The College Fix

Service employees at Boston College are required to pay dues to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — a major political donor — whether they belong to the union or not.

So far, Democratic candidates from Massachusetts received a total of $79,300 between the twelve from the SEIU. The donations range from $1,000 to $15,800, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Among the recipients were Massachusetts House Representatives Barney Frank, Bill Delahunt, Edward Markey, John Tierney, John Olver, Niki Tsongas, Michael Capuano and James McGovern. All of these candidates voted against the Stupak-Pitts amendment, which barred the use of federal funding to pay for abortion.

In addition to funding pro-abortion candidates, the SEIU has also taken measures to get rid of current Democratic congressmen who voted against Obamacare. The SEIU gave $15,800 to Democratic candidate D’Alessandro Macdonald, an SEIU regional political director, in an effort to unseat incumbent Democrat Stephen Lynch, the lone Massachusetts Democrat to vote against the health care bill.

The SEIU, to which 275 employees at Boston College belong, has been a major supporter of the Democratic Party this election. As of September 13, 2010, the national SEIU has given $1,216,600 to Democratic candidates, a number expected to increase by the end of the election cycle.

BC has closed shop in the positions that SEIU members hold and all those employees must pay a flat rate amount of their weekly paycheck to the SEIU.  Weekly rates for the local SEIU 615 charter vary from $6.50 to $13.75, depending on how much money the worker makes. Initiation fees are typically three times the value that a worker would pay in a month and are a one-time-only cost.

“Membership in the union is not mandatory and workers not in the union can opt to pay 85 percent of union dues instead,” said Robert Lewis, Vice President of Human Resources at BC. However, very few employees have opted to do that.

“BC puts up with the SEIU because there have been no complaints,” said Mr. Lewis.

The money that SEIU employees pay each week out of their paycheck goes to two separate sources. Roughly 85 percent of the amount is supposed to go to the local charter, SEIU Local 615 in BC’s instance. The remaining 15 percent goes to the national SEIU.

SEIU-represented BC employees declined to comment on this issue.

Ian Malone is a staff writer for the Boston College Observer. He is a contributor to the SFPA.

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