State Collective Bargaining Agreements Go Public
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Brian M Johnson
13 NOVEMBER 2007
202-785-0266
State Labor Agreements Go Public
Labor Group Applauds Online Disclosure of Collective Bargaining
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) commended the recent efforts of the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS) to increase union transparency by making collective bargaining agreements available in their online public disclosure room.
“Despite recent budget cuts and lawsuits,” says AWF’s policy director Brian Johnson, “the OLMS continues to prevail by providing the general public and rank-and-file union members with the tools necessary to ensure union accountability. By making collective bargaining agreements public, the OLMS is ensuring open and honest competition and is shinning a light on the true extortionist nature these bargaining laws have over state budgets.”
Since 2001, the OLMS has convicted over 780 union members and officials on charges of financial corruption and restored over $110 million in dues that were misused. However the OLMS has become the recent targets of many attacks by the Democrats in Congress. The most recent battle concerned restoring OLMS funding back to its FY2007 levels plus an additional $3 million in funding. This budget-neutral solution was defeated by a vote of 47-48 in the U.S. Senate.
“The OLMS is the only financial monitoring agency that ensures union corruption does not go unchecked. By cutting their budget, those in Congress are sending a clear message to the average working American that Big Labor should be allowed to run rampant over worker freedom.”
The AWF however remains optimistic despite these budget cuts as OLMS convictions continue to rise every month.
AWF Website:
www.workerfreedom.org
