IT IS “FOLLOW THE UNION MONEY” TIME AGAIN

Want to know how your union is spending dues money, e.g., who is getting paid what, which outside contractors have been hired, how often the union went to arbitration last year, etc.? Well, as of December 31^st each year union whose fiscal year ends in October—and most do, file reports with the Dep’t. of Labor detailing all that. And all those reports are available to you on the web.  Here is how to access your union’s report or any other unions.

Step 1- Enter the DOL.GOV web site

Step 2- Click on ”Agencies” in the top blue line.

Step 3- Click on “Office of Labor-Management Standards.”

Step 4- Click on “Search Labor Management Reports” in the top blue line.

Step 5- Click on “Union Reports.”

Step 6- After giving the page a few seconds to fully load, click on the down arrow in the “Abbr” box.  That will show you an alphabetical list of all the unions that file reports.

Step 7- Scroll down and click on the union you want. That should generate a list of all the locals in that union as well as any regional and national entities. Put your cursor on the one you want.

Step 8- On that same screen move over to the right to identify the specific union entity you want.  For example, if you want the national headquarters, move over two headings to the right of the “Abbr” column and click on the down arrow in the “Designation Name” column. That will give you a drop-down menu from which you can select the entity you want.  If you know the number of the local you want, enter it in the column labelled “Designation Number.” If you do not know the number, use the “City” column to find all the locals in that city.

Step 9- Before you leave this page, scroll down. There you will find a box offering one-click access to all recent reports of that union entity, and below that you should find the current and recent union Constitution and Bylaws.

Step 10- Go back up the page and click on the blue report number in the second column from the left.  That will bring up the actual union report.

Step 11- Here are some things I usually look at.

1. Line 21- How many members the union has. I like to see whether the union added or lost members.  Schedule 13 further down in the report will break out that single number into various kinds of members.
2. Lines 22-29 will give you a good idea of how much surplus money the union has in various investments and other assets.  If there is a big change from the prior year to the current one, don’t be afraid to ask your union’s leadership why. (See also Schedules 3, 4 and 5 further down in the report for more details about the union’s investments.)
3. Lines 50-55 give you a big picture view of how the union is spending its money. Compare line 49 to 68.  That will tell you if the union had surplus cash last year or ran a loss. A substantial surplus raises the question of what should the union be doing with that money, e.g., lower dues, run a new member incentive program, establish some benefit from local officers and stewards, etc. (This is also a major issue of interest to agency management because the larger the union surplus the better the arguments the agency has that the union should cover its own expenses rather than ask the agency to pick them up.)
4. Schedule 11 will show how much money the union officers received.
5. Schedule 12 will show the same information for union staff. (As we have said in other FEDSMILL posts, unions should think twice before paying large salaries, e.g., more than the U.S. Vice President earns. It not only gives agency managers a strong argument at the bargaining table that the union should pay more of its own expenses rather than ask the agency to fund them.  It also provides anti-union media and Congressional folks a great talking point to slam unions and demand concessions.)
6. Schedule 14 will show you various outside entities that paid the union money, e.g., insurance companies, renters, etc.
7. Schedule 15 lists the larger expenses related to the representational services the union provided, e.g., arbitrators, consultants, outside attorneys, etc.
8. Schedule 17 will list any “Contributions, Gifts and Grants” the union made.

These Dep’t. of Labor reports along with the IRS 990 Reports which you can search on ProPublica and other sites are invaluable to those interested in how a particular part of the union runs. Although union executive board members probably get a big chunk of the data in these federal reports delivered to them at their meetings, it is rare that that information ever gets down to local officers, much less members.

If you are looking into a local or other union entity that takes in less than $25,000 a year, you will probably find that it filed only a “short form” report with the Dep’t. of Labor.