Union bosses regularly employ close family relatives, such as children and spouses, in high-paying roles within their unions. Some of these roles pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. While union leadership has splurged on handsome salaries for their family members, and political expenditures intended to boost the Democratic Party, private union membership has continued its downward trend in recent years.

“This is not even a trend, it’s an ongoing scandal,” National Right to Work President Mark Mix told the Washington Examiner. “There are reports going back to the early days of labor unions about this type of nepotism.”

Among the unions with family employment conflicts of interest identified by the Washington Examiner’s review were the National Association of Letter Carriers, the United Food And Commercial Workers International Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Association of Machinists, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners, Laborers International Union of North America, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the Transportation Communications Union, the International Alliance Theatrical Stage Employees, the International Union of Elevator Constructors, the Operative Plasterers & Cement Masons International Association, and the International Longshoremen’s Association.

Collectively, these unions claim to represent more than 4.8 million workers and contribute tens of millions of dollars to electing Democrats each election cycle. The Washington Examiner also identified several local union branches with family employment-related conflicts of interest. These local labor organizations all had at least $15 million in revenue and, together, represented hundreds of thousands more workers. 

Over $11 million in union funds flowed to relatives of these organizations’ leaders in 2022, tax documents show.

Laborers International Union of North America was among the most prolific labor organizations in terms of the raw number of family members its leadership employed with cushy jobs.

The union, primarily representing workers in the construction, energy, and public service industries, employed more than a dozen people in high-level roles with family ties to union leadership. Terence O’Sullivan, who led the union as its general president between 2000 and 2023, employed four members of his family as of that year. Yvette Pena-O’Sullivan, for instance, is a family member of the union president who has served as the executive director of the office of the general president since 2013. Yvette O’Sullivan brought home a salary of nearly $300,000 in 2023. 

Kevin O’Sullivan earned a salary of $258,000 in 2023 as the director of the union’s education department, while Brendan O’Sullivan took in $291,000 for his work as an international representative and Caitlin O’Sullivan made about $95,000 as a special projects coordinator. O’Sullivan’s family members held their roles for years under his leadership. 

President O’Sullivan wasn’t the only leader at the Laborers International Union Of North America to have family members employed on the organization’s dime. Secretary-treasurer Armand Sabitoni as well as vice presidents Terrence Healy, Robert Richardson, Raymond Pocino, Stephen Farner, Oscar De La Torre, Joseph Mancinelli, Rocco Davis, and Robert Abbott.

Salaries for the vice presidents themselves range between $277,000 and roughly $600,000 per year. The union’s president, meanwhile, made over $1.2 million during his final year occupying the role. 

“Like many employers — whether they are publicly traded on Wall Street like Tesla, political organizations such as the RNC and the DNC, or privately held firms like the Trump Organization — we strive to retain the most qualified talent, some of whom are referred internally,” a Laborers International Union of North America spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “Skills and performance are the measure of success at LIUNA.”

“As these generational ‘leadership’ clans and cliques progress, you find that many of these executives and officers have never even been on a job site — that’s one of the things that happens with nepotism,” Mix continued. “The disconnect is growing wider and wider … not only just representing and understanding what the rank-and-file workers are dealing with day in and day out but with political ideology as well.”

Many unions engaged in what Mix describes as nepotistic leadership practices also shift millions of dollars to the Democratic Party each year. 

The International Association of Machinists, for instance, directed more than 98.6% of its political contributions to Democratic-aligned committees during the 2024 election cycle, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. Most of the other unions identified by the Washington Examiner’s analysis had similar partisan breakdowns in their political giving. 

While bankrolling Democrats, the bosses of the machinists union were also handing off generous paychecks to members of their families. Robert Martinez, the union’s international president, paid his son and daughter six-figure salaries in 2023. The union has also historically provided the children of its general vice presidents with six-figure compensation.

American workers have increasingly turned away from private unions. Just 6% of private-sector workers were unionized as of 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This represents a steep decline from a private unionization rate of 16.8% in 1983, the first year for which complete data is available. 

“Anytime we concede the working men and women of America to union officials, we’re making a mistake,” Mix continued. “The fact that labor unions get the privilege to claim America’s working people is just flat-out wrong. When you look [at] union hierarchies and you find this nepotism, this corruption, and you find this complete disconnect with the political views of most rank-and-file union members, you know that something is off. And what’s off is federal law that gives union leaders these dramatic powers over workers.”

Despite bleeding members, unions like the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America have continued the trend of diverting resources to individuals connected to union leadership. 

In its 2023 tax filings, the carpenters union disclosed that it was paying the son and brother of executive committee member Thomas Ryan Jr. well over $200,000 per year each. The sons of the union’s treasurer and another executive committee member also pulled in north of $200,000 working high-ranking jobs in the union. The wife and daughter of two other executive committee members were also recorded as taking home nearly $100,000 each in salaries from the union. 

Several unions have faced scrutiny from law enforcement over alleged infractions stemming from nepotistic behavior. 

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, for example, is facing a federal watchdog investigation over allegations that he made demands of other union officials to financially benefit his sister and fiancée. Meanwhile, at the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, a union chief alleged as part of a federal plea deal related to a racketeering case that former union president Newton B. Jones misappropriated millions of dollars in union funds to keep his family members on payroll and to cover personal expenses, including trips to Europe with a wife four decades younger than him. 

The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers’s latest tax filings show 10 family members of union leadership on the organization’s payroll, including three related to Jones. Salaries paid to these family members range from $126,596 to $407,299. 

None of the labor organizations mentioned, except the Laborers International Union of North America, responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.