Randi Weingarten Has Entered the CDL Wars

AFT President discovers another oppressed class in need of immediate union protection: people with commercial driver’s licenses

The American Federation of Teachers has apparently decided that teaching children is no longer a sufficiently broad mission. I mean, after all, why stop at teachers, school bus drivers, and education policy when there are 17 million CDL (Commercial Drivers License) records sitting around just begging for union intervention?

Yes, Randi Weingarten is now involved in a lawsuit over the federal government's efforts to obtain commercial driver’s license records.

And if you are wondering what this has to do with the American Federation of Teachers, don't worry. The answer eventually arrives, although it takes a scenic route through the Democratic Party's favorite subjects: immigration, ICE, privacy, government power, and the mysterious belief that every federal database becomes sacred the moment someone proposes checking it.

Unions were originally created to protect American workers.

Then many of them discovered politics.

Then they discovered progressive politics.

And eventually some discovered that their membership rolls could double as a taxpayer-funded focus group for every Democratic policy imaginable.

The AFT says it represents about 13,500 transportation workers, including school bus drivers and maintenance drivers, many of whom hold CDLs.

Fair enough, but there is a slight complication.

These are not merely driver's licenses for people operating a family sedan. Commercial driver's licenses are used by people driving enormous vehicles capable of turning an ordinary Tuesday morning commute into a national emergency.

And some Americans have already paid the ultimate price for failures involving improperly qualified commercial drivers.

Marcus Coleman testified before Congress earlier this month after a 2024 crash caused by an illegal alien CDL driver left his 5-year-old daughters with severe brain injuries.

That's the part of the story where the adults in the room might reasonably ask whether every person entrusted with a massive commercial vehicle is actually qualified to operate it.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy apparently had the same crazy thought.

The administration shut down scores of commercial trucking schools over serious English proficiency problems among their students.

Apparently, federal officials would like commercial drivers to understand the language used on the road.

This has proven to be a controversial position.

The AFT responded by joining an ongoing lawsuit against the Department of Transportation.

The union explained:

..[T]he AFT moved to join an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation, seeking to stop the agency from seizing the personal records of 17 million commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the nonprofit that maintains the national database of driver records. The AFT is represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and Murphy Anderson PLLC.

The AFT says those records contain sensitive information, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, license numbers, and state of record.

That's a legitimate privacy concern.

But then Randi Weingarten entered the chat, apparently having been alerted that the federal government was attempting to enforce something.

“Many AFT members require a CDL to work as school bus drivers or Department of Transportation employees, and we must protect them and their privacy against the vindictive nature of this president and his cronies,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Just like we sued the Department of Government Efficiency for trying to mine personal information from millions of working-class Americans, today we intervene against the U.S. government’s attempt to strong-arm the AAMVA to turn over CDL holders’ private information. This illegal demand puts millions of people’s personal data up for grabs without their consent, people who had no choice but to provide their personal information to the states so they could simply work, and who have no way to remove it from the database.”

And there it is.

The AFT has apparently decided that the appropriate response to concerns about commercial driver qualifications is to make sure nobody looks too closely at the paperwork.

This is particularly reassuring for anyone whose child rides a school bus.

The federal government wants access to CDL records.

The AFT wants the government to back away from the records.

Twenty-two states, including Illinois, are suing because they apparently have an old-fashioned belief that commercial drivers should be properly licensed and that public safety might be worth considering.

What an amazing concept.

Of course, Weingarten has never been shy about getting involved in causes far beyond the traditional boundaries of a teachers union. Next she'll be trying to woo the National Cemetery Board of Trustees [no such organization--I made it up] in order to grab even more votes from the dead.

There have been anti-ICE campaigns, political battles involving corporations, international trips, and now the exciting new world of CDL database litigation.

At this rate, the next AFT convention may need to be held at an international summit because the union has apparently run out of domestic issues.

Imagine being an American teacher who pays union dues because you want better pay, better working conditions, and someone fighting for you at the bargaining table.

Then you open the newspaper and discover that your union is helping litigate a federal dispute involving 17 million commercial driver's license records.

Somewhere, a teacher is probably asking, "Did I authorize this?" and "Do I want the union to piss my money away for a cause I don't care about?"

And somewhere else, a union official is preparing a 47-page response explaining why the answer is none of your dadgum business.

The truly bizarre part is that the AFT's argument is being made in the name of working Americans while the larger dispute involves whether the government should be able to identify commercial drivers who may not meet basic licensing requirements. Apples and mangos. 

That includes drivers operating school buses. You know buses carrying children.

Children who generally have very little say in who gets behind the wheel.

There is a certain dark comedy in watching an organization dedicated to protecting children become deeply concerned that the government might investigate the qualifications of people operating vehicles around children.

But perhaps this is simply the modern union movement.

Protect the database.

Protect the driver.

Protect the politics.

And if anyone asks whether the driver can actually understand the road signs, immediately call the lawyers.

The old AFT protected teachers.

The new AFT apparently has enough time to protect 17 million CDL records, battle the federal government, fight ICE, weigh in on corporate politics, travel internationally, and somehow still find time to send out emails reminding teachers that their dues are due.

At this point, perhaps the next logical step is for the AFT to start representing air-traffic controllers, deep-sea fishermen, nuclear submarine crews, and anyone else who happens to possess a government-issued credential.

After all, once you've decided that 17 million commercial driver's license holders are your responsibility, there isn't much left to unionize.

AFT: Fighting for educators, transportation workers, and apparently anyone else whose paperwork the government wants to inspect.

Perhaps AFT should stand for: Any Freaking Thing.

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