Watchdog report: $36M in PPP money went to ineligible ‘government employees,’ teacher unions that pushed for COVID lockdowns

Max Nelsen, Director of Labor Policy at the Freedom Foundation, discusses his stunning report that showed that $36 Million of COVID PPP money intended for small business relief during the early days of lockdowns went to 200 unions, including teacher unions, that were ineligible to receive the money. Nelsen comments that the “American labor movement today, is not the American Labor movement of 100 years ago”. It is not “hard hats, or coal miners”, but rather is made up of “government employees”, with “teacher unions” making up the biggest group. Adding that the reports findings were “extra frustrating” because unions have become mostly “political organizations”, and primarily the unions that applied and received the PPP money, were the same unions “advocating for these government lockdowns that necessitated the need for these relief programs in the first place.” Commenting, the organizations took “money off the table” from “struggling mom and pop down the street” that were “just trying to keep their doors open through this unprecedented government imposed lockdown situation”, while the state and local governments were “awash in money” and never laid anyone off.