by Saul Anuzis
America’s working class helped elect President Trump because his policies delivered real results — lower energy and gas prices, tax relief, and stronger borders. These weren’t abstract planks: they meant more money in the paycheck, more security for jobs, and more stability for families. For thousands of Americans age 60 and older — many living on fixed incomes and one paycheck away from crisis — these wins are deeply personal.
Yet a shocking new report from Americans for Limited Government (ALG), Union Bosses vs. MAGA, reveals an ugly truth: while rank‐and‐file union members overwhelmingly supported that pro-worker agenda, their leadership has quietly used members’ mandatory dues to wage political war — not for their benefit — but against them.
Key findings: nearly 90 percent of union political money flows to Democrats and causes opposed to the agenda of those same workers. Union officials’ donations of $100,000+ to New York Attorney General Letitia James, and $240,000 to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — both targets of legal action against President Trump — show how dues are being weaponized. Mandatory dues are not promoting worker interests; they’re financing political vendettas.
What does all this mean for seniors? Everything.
First, seniors depend on vibrant job markets and stable wages — whether they’re still working part-time, drawing Social Security or living with grandchildren. When union leadership fights tax relief or energy reforms that reduce costs for households, seniors pay the price. Higher gas bills, higher energy costs, higher inflation mean less disposable income — less margin in a budget already stretched thin.
Second, job stability for younger workers helps the economy that supports senior benefits. If unions back policies that flood the labor market, suppress wages or promote open-borders cheap-labor models that undercut worker pay, seniors see the ripple effects: weaker job growth, slower wage growth, less tax base to prop up Social Security and Medicare. Seniors’ future depends on the same pro-worker agenda that the MAGA coalition advanced.
Third, the betrayal of mandatory dues turns seniors’ concern for fairness upside-down. Many seniors were union members or have family members who were; they believe in representation. But when dues are siphoned off to fight the very policies that benefit them and their families, trust is shattered. It’s not pro-worker to use dues to oppose tax cuts, energy independence and secure borders — all priorities of seniors.
Working Americans — including seniors — deserve transparency, accountability and a return to the real mission of unions: fighting for good jobs and family security. Instead, the union bosses act like a political elite, aligning with progressive power structures that run counter to senior interests and the MAGA coalition’s core.
It’s time for union leadership to stop playing politics with their members’ dues and start putting working families — and seniors — first. Every dollar of mandatory dues should serve the people who pay them — not the political machine that uses them against them.
For America’s seniors, for America’s working families, and for America’s future: we must demand union leadership become accountable. Because the pro-worker agenda is our agenda too — and seniors won’t be left behind.
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis is the president of the 60 Plus Association and a Republican Party politician from the U.S. State of Michigan. He was chairman of the Michigan Republican Party from 2005–2009 and was also a candidate for national chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2009 and 2011 as well as a Member of the RNC from 2005-2012.
