A union representing roughly 1.8 million teachers and other educational workers used taxpayer-funded dues to book a trip to a famous casino and to pay for meals at luxury restaurants.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) spent over $370,000 on expenses at Caesars Palace, a luxury hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, disclosure forms show. In addition, the AFT also used dues collected from its members to help pay for trips to Europe and South America, as well as to pay off five-figure tabs at upscale restaurants.
“My suspicion is that this is a case of ‘rank hath its privileges,’” Capital Research Center research director Michael Watson, an expert on organized labor, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If you are one of the union officers or delegates who has shown loyalty to the union, who has served the union’s interests, they will fly you out, you get to go to the big convention, you get to clap as people give speeches, say how much you support Randi Weingarten and you get these rewards. Of course, it’s coming out of the dues checks of working teachers.”
Randi Weingarten, who heads the AFT, took home a salary of roughly half a million dollars between July 2023 and June 2024, according to the union’s most recent disclosure. Nearly all of AFT’s income during this period came from per capita tax fees collected from its regional affiliates. These fees paid by local unions are, in turn, funded by dues from public school teachers and other educational workers.
The bulk of the AFT’s spending at Caesars Palace is marked as meeting expenses, with an additional couple thousand dollars in “non-itemized transactions,” according to the disclosure forms. Caesars Palace says that the rooms available to groups holding meetings on its grounds make “every guest feel like an emperor” and range from “high-end suites” to “plush villas.”
Caesars Palace has appeared in numerous films like “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Rocky III,” and “The Hangover.”
The hotel says on its website that its name has become “synonymous with Las Vegas.” The hotel has a casino boasting 185 table games, 1,324 slot machines and sports betting, according to its website. Additional amenities available to hotel guests include poolside bars, on-site spa service, a hair salon, a limo service, a nightclub, in-room massage service and a sauna.
On top of the trip to Las Vegas, the AFT also paid off hotel stays in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Geneva, Switzerland, according to disclosures. The AFT also used over $20,000 in union funds to cover bills at spendy restaurants between July 2023 to June 2024.
At Carmine’s, an upscale Italian eatery in D.C. where the union spent roughly $16,000, items as simple as a plain Caesar salad or garlic and oil pasta run approximately $30, according to its menu. The restaurant also offers a 45-ounce porterhouse steak that can be ordered in four different styles.
The AFT spent an additional $5,548 at The Palm Restaurant, a famous steakhouse in Chicago, disclosures show. The cheapest cut of beef offered at The Palm is a $57 eight-ounce filet while its most expensive item is a $149 36-ounce porterhouse steak, according to its menu.
During the same period the AFT spent big on ritzy food and lodging, only about one-third of its expenditures went toward “representational activities,” which are operations related to collective bargaining and member recruitment. The rest of the union’s spending went toward line items like overhead, administration, lobbying and political activities.
The AFT spent $38,104,649 on lobbying and political activities between July 2023 and June 2024, disclosures show. The union, for instance, gave roughly $2.4 million to For Our Future Action Fund, a climate-focused pro-Democratic super PAC, between November 2023 and April 2024. Additionally, campaign finance records show that the AFT’s PAC has funneled millions into federal and non-federal Democratic committees during the 2023-2024 election cycle.
As a result of Janus v. AFSCME, a 2018 Supreme Court case, public school employees can no longer be compelled to pay union dues that end up going toward expenditures like luxury getaways for union bosses and contributions to left-of-center political committees.
“At least, in theory, thanks to Janus the forced dues problem is gone,” Watson, the labor expert, told the DCNF. “Public school teachers no longer have to pay the union a fee in order to keep their jobs.”
The AFT did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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