Trump DOL Reinstates Union Financial Disclosure Cut by Obama
After 3-plus years of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) promising to overturn one of Barack Obama’s gifts to Big Labor Bosses, DOL has finally acted and restored the Form T-1 , a union trust disclosure report. One can’t help to notice that had this T-1 disclosure report remained available during the past eleven years, the UAW scandal may have been discovered earlier and more corruption may have been disclosed as well. But, the Form T-1 wasn’t available during the past eleven years thanks to Obama and his appointed DOL secretary coupled with the past three-year delay reinstating the disclosure report.
Well, the delay is over and here is the link to the T-1 Trust Annual Report final rule. We hope this time the rule will actually stay enforce and help expose how Big Labor spends forced-dues money and union bosses create many of these funds through monopoly-bargaining contracts (so-called Collective bargaining Contracts (CBAs)).
Below are excerpts from the DOL T-1 Announcement:
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) today announced a final rule to establish the “Form T-1” Trust Annual Report that requires unions to file annual financial reports concerning their trusts. These annual reports will increase the financial transparency of unions and ensure that members have access to information about their union’s financial transactions. The Federal Register will publish the final rule on March 6, 2020.
The final rule requires a labor organization with total annual receipts of $250,000 or more to file a Form T-1, under certain circumstances, for each trust of the type defined by section 3(l) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Such labor organizations trigger the Form T-1 reporting requirements if, during the reporting period, the labor organization—either alone or in combination with other labor organizations—selects or appoints the majority of the members of the trust’s governing board; or contributes more than 50 percent of the trust’s receipts. Any contributions in accord with a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) shall be considered the labor organization’s contributions.
The final rule notes the recent convictions of United Auto Workers’ and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ officials for criminal acts involving funds meant to operate a training center for union members. Had the Form T-1 been in place, these acts would likely have been discovered earlier. The Form T-1 might also have deterred the perpetrators’ actions entirely.