The facts
Employees of the Obama Foundation are moving to unionize after filing a letter reviewed by Fox News Digital. The letter, signed by dozens of staff, says increasing workloads, reduced benefits and minimal leadership support have driven high turnover. Workers are forming Obama Workers United and have asked the foundation not to interfere with the effort. The organizing committee is working with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31. The proposed union would cover more than 250 employees across the Chicago campus, Washington, D.C., and remote locations. The foundation responded that it “supports employees’ right to organize” and reiterated its commitment to that fundamental right. The letter also notes that CEO Valerie Jarrett earned $740,000 in 2024 while total foundation salaries and benefits rose from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024.
Our take
So the fucking Obama Foundation, that shining beacon of progressive values and hope, is running its shop like a goddamn Victorian workhouse. Dozens of staff have signed a letter saying they're getting worked to the bone, their benefits are getting cut, and leadership support is about as substantial as a ghost's fart. They're forming Obama Workers United because they're tired of being treated like disposable napkins at a billionaire's buffet.
And who's presiding over this shitshow? CEO Valerie Jarrett, who allegedly pocketed a cool $740,000 in 2024. That's right: while the grunts building Barack's legacy monument are told to do more with less, the boss is hauling in three-quarters of a million bucks. It's a perfect little metaphor: the foundation's total salary and benefit costs have more than doubled from $18.5 million to $43.7 million since 2018, but apparently all that extra cash is getting vacuumed straight to the top, leaving the actual workers with crumbs and burnout. What a bunch of thieving pricks.
The foundation's response is a masterclass in corporate bullshit. They 'support employees’ right to organize' and 'reiterated its commitment to that fundamental right.' Translated from management dickhead-speak, that means 'We're going to say the nice thing in public while our lawyers figure out how to fuck you over in private.' It's the same hollow, performative wank that every exploitative institution trots out when the peasants get restless. They support your right to organize the way a cat supports a mouse's right to live - it's just something they say before they eat you.
Now these overworked bastards have to formally ask the foundation not to interfere with their union drive. Think about the sheer, ballsack-dropping audacity of that. You work for an organization named after a president who loved to talk about unions, and you have to beg them not to union-bust. It's like having to ask a firefighter not to piss on your burning house. The cognitive dissonance is so thick you could spread it on toast.
The whole operation is a gleaming, expensive monument to its own staggering hypocrisy. It's a nonprofit that non-profits its workers straight into the ground while the executive suite swims in Scrooge McDuck money. The workers are right to tell these clowns to eat a bag of dicks. If the foundation had an ounce of the integrity it claims to sell, it would welcome the union, sit the fuck down, and negotiate a fair deal instead of issuing press-release platitudes. But we all know they won't. Because when you're making $740,000 a year to oversee a burnout factory, you're not a leader - you're a fucking parasite.
