States can adopt their own union financial disclosure rules

Evergreen Freedom Foundation ^ | 1-11-05 | Mike Reitz

[truth49]

A Wall Street Journal editorial recently blasted the National Education Association (NEA) for spending $65 million last year to support social causes that have little to do with education. The NEA’s recently-disclosed expenditures are public because of new U.S. Department of Labor financial reporting regulations that require labor organizations to publish detailed reports of how members’ dues are spent.

Among the National Education Association’s expenditures: Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Amnesty International, AIDS Walk Washington, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Fund to Protect Social Security.

The new Department of Labor regulations mark the first revisions to the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) of 1959, which ordered unions to make annual financial disclosure to members. With the updated regulation, members can now evaluate whether their union officials are supporting worthwhile causes.

These new reporting requirements, however, apply only to labor unions that represent private-sector members. (Although it primarily represents public school teachers, the NEA is required to file the reports because it also represents a handful of privately employed members.) Unions that exclusively represent public employees—such as the Washington Education Association and the Washington Federation of State Employees—have no such obligation to provide detailed financial reports to their members.

Washington’s state employee collective bargaining agreements, which mandate union representation for tens of thousands of general government and higher education employees, increase the need for transparency and full disclosure of union spending practices. State employees are forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, but cannot demand to know how their dues are spent.

Union transparency is valuable for several reasons: it allows workers to make informed decisions about the value of union representation; it encourages union officials to spend member dues on legitimate bargaining and grievance issues, member services and intra-union education activities; and it safeguards members’ dues against mismanagement.

Conclusion
State legislatures interested in securing full financial accountability for union members can enact model legislation provided by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This legislation mandates disclosure similar to the federal Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, including union income and expenditures, staff salaries and benefits, and operating and program expenses.

Model Legislation

[truth49]

ping

[DeweyCA]

These new Department of Labor rules were pushed by Bush, and strongly opposed by Dems. Bush knew what he was doing and thankfully he was willing to fight for it. Thank you President Bush. Now please fight illegal immigration with the same fortitude.

[sionnsar]

Thanks to truth49 for the ping.

Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[The SISU kid]

Bump