Posts tagged secrecy

Research ● Corruption Labor Unions

Unveiling Financial Transparency Failures in Labor Organizations

July 24, 2025 // In 2024 alone, the DOL recorded 177 union enforcement actions involving fraud, embezzlement, wire fraud, and falsified records. These are only the crimes that rise to the level of federal prosecution. Far more ethical violations, financial misuses, and questionable behaviors fall below the radar leaving union members in the dark and are quietly buried through internal repayments, hush resignations, or legal threats — all without any formal DOL investigation or public accountability. Despite 16 years as a union official, I did not become aware of the existence of LM-2 financial disclosure filings until our local filed a lawsuit against our state affiliate. Imagine that: even as a union president and past treasurer, I was unaware that both our state and national unions were required to submit LM-2 forms to the Department of Labor. If someone like me — deeply engaged in union governance — was kept in the dark, how can we expect average members to know their rights, much less exercise them?

AFL-CIO Fire Fighters Local 7 AFL-CIO Teachers AFSCME Local 2620 AFT Connecticut American Postal Workers Union audit finances Burbank bureaucratic California charities Connecticut DOJ DOL Edward Kelly embezzling Fairness Center FINANCES financial abuse financial misconduct Fire Fighters AFL-CIO firefighters grant money IAFF IAFF-FC indicted insurance International Association of Fire Fighters International Union of Operating Engineers International Union of Operating Engineers Local 465 Kurt Becker labor organizations Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act LM2 LMRDA Los Angeles Fire Department Muscular Dystrophy Association PAC fund balances pay to play Pennsylvania rank and file retirement planning secrecy Securities and Exchange Commission taxpayer money Texas Transparency Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters of Connecticut Union union membership unions United Steelworkers UPFFA Local 7 vendors wire fraud

News Article ● Labor Unionization Unions

House Committee Debates NLRB’s Fairness and Transparency

June 18, 2025 // Also at issue was how workers vote for or against unionization. When workers select a union, said Vincent Vernuccio, president of the Institute for the American Worker, they should be allowed to make that choice “securely and privately” and “without intimidation or coercion.” He cited the “true language” of the NLRA that says a “union must be chosen by the majority of all the employees in a unit.” Vernuccio advocated for the use of secret-ballot elections in place of card check, an organizing method in which a union gathers worker signatures.