Union members benefit from enhanced financial disclosure requirements that have helped to expose widespread embezzlements scandals implicating top labor personnel, according to Rep. John Kline, R-MN.
Greater transparency is needed to safeguard the interests of average union workers who lose out when their own officers misappropriate funds for personal use, he said.
Since 2001, over 900 union officials have been convicted on embezzlement, fraud and conspiracy charges and courts have ordered $88,280,099 in restitution to be paid to defrauded unions and other parties investigated by OLMS, according to DOL.
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has signaled its intention to roll back accountability standards and enforcement efforts that have helped to safeguard the interests of rank and file union members, said Kline, who is the ranking member on the House Labor and Education Committee.
“We are not just talking about someone at say the headquarters for the AFL-CIO or the Teamsters because these are locals all over the country, where people are taking money and it’s very widespread,” he said. “These disclosure forms exist to protect the union members. It does not seem to resonate that this kind of activity exists.”
Although congressional Democrats posture as advocates for union workers, they are in reality doing the bidding of labor bosses who continue to resist heightened accountability and transparency standards, he said.
“When you hear rhetoric and talk from the Democratic side of the aisle about how they are in favor of labor and workers, what they are really talking about is the union leadership,” Kline said. “I think this is underscored by the cut in funding for the only office that has the job of keeping an eye on union leadership and by legislation that takes away the secret ballot and puts in binding arbitration.”
Labor union political action committees (PACs) donated over $66 million to members of Congress in the 2008 election cycle, with 92 percent of the money going to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org.
John Lund, the newly appointed deputy secretary in the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), told The Examiner that Obama Administration officials will conduct a thorough review of financial disclosure requirements in response to complaints from labor officials that Bush-era reforms are too burdensome.
Under former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, union officers had to account for all of their compensation benefits on LM-2 disclosure forms. These reports helped to create “red flags” that would alert investigators of possible embezzlement activity, according to Bush administration officials.
Chao also modified the LM-30 forms so that shop stewards would be required to report information needed to expose “no show jobs” in which paychecks go into union coffers instead of a real worker’s bank account.
“Elaine Chao made an effort to hold the union leadership accountable to its members,” Kline said. “So it’s not surprising to find that with the change in administration the union leadership does not want to have these records. But if I were a union worker I’d want the OLMS office beefed up so someone was holding labor officials accountable.”
Kline also expressed concern over talk of a possible compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act that would possibly drop the “Card Check” provision, but maintain binding arbitration and stiffer penalties for employers.
“This is legislation is bad for the American labor force not only because it takes away the secret ballot, but because it puts in binding arbitration, which takes employers and workers out of the equation and encourages a gaming of the system. It gives incentives to negotiate in bad faith.”
As an alternative, Kline has proposed the Secret Ballot Protection Act (SPBA), which would prevent unionization based solely on “Card Check.” Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.) is sponsoring the bill in the upper chamber.
Kevin Mooney is an Examiner Commentary Staff Writer for the commentary section.
