Posts tagged Transparency
UAW Faction Seeks to Oust President Fain in Sign of Union Unrest
August 6, 2025 // Turnout at some locals has been small. At the Sterling Heights plant that voted over the weekend, 63 workers showed up with all but one voting to oust Fain, Pillsbury said. The plant has 6,200 employees. If the union challenges any of the victories because of low voter turnout or for any other reason, he said he wants enough wins to maintain the six victories needed to push ahead.
Union Reporting Threshold Threatens Worker Transparency
August 3, 2025 // Another issue is the lack of plain language on the LM 2 forms themselves. For example, they categorize money coming into the union as “receipts” — yet to most union members, a receipt is something someone receives after paying for something. The forms should be at a grade 10 reading level and broken down in one line, a simple explanation
LaborLab Exposes Employers’ Use of Anti-Union Persuaders in Recent Filings
July 29, 2025 // Among the notable cases, The Tustin Group in Fairfield, NJ, and American Rock Products in Yakima, WA, were found to have engaged persuader services at significant hourly rates. American Rock Products’ case is particularly striking as the union won the election, yet the consulting agreement was filed post-election. Similarly, Alro Steel Corporation in Jackson, MI, and Medix Ambulance Service in Hillsboro, OR, have also been implicated, with the former’s union losing the election and the latter’s case still open. These revelations underscore the importance of transparency and adherence to labor laws in protecting workers’ rights to organize. The delayed filings by some employers raise questions about the effectiveness of current regulations and the need for stricter enforcement to prevent undue influence on union elections
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?
Op-ed: Trump DOL Rule Would Reduce Union Transparency
July 2, 2025 // Keeping the reporting threshold at $250,000 in receipts is a good way to increase union transparency automatically. As that has become a smaller number in real terms over time, more unions have been subject to the highest level of scrutiny in their reports. Conservatives should applaud this win for public accountability. Instead, the Trump administration is looking to shield hundreds of unions from greater accountability by raising the reporting threshold. It’s not as though unions have been doing anything for Trump, as the AFL-CIO and government employee unions remain some of his top political adversaries.
Why longtime labor ally Dina Titus quietly helped kill efforts to unionize her office, ex-staff say
June 24, 2025 // In a statement to The Nevada Independent, Titus said that she “actually welcomed a union because I thought it would help standardize operations and bring more accountability to the office.” She referred to ex-staffers’ stories as “unsubstantiated claims by former, anonymous, disgruntled employees.” “Jobs in my office are hard jobs and I have high standards,” Titus said. “I demand a lot of my staff but no more than I demand of myself because I believe that’s what the people of District 1 deserve. I’m not apologizing for this. People don’t send us back here and pay our salaries to drink lattes and view Tik-Tok from 9-5, Mon.-Fri. That’s not how my constituents’ lives work.” But the behaviors Titus, who turned 75 in May, displayed during and after the unionization effort demonstrate why, the ex-staffers said, they felt the need to collectively organize and push for more formal office policies in the first place. “It felt like everybody else should be unionizing [and] can unionize,” one staffer said. “But when it came to our office, and it came to actually impacting her — that's when labor did not matter anymore.”
Teachers at The Met School vote to unionize with NEARI
June 21, 2025 // “Now, we’ve organized to ensure that The Met continues to thrive, with smaller class sizes, greater transparency, and a real voice in shaping the future of our school.”
CBS News Digital Staffers Say Fight for Contract Improvements Continue a Year After WGA Unionization
June 20, 2025 // The unionized journalist, editors and social media producers call on management to meet “in good faith” ahead of their current last scheduled bargaining date of June 24
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.
UAW watchdog faults Fain, portrays him as angry foul-mouthed leader who targeted underling
June 18, 2025 // United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain illegitimately retaliated against the second most-powerful leader of the union in stripping her of power after threatening to "slit" the "throats" of anyone who "messed" with his inner circle, a government watchdog said late Tuesday. The watchdog, lawyer Neil Barofsky, leveled the allegation in a quarterly report delivered to U.S. District Judge David Lawson, who gained broad control of a deal to oversee the UAW in 2020 following a years-long public corruption scandal. The scandal sent two former union presidents, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams, to federal prison along with several others convicted of breaking labor laws, stealing union funds and receiving bribes, kickbacks and illegal benefits from contractors and auto executives.