Union Member Strikes Back at the Obama-Big Labor Regulatory Attack on Employees

Today, when UFCW union member Chris Mosquera and his attorney from the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation file his lawsuit in U.S. District Court challenging the Obama-SEIU-AFL-CIO-UFCW Empire, Mr. Mosquera officially stands up to the Obama Administration. Mr. Mosquera challenges the Administration’s attacks on individual workers such as it usurpation of power from individuals through Administration’s new Big Labor Boss-friendly reg that helps conceal forced union dues shenanigans.

You may remember that within hours of arriving in the Oval Office, President Obama dispatched orders to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). These orders were not to immediately begin turning around the economy or start finding ways to encourage employers to hire more people. No. Obama’s orders were much less bold and more typical of Tammany Hall payback to Big Labor Bosses who threw a billion dollars’ worth of forced-dues assets (Time, Talent, and Treasure) behind Obama and Democrat political campaigns.

Before the Big Labor insiders at DOL made time to “help” employees and the unemployed, they set about rescinding the January 2009 union financial disclosure reform; they declared the agency would no longer enforce the 2008 union officer conflict-of-interest reports; they stopped state teacher unions’ financial disclosures; and they rescinded the requirement that unions disclose non-union enterprises that they control.

Mr. Mosquera’s actions are both courageous and necessary, not only for workers who live in forced-unionism states such as Maryland and Indiana, but for any employee who is or may be covered by a collective bargaining contract with an LMRDA-covered labor union.

Mr. Mosquera stands as a shining torch to light way for others across the U.S. to challenge the Obama Administration in court whenever the Empire exceeds its authority.

Brief Background of the Lawsuit Issue

When Labor Secretary Hilda Solis rescinded the January 2009 LM-2 Final Rule regarding union financial disclosure she exceeded her power because:

1. She cannot use burden as a justification for rescission
2. She replaced the rescinded LM-2 rule with a rule that actually increases opportunities to evade and circumvent the LMRDA, and;
3. The LMRDA specifically requires the reporting and disclosure of “receipts of any kind and the sources thereof.” [201(b)(2)] When Secretary Solis rescinded the January 2009 LM-2 final rule, she eliminated disclosure of the “sources” of most receipts, in direct contradiction of the Act’s statutory language.

When Congress enacted the LMRDA, it created a one-way regulatory ratchet that requires the Secretary of Labor to limit changes to reporting and disclosure that will increase either reporting or disclosure, or increase both. Congress explicitly does not authorize the Secretary to reduce public reporting or disclosure, even for supposed “burden” claims by the Secretary. The burden claims are weighed in the regulatory process that created the 2009 LM-2 final rule. The statutory language specifically states:

SEC. 208 . The Secretary shall have authority to issue, amend, and rescind rules and regulations prescribing the form and publication of reports required to be filed under this title and such other reasonable rules and regulations (including rules prescribing reports concerning trusts in which a labor organization is interested) as he may find necessary to prevent the circumvention or evasion of such reporting requirements. (Emphasis added)