Big Labor is looking to exploit the devastation of Hurricane Harvey to raise money for its organizing efforts in Texas.
The Texas Organizing Project Education Fund, a labor-affiliated group looking to make inroads in right-to-work Texas, launched the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund in the wake of the flooding that has devastated the Houston area. The donation page says the fund will “move the material aid the most vulnerable hit by Harvey,” but that “material” goes beyond standard humanitarian aid. Donations, the page says, will help the group organize workers.
“Your donation is vital to ensuring that we have the resources we need to organize and fight for Texans devastated by Hurricane Harvey,” the page says.
The relief fund is sponsored by a number of prominent liberal advocacy groups and politically influential unions: the SEIU; Communication Workers of America; Faith in Texas, a group that fights for “economic and racial justice”; Texas RioGrande Legal Aid; Texas Housers, an affordable housing advocate; and the labor-affiliated Workers Defense Project. While the group says it will meet the “first response” needs of residents, it plans to use the fund to advance its organizing agenda.
Read more at The Washington Free Beacon.