At CityRoom, Jonathan Hicks reports that labor groups are vowing to “take aim at” City Council members who support the term limits revision in today’s vote. At the center of Hicks’ post is the Working Families Party, the political party that is backed mainly by labor unions. He quotes the party’s executive director:
“Voting against democracy by extending term limits without a public referendum will weigh pretty heavily when the Working Families Party makes Council endorsements next year,” said Dan Cantor, the executive director of the party. “There’s every indication it will weigh just as heavy with voters when they go to the polls.”
Hicks also includes the United Federation of Teachers in the list of labor groups.
Will the UFT really do that? We know the teachers union is against the mayor’s plan, but president Randi Weingarten was clear that she is not making fighting it a priority. The idea is to save up political capital for a likely budget fight.
But we also know that the UFT sends substantial financial support to the Working Families Party, the group leading the crusade against the mayor’s term limits plan. The union sent more than $100,000 to the Working Families between January and July of this year, far more than it gave to any other group, according to a financial disclosure report filed in July and available here. The gifts came in four installments that can be easily located on that PDF — just scan for the highest dollar amounts in the column, and you have it.