The latest dump of Democratic National Committee emails by WikiLeaks confirms the cozy relationship between the party and labor union leadership, but also reveals how some staffers truly feel about working with unions.

Mackinac Center adjunct scholar Jeremy Lott wrote about the email leak in an op-ed published by The Detroit News, explaining that the documents show party officials see value in unions when it comes to fighting Republicans. But, when it comes to actually working with unions, the DNC views them as more trouble than they’re worth.

The union-DNC alliance does impose a few constraints on the DNC, which staffers both mocked and worked to circumvent. DNC staffer Katja Greeson, for instance, complained about delays involved in getting new business cards printed.

She explained to an irked communications director that sending work to union shops caused delays.

In one email, Greeson said, “Because we print union unfortunately it does take longer than a non-union solution would.”

The emails also reveal that, though the DNC pledges to only patronize unionized hotels, it waives this requirement for the sake of convenience.

In other emails, union leaders reached out to DNC staffers to find ways to help each other and share talking points.

Read the full op-ed in The Detroit News.

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