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Bush Deals Unions Compliance Nightmare October 20, 2003 Labor unions will soon be saddled with onerous Labor Department reporting requirements that mandate burdensome compliance cost and effort. While the administrative change for national, regional and local unions with income of more than $250,000 had been proposed nearly a year ago, labor unionswith the help of many members of Congresshad been able to keep the extreme measures at bay. Coming as it did one day after the House of Representatives soundly defeated the Bush administrations proposal for changing overtime eligibility, the so-called LM-2 rules are an obvious payback to unions by the administration for successfully convincing Congress to oppose the overtime regs. "I question the timing and the motivation for the administrations imposition of these new financial reporting rules for unions," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "Their purported concern for union members dues stands in bold contrast to their nonchalance at the minimal information required of corporations and other nonprofit organizations." Many members of Congress agreed that the rules were punitive and did little to assure accurate disclosure. Even 30 Republican House members, in addition to Democrats, had urged the Labor Department to make them less burdensome. The regulations, which are likely to become official by December, require unions to collect massive amounts of minute information at huge expense. They are expected to burden more than 5,000 labor organizations with these tasks, leaving less time for contract negotiations, grievance handling, organizing and other core union activities. They are set to go into effect in 2005.
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Union Foes Fail In Financial Scrutiny Bill...
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