For all the talk of "restoring labor standards," the Obama Administration is cutting four million dollars from the Office of Labor and Management Standards' (OLMS) already small budget for 2010 (see page 13 of the budget appendix under "Employment Standards Administration").
Not coincidentally, the OLMS is the branch responsible for policing union corruption and enforcing basic transparency standards. This follows on the heels of several Big Labor-friendly executive orders that can only be described as payback by the Obama Administration for union bosses' political support. After all, who wants oversight when your union bosses allies are involved in all kinds of corrupt schemes?
Of course, all the disclosure in the world won't fix the much more fundamental problem of forced unionism, but it's telling that, in the process of exploding the size of the federal budget to unprecedented heights, Obama saw his way clear to cut funding for union oversight.
Comments
Union Financial Reports (LM2s) removed online from the DOL
What can be done to get the union financial reports available online again from the Department of Labor? I thought this was public information. They disabled the online search function, the report function, and you can no longer view the single or multiple reports online. If you want a single report, you have to order it and pay for it (.15 cents a page.) I can't even find my union to order a report.
It is public information,
It is public information, the reports can be viewed on the website for free.
Union Corruption
Having worked in a union office, I hate to say the corruption in signing up workers is unbelievable. To get a signed card which means each card would amount to union dues, the organizers would sign up illegal immigrants after telling them that they would get jobs. This would be done through a translator. If there be a check on the homecare workers employed by Service Employees International Union's Field Offices, expecially in the Northern and Southern California areas, you will find an enormous amount of illegal aliens now working and at election time voting through this union.