AUD Testifies at House Hearing on Union Democracy -- House Committee reviewing DOL’s Decision to Abandon New T-1 form

“Thank you for inviting me to testify today on behalf of the Association for Union Democracy. By way of background, the Association ("AUD") is a non-political organization that seeks to promote democracy in unions as a means of strengthening the union movement among workers and the public. AUD believes that a strong labor movement is an essential element in American democracy. It educates members concerning their rights under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act ("LMRDA") and defends them, regardless of their politics, against abuses by their union officials. 

 

AUD has been, over the past 50 years, in touch with tens of thousands of rank and file unionists and reform caucuses, a number of which have been engaged in battles against corruption or authoritarianism in their unions, and have become targets, or victims, of unlawful and undemocratic repressive tactics by their union officials.  It is on the basis of this experience that AUD has participated over the years in a dialogue with Congress over the extent to which the LMRDA has succeeded in promoting Congress' objectives, and how it has fallen short and is in need of being strengthened.

 

Personally, I have devoted nearly my entire professional career to representing the underdogs, be they subordinate union entities, union reform caucuses, or individual union members, in their struggles with higher-ups in union hierarchies bent on suppressing their rights under our labor laws, principally the LMRDA. And I have served on AUD's Board of Directors for many years. 
 

The overriding objective of the LMRDA was to rid the union movement of corruption and tyranny. Congress chose to achieve this objective by giving union members the means to clean up their unions from within by bestowing on members a host of democratic rights, including the right to elect their local officers. Of course, the cornerstone of any democracy is information without which the right to vote is meaningless - a "naked right." We recognized this axiom as we watched symbolic elections behind the Iron Curtain during the cold war, and we are observing it today as the internet has allowed populations in North Africa and the Middle East to come alive and seek, as we say in union parlance, "to throw the bums out of office." 

 

Accordingly, when enacting the LMRDA Congress charged the DOL with responsibility for promulgating rules requiring unions to become financially transparent. With information, members would be able to detect conflicts of interest and financial abuse by their elected officials whom they could then vote to remove from office, and perhaps even sue for breach of fiduciary duty. Sadly, this informational cornerstone of the LMRDA has yet to be fully realized. A few years ago, the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards ("OLMS") did take steps to improve union financial reporting requirements. While some of the changes to the reporting requirements promulgated by OLMS would arguably have been unduly burdensome for unions and of little value to members, many others would have been of great value to members, enabling them more accurately to understand how their dues are being spent, as well as to detect conflicts of interest by their elected officers. Not only would the more detailed information have enabled union members to hold miscreant officers accountable for their misdeeds, in all likelihood they would have had an important prophylactic effect by discouraging illicit behavior in the first place. 

 

Unfortunately, rather than fine-tuning these new reporting requirements, after the change of administrations in 2009, OLMS rescinded wholesale the prior administration's more detailed reporting requirements. I am submitting for the record, the written comments submitted by AUD in response to recent OLMS regulatory proposals. So be it for my remarks about the main topic of this hearing which, while most important, pales by comparison to the many, even more serious, weaknesses in the LMRDA, itself. Over the years, AUD has participated in a number of Congressional hearings and brought to the Congress' attention a host of statutory loopholes and weaknesses that urgently need to be remedied legislatively. In my written statement I have catalogued and reviewed this Congressional history which has, sadly, built a solid record in support of statutory reforms and produced a number of Bills, but no legislative relief. I would urge members of this Committee carefully to review that Statement and to recognize that the time has come to get serious about dusting off these hearing reports and Bills, and to breathe new life into the LMRDA in order to allow it, finally, to achieve the objectives of the 86th Congress when enacting it more than a half century ago.”