Posts tagged Office of Labor-Management Standards
Trump Is Making Major Concessions To Union Bosses. Is It Worth It?
August 15, 2025 // The Institute for the American Worker noted that union members who had funds embezzled by their leaders in recent years would now have less insight into how their dues were being spent. For example, in 2024, the Secretary-Treasurer of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 2198 pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $63,000; under the proposed rule, the group would no longer have to file an LM-2.
Michael Watson: Improving Union Annual Reporting
July 3, 2025 // Especially following the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which “collection” is funding what spending is important information for union members, and they deserve ready, single-site access. (Citizens United overturned a Taft-Hartley Act–derived ban on using union dues revenues for independent expenditures on behalf of candidates.) They should not need to cross-reference Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports and Labor Department reports to infer which pot of money paid for which spending. Instead, the Labor Department or Congress should revise the LM-2 form to require labor unions to specify the funding source, perhaps by adding a new schedule for expenditures to or by the “Separate Segregated Fund” (the technical name for the “second collection” pot of money) or by requiring specification of the source of funds for Schedule 16 and 17 expenditures related to politics and advocacy.
US Department of Labor announces senior Trump Administration appointees
March 13, 2025 // The U.S. Department of Labor today announced senior political appointees who will help Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer execute President Donald Trump’s mission of putting American workers and retirees first.
House Seeks Information from Unions on Policies to Prevent Corruption
March 20, 2024 // Each of the letters asks for a comprehensive description of the policies and procedures the union has in place to monitor and deter fraud, corruption, and improper accounting, including any third-party audits, the types of training and education provided to prevent fraud or corruption, internal reporting mechanisms, and disciplinary policies. These questions apply both to each union’s headquarters as well as its locals. U.S. House Subpoenas UAW Local over Controversial Resolution Chairwoman Foxx cites specific examples of corruption for each union. For example, in the Teamsters letter, she cites a state senator from Illinois who was indicted for taking more than $245,000 in fraudulent income and other benefits from Teamsters Joint Council 25 while purporting to be a union organizer.
The Year of the Union…Corruption?
February 1, 2024 // According to an annual report by the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), over 155 criminal investigations into union-related activity were completed over the past year. As a result, the OLMS distributed 39 indictments and collected 57 convictions for numerous offenses ranging from petty theft to labor racketeering. While these findings are certainly disturbing, they likely only represent a drop in the bucket of national union corruption. This is because, according to the Department of Labor, it is simply “not feasible” to audit every union. Instead, forced to optimize limited resources against widespread corruption, the OLMS has developed an auditing methodology for unions whose “metrics suggest the possibility that there may have been criminal activity.” In 2023, the OLMS conducted 222 of these targeted audits, ultimately finding that 18.3% of these cases warranted criminal action. With nearly 1/5 of audits uncovering some form of wrongdoing, even in the limited sampling size permitted by OLMS resources, it is fair to say that corruption is entrenched within the American labor movement.
Whiteside County Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Embezzling From Labor Organization
July 6, 2023 // BRENT TOPPERT, 43, of Morrison, Ill., was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston to five months in federal prison, to be followed by six months of home detention. Toppert was also fined $5,000. Toppert was the elected Financial Secretary-Treasurer of Local 238 of the Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America, a labor organization that represents members who provide security at a nuclear plant in Cordova, Ill. Toppert pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this year and admitted that from 2013 to 2018 he made several unauthorized withdrawals from SPFPA’s bank account, totaling $55,140.98, which he converted to his personal use.
Former Union President Admits Filing False Report to Hide Embezzlement; Agrees to Repay Union $36,000
June 21, 2023 // Felix Luciano, the former President of Local 2805 chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees and former Department of Homeland Security officer, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting he filed a false report to conceal his embezzlement of thousands of dollars in union dues. Local 2805 is a labor union which represents Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees in San Diego and Imperial Counties. Additionally, Luciano agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and repay Local 2805 $36,000 as money that he embezzled. According to court records, Luciano was president of Local 2805. From January of 2016 to December of 2018, Luciano used some of Local 2805’s money for a variety of personal expenses, including shopping, travel reimbursements, groceries, dining, dry cleaning, and paying for non-union accounts. He did this by writing checks from Local 2805’s checking account and using Local 2805’s debit and credit cards to directly pay personal expenses. As a result of Luciano’s actions, he caused a total loss of $36,000 to Local 2805.
Southeast Iowa man sentenced for embezzlement and theft of labor union assets
April 21, 2023 // According to court records, James Darin Boatman, 53, of New London, embezzled and stole union funds for his personal use. Boatman is the former president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 617 Union. UFCW Local 617 members include production workers and skilled trade workers at the Conagra plant in Fort Madison. An investigation revealed Boatman, the president of the union from 2010 until 2019, set up a credit card in the union’s name, without authorization, and from at least May 2017 to August 2019 used the card for personal expenses, including vacations to Florida, large repairs on his personal vehicle, and to pay for attorney representation for an unrelated matter.
Suspect unions’ effort to evade state law could hurt marijuana workers
April 13, 2023 // In many states with adult-use legalization, state law requires legal marijuana businesses to sign a labor peace agreement, or LPA, with a “bona fide” labor union before receiving final licensing. The LPAs are contracts in which an employer agrees to be neutral during a labor-organizing campaign. In return, the union agrees not to picket, boycott or otherwise interfere with the employer’s business. States that require would-be cannabis industry operators to secure labor peace agreements under state law include some of the U.S. industry’s biggest markets: California and New York as well as New Jersey and Connecticut.
Reps Foxx and Allen Call For Greater OLMS Oversight
November 18, 2022 // It’s no secret unions aren’t always the best arbiters of members’ funds. Just look at the UAW — several high ranking officials recently went to prison for a wide-scale corruption scandal that included embezzling hundreds of thousands of members’ dues dollars. For the sake of union members across the country, let’s hope we get better insight to OLMS enforcement sooner rather than later.