Unions sue to block transparency

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A new regulation recently finalized by the Department of Labor will increase union members’ ability to access financial information about their union so they can better monitor the activity of union officers and staff, evaluate whether union membership is in their interests, and hold unions accountable when they step out of line.

Unsurprisingly, rather than embrace the added accountability towards union members, the AFL-CIO — a national federation of most major labor unions — promptly filed suit in federal court seeking to strike down the regulation on a procedural technicality. In a statement announcing the lawsuit, recently reelected AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler slammed the Trump administration for “[coming] after workers.”

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Today, these disclosures are publicly accessible online for any union member to peruse.

Although the forms and the accompanying disclosure requirements have evolved over the years, the last time they were updated was 2003. The continued occurrence of massive scandals among Big Labor’s ranks, such as those that rocked the United Auto Workers, proved that a refresh was overdue.

To that end, the first Trump administration in late 2020 proposed a rule to revise the LM-2 reports filed by most labor organizations and to create a new LM-2 Long Form with additional information fields that would be completed by only the largest unions.

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Although workers and union-watchdog organizations backed the rule, the inauguration of President Joe Biden — who had promised to be the “most pro-union president you’ve ever seen” — ensured no further action on the regulation would be forthcoming.

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If the rule takes effect as scheduled, union members can look forward to more detailed information about their unions’ sources of revenue and the management of union investments and assets. They will be able to differentiate between union expenditures for political purposes and lobbying. Similarly, they will be able to see how their union allocates resources to representing them in contract negotiation and administration versus unionizing new workplaces or industries.

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Unfortunately, the unions’ similarly shameful opposition to the Trump administration’s latest attempt to prioritize the interests of American workers is yet another example of the dues-takers looking out for themselves first.

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