(CNSNews.com) - Rank-and-file members of America's labor unions may soon be able to see first-hand how their monthly dues are being spent by union officials. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced that the nation's largest labor unions would have to explain their spending activities to dues paying members and Uncle Sam.
The DOL intends to update and improve the annual financial reports filed by large labor unions by mandating that unions keep records of money spent each year on political and lobbying activities as well as organizing and strike benefits. New rules would also require unions to itemize all expenditures above either a $2,000 or $5,000 threshold.
Currently, unions are not required by federal law to conduct independent audits of their accounting books and financial records.
The proposed LM-2 form, the reporting form required for large unions under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, will give union members more detailed information about the financial activities of their unions.
"Despite the increasing complexity and activity of labor unions over the years, the form used to disclose their financial information to members has remained virtually unchanged in the last 40 years," said Victoria Lipnic, assistant secretary for the Employment Standards Administration, a division of the Department of Labor.
"These reforms will give union members better, more understandable information for them to judge the financial health and integrity of their unions," Lipnic said.
The DOL believes the new forms will also help curb illegal financial activities inside organized labor. Officials said last week that investigations of union financial fraud typically result in an average of 11 criminal convictions every month and have led to the convictions of more than 640 union officials over the past five years.
The DOL is counting on its revised LM-2 form to enhance union members' ability to detect financial mismanagement and misconduct by their union representatives. The information will be made available on the DOL website.
Union officials have scoffed at the DOL's attempt to obtain detailed financial information in the annual reports they file with the government. The American Federation of Labor/Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which represents 13 million workers internationally, accused the DOL of promoting an "anti-union" Bush agenda.
"This is punitive and totally anti-union," said Jonathan Hiatt, the AFL-CIO's general counsel. He told the New York Times that the new DOL regulations would cost the nation's unions hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
"We're talking about an administration that opposes regulations on air quality, water quality, on forests, on food safety, on repetitive stress injuries in the workplace," Hiatt said. "But when it comes to increased regulations on unions, requiring them to itemize every expense, that doesn't seem to trouble this administration at all."
The AFL-CIO has also claimed that unions were not consulted when House Republicans held multiple hearings during the last session with regards to updating the financial requirements contained in the LM-2.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an organization that defends workers against union abuse, has also criticized the Department of Labor's proposed revisions, but for different reasons.
"Employees deserve to know how union officials spend their compulsory union dues, and the 40-year-old disclosure forms have failed to provide any meaningful information," said Stefan Gleason, vice president of Right to Work. "However, although, providing more functional and thorough financial disclosure to rank-and-file workers would be a small step forward, much more needs to be done before rampant union corruption is deterred."
Gleason said the DOL's revisions to the LM-2 must include an independent audit requirement or an itemization requirement for expenses beyond simply incidental expenses. The DOL gave the example of a union that reported $4 million spent on "sundry expenses."
"Currently, unions have no requirement that they conduct an independent audit of union books and records," Gleason said. "We fear that the proposed LM-2 reforms do not change this pathetic fact."
Proposed revisions to the LM-2 form must undergo a 60-day public comment period before they are made official by the DOL.
I wish Landmark Legal would make some rapid headway in their fight against the NEA's ignoring tax laws. The NEA has the audacity to claim that they spend ZERO dollars on political activity. ZERO!
Good luck. Here in the Peoples' Republid of Wisconsin, the WEAC, "an NEA Affiliate," OWNS the governor-elect. The worst thing about this is that the teachers KNOW their dues money goes to campaigning hard for candidates (placing newspaper ads, etc.), and they heartily approve. I would approve, too, if one of my health insurance options is to pay $0.00 for premiums.