WASHINGTON — Lengthy Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, who periodically touts his pro-union bona fides, has acquired a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} price of marketing campaign donations from huge firms which have engaged in union-busting actions, monetary data present.
Since 2017, Suozzi’s (D-NY) political operation has pocketed practically $467,900 from company giants equivalent to Amazon, Delta Airways, Walmart, Boeing, Google and extra which have discovered themselves within the crosshairs of labor.
Moreover, over the summer season, Suozzi’s marketing campaign workforce spent $585 eating on the common Le Diplomate, a luxurious Washington, DC restaurant that dozens of his Democratic colleagues have boycotted as a result of a labor dispute.
“I’ve at all times been pro-union. My grandfather was in IBEW [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers], put the lights on high of the Empire State Constructing. I see the American dream by means of the unions,” Suozzi stated again in August.
“The issue in our nation now’s that folks do not make sufficient cash,” he added. “I don’t care what facet of the aisle you’re on or what your politics are. That’s what now we have to get again to in America. Arduous work will get rewarded with a good life.”
New York is residence to the second-highest share of union employees of any state within the nation, with over 20% of its inhabitants making their residing by means of organized labor.
All through his tenure in Congress, Suozzi has launched a number of items of laws geared toward selling unions, such because the Professional Act to guard employees’ rights to prepare with out reprisal. Suozzi lately re-upped the Professional Act in March.
In April, Suozzi joined a letter with nearly two dozen of his Democratic colleagues blasting President Trump’s govt order to exempt federal companies with nationwide safety tasks from collective bargaining.
“This motion is the one most anti-worker and anti-union presidential motion since Ronald Reagan fired hanging air site visitors controllers in 1981, and it should be reversed instantly,” Suozzi and different lawmakers fumed within the letter.
The Lengthy Island rep has additionally loved the backing from scores of unions equivalent to Lengthy Island Federation of Labor, RWDSU Native 338, Laborers 66, Sheet Steel Employees Native 28, DC9 Painters Union, NYSNA and extra.
However lots of the corporations that donated to Suozzi’s marketing campaign coffers have a historical past of stomping on labor.
This contains $12,000 price of donations from the Delta Airways Company PAC. Final yr, 146 lawmakers despatched a letter to Delta, ripping the airline over its anti-union practices after it allegedly threatened to fireplace workers who had been organizing. Suozzi didn’t be a part of that letter.
The New York Democrat’s marketing campaign battle chest additionally bought $13,000 from UnitedHealth Group’s Company PAC. One in every of UnitedHealth’s subsidiaries has used an anti-union workforce, dubbed “the Folks Group,” to scare off unionization efforts, per Jacobin Journal.
Google’s NETPAC has funneled $8,500 to Suozzi’s coffers, however the tech behemoth infamously fired workers in 2018 who led union group efforts.
Maybe most notable are $7,000 from Walmart’s Company PAC, $1,000 from Amazon’s Company PAC and $10,000 from The Kroger Firm’s Company PAC, all of whom have confronted high-profile accusations of union-busting actions.
Different contributions from alleged union busters embrace: $10,000 from Dwelling Depot’s Company PAC, $6,500 from the MetLife Inc. Company PAC, $19,000 from Lockheed Martin’s Company PAC, $7,000 from The FedEx Company’s Company PAC and $19,500 from the Boeing Firm’s Company PAC, amongst others.
“Two-Confronted Tom Suozzi has lengthy presupposed to be a good friend of the unions and the working class, however his marketing campaign coffers reveal the reality: He’s a grasping, self-serving fraud,” Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole instructed The Publish.
“Suozzi has turned a blind eye to egregious union-busting conduct for years, all to advance his personal political profession and out-of-touch agenda.”
The NRCC is aggressively combating to unseat Suozzi, as his third congressional district is extensively seen as some of the aggressive Home races within the nation. The Prepare dinner Political Report election handicapper charges it as a lean Democratic seat.
When requested about his marketing campaign accepting donations from union busters, a senior adviser ripped into it as a “bulls— story concocted by Washington DC Republican hacks.”
“As a substitute of pitching tales to the press, they need to get again to Washington and work with Congressman Suozzi to forestall healthcare prices from skyrocketing and finish this shutdown,” marketing campaign adviser Kim Devlin instructed The Publish.
Total, firms have pumped some $1,453,450 into his marketing campaign bankroll, in response to an evaluation shared with The Publish.
Suozzi is a co-chair of the bipartisan Home Drawback Solvers Caucus and returned to the decrease chamber in 2024, succeeding Lengthy Island’s former Rep. George Santos.
