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(05-08) 17:55 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
Unions should be required to make public more details of their internal finances, the Labor
Department said Thursday as it proposed new changes to union disclosure forms.
Unions are required every year to file financial disclosure forms with the Labor
Department. But federal officials are proposing a more detailed form, and penalizing small
unions who get into trouble with the law by prohibiting them from filing a simple form.
The proposed changes will be printed on Monday in the Federal Register.
"This proposed rule provides union members with more complete information about union
finances and will better protect their legal rights to transparency and accountability under
the law," said Don Todd, deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Labor-Management
Standards.
Patrick Szymanski, lawyer for the Change to Win labor organization, said there was no
indication that the current disclosure forms were inadequate.
"Its another attempt by the Department of Management to find a way to tie unions up in
red tape so they cant continue to organize workers," he said.
"The administration is showing once again that it would rather spend its time on a witch
hunt aimed at unions than on advancing the interests of workers," AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney said in a statement.
Some of the changes in the proposed rule include:
_ Asking union officials and employees making more than $10,000 to itemize their
benefits like life insurance, pensions and deferred compensation.
The current form allows benefits to be combined and disclosed as one number, leaving the
