BS BULLETIN:
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Employees at the Obama Presidential Center and Foundation are organizing a union, citing benefit cuts, rising workloads and management’s failure to address complaints.
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Workers say raises and promotions have been frozen, healthcare costs are rising, and paid time off has been reduced.
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Their organizing letter quotes Barack Obama’s own 2016 endorsement of unions — while the foundation is run by longtime Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.
Just four months after Barack Obama’s $900 million presidential center opened in Chicago, employees are organizing a union over worsening working conditions — and they’re using the former president’s own words to make their case.
A letter signed by 68 workers accuses foundation leadership of increasing workloads, rolling back benefits and responding to complaints with vague answers.
Employees say they’ve been told to expect no winter pay raises, suspended promotions, higher healthcare costs and reduced paid time off.
The complaints have reportedly contributed to high turnover, with departing employees taking valuable institutional knowledge with them.
And here’s where things get interesting.
The workers are quoting Obama’s own 2016 endorsement of organized labor:
“If I were looking for a good job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union. If I saw a problem in my workplace, I’d organize my coworkers to do something about it.”
Now his employees are taking that advice.
The proposed union, Obama Workers United, would represent more than 250 employees at the Chicago presidential center, the foundation’s Washington offices and remote locations nationwide.
The workers have partnered with AFSCME Council 31 and are seeking voluntary recognition from foundation management.
One organizer, Luke Gilday, complained that employees have been excluded from decisions affecting their pay, benefits and insurance. “At the end of the day, we’re the ones who are facing those impacts, and we don’t even have a seat at the table,” he said.
The timing raises some uncomfortable questions about the foundation’s finances.
Revenue reportedly dropped 25%, from $210 million in 2024 to $159 million in 2025. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital previously reported that foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett earned $740,000 in 2024.
Jarrett, Obama’s longtime political confidante, oversees the organization now facing complaints about employee compensation.
The foundation isn’t fighting the union drive publicly. “We are deeply committed to the fundamental right of workers to organize and make their voices heard,” a spokesperson said, pledging to work collaboratively with organized labor.
The center, whose imposing tower has been compared by critics to the Death Star and a giant trash can, opened in June after years of construction and controversy.
Now, before its first anniversary, the institution devoted to celebrating Obama’s legacy is getting an unexpected lesson in one of his favorite political causes: organized labor.
MY QUICK TAKE
Well, well, well. Barack Obama spent years telling Americans to join unions, and now his own employees have taken him up on it. The $900 million monument to hope and change apparently has plenty of hope, but the workers would like to see a little more change in their paychecks. And with Valerie Jarrett running the place, perhaps somebody should check whether “Yes We Can” comes with a benefits package.
