Christmas "Coal" from the Bush Administration
DOL Implements Costly New Reporting Requirements

Effective January 2004, the U.S. Department of Labor’s new reporting requirements will change the way most international and local unions report their annual financial statements with the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). The Bush Administration and DOL claim the changes will benefit union members. But BAC President John J. Flynn counters, “These changes have nothing to do with the members since they force us to redirect money earmarked for negotiating wage and benefit improvements, safety, and organizing to bookkeeping functions. The only ones who will benefit are our adversaries – both political and open shop contractors – who will now have information to use against us. Businesses would be outraged if they were required to file similar reports.”

Flynn predicts the changes will end up costing unions more in the long run, since they’ll have to adopt new and “unorthodox” accounting methods in order to comply, adding, “we won’t back down from legislative or legal action to counter these regulations, but I urge every BAC member to remember how the Administration is forcing your Union to spend dues money when you vote in 2004.”