Department of Labor’s Support of Anti-Union Group Exposed

The Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions, recently released 108 pages of documents it received from the Department of Labor (DOL) on the relationship between the DOL and one of the most anti-union groups in the country. The DOL released the documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by CREW to obtain records concerning contacts between the DOL and Richard Berman, Executive Director of the anti-union group Center for Union Facts.

A review of the documents by CREW exposed “a close and supportive relationship between” the DOL and Berman’s group. “These documents make it clear that under the leadership of Secretary Chao, the Department of Labor has become anti-labor,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW. “It is disgraceful that the very department designed to focus on improving the lives of American laborers is disseminating anti-union propaganda and developing relationships with anti-union organizations. American workers deserve better.”

A copy of the DOL documents and CREW’s FOIA are available on CREW’s website, www.citizensforethics.org.