the accountability and transparency that union members, supporters, and the general public deserve from the labor group.”