Posts tagged federal disclosures

    CTDOL Finally Enforces the Union Transparency Law It Tried to Kill

    May 24, 2026 // Frank Ricci, Yankee Institute’s labor fellow, argued that CTDOL’s reversal came only after outside pressure and legislative scrutiny. “Laws are worthless if the powerful can simply ignore them,” he said. “This statute exists to deter the misuse of funds and stamp out corruption — yet it was treated as optional by those sworn to uphold it.” That is the real story here. Connecticut’s public-sector unions enjoy enormous privileges under state law. Government employers collect dues on their behalf. Union contracts shape public budgets. Union leaders exercise political influence at the Capitol. At minimum, members should be able to see how their own money is being used. Transparency is not anti-union. It is pro-worker. Honest union leaders should have no fear of showing members the books. Members who pay dues should not have to hire lawyers, contact legislators, or embarrass a state agency into action simply to obtain records the law already guarantees.

    UAW Files Amended Lobbying Disclosure

    May 7, 2026 // On labor and worker rights, the union has lobbied on the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, National Labor Relations Board appropriations, federal workers' collective bargaining rights, heat injury and illness prevention standards, and the Faster Labor Contracts Act. It has also opposed the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

    Commentary: Workers Need More Transparency from Unions

    June 5, 2025 // We’re not labor experts or lawyers. We’re too busy doing our day jobs. Unions should be required to disclose a lot more information. Things such as who funds unionization drives, which other unions or groups they’re affiliated with, and whether they’re paying workers to push unionization. This information could have changed the outcome at my old Trader Joe’s store. The best system would equip workers with the facts well before they’re expected to vote. If workers unionize, unions should be required to more regularly provide some of this timely information. Additionally, the Department of Labor should publish the data more often and in a more user-friendly format. For instance, at my old store, we didn’t know that the union officers would be taking salaries from the union — we only found out 18 months later, and we had never agreed to them, which upset many of my co-workers who had supported unionization.