Obama Labor Department to Re-Define Term 'Employer' to Exclude Union Bosses – Eliminates Union Disclosure

Any day now, the U.S. Department of Labor, under former Big Labor treasurer and now Obama’s current Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, intends to announce a new definition for the term “Employer” that will protect her union boss friends.

When the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) passed, Congress defined the term “Employer” very broadly as “any employer or any group or association of employers engaged in an industry affecting commerce … an employer within the meaning of any law of the United States relating to the employment of any employees.” (Emphasis added)

Pretty broad definition: “any law of the United States;” and yet, John Lund, the union labor consultant who heads OLMS, intends to exclude all labor unions from the definition of employer, no matter how many employees the union has. There is one exception to DOL’s proposed rule, and that is that if the union is trying to organize employees of another union or influence its own employees, then the word “Employer” would pertain to union bosses.

Why the change? Because John Lund wants to exclude himself and other union labor consultants from the onerous new “Employer” and “Labor Consultants” regulations that DOL is currently proposing. If union bosses were covered by the ‘Employer’ definition, then Big Labor law firms like the NEA’s Bredhoff & Kaiser would be required to file the new reports in order to comply with its new regulations. This Employer definition change will effectively eliminate union bosses from ever having to disclose timely details of their payments to Justice for Janitors, Interfaith Worker Justice, or any other Big Labor front groups participating in their labor persuader activities.

So while Obama’s Labor Department claims to want employees to be made aware of who is trying to influence them, they are actually helping hiding this very type of information from employees regarding all of Big Labor band of rogues who create chaos at the work site, for vendors, City Halls, and Capitol Buildings.

The Obama Big Labor Department has already promulgated union boss-friendly regulations that ignore statutory language that compels union officials to report sources of receipts by labor organizations, and language that required reporting benefits paid to union officers and employees. Solis also eliminated disclosure of Big Labor front groups like the AFL-CIO-controlled American Rights At Work (ARAW), during her tenure as its treasurer. She even served as ARAW treasurer as a sitting member of Congress. (Note: this regulation is currently under challenge by union member Chris Mosquera with the help of The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation.)

You see, the LMRDA was intended to allow workers the opportunity to see the cards of the players, union and management. Senator John F. Kennedy had more direct words:

“I do not say that the [LMRDA], or any law, under our Constitution, can eliminate Jimmy Hoffa. But we can eliminate the evil practices by which he and his associates rose to power, their conflict-of-interest transactions, their destruction of union books, their manipulation of trusteeships, their rigged elections and conventions, their appointments of ex-convicts as union officials, their use of management middlemen, their use of union funds to build personal financial empires, their private arrangements with employers, their shakedowns and tribute for unloading interstate trucks, their falsification of union reports, their reprisals against honest members…” (LMRDA Legislative History)

Solis and her handpicked Big Labor team at DOL have been systematically shredding the protections that the LMRDA was supposed to provide employees from unscrupulous union bosses and unscrupulous employers. Within a few months of taking office at the Labor Department Solis eliminated simple disclosure rules for labor unions that would have exposed union bosses “use of union funds to build personal financial empires.”

With the soon to be announced LM-30 rescissions and regulatory changes, Solis will eliminate conflict-of-interest reporting for thousands of union bosses and employees, and, ignoring statutory language, essentially eliminate labor unions from the definition of “Employer.”

Ignoring her obligations under the LMRDA, Solis has systematically helped Big Labor conceal its uses of forced-dues money. This new rule will hide union bosses’ relationships with labor persuaders, such as ACORN, that are hired to influence workers.

It is time for the House Education & Workforce Committee to have John Lund testify under oath about these shenanigans.