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PM Trudeau says "thanks" to Big Labour for helping secure his majority Government, by waiving the law requiring unions to track spending and report publicly - a legal requirement and practice for unions in the US for many decades.
I thought I'd prepare a little tutorial of screenshots to show you how to conduct an easy online search at the US Department of Labor so you can see what rank and file workers are missing out on in Canada, and what unions are eager to conceal from the public.
You can search any union financial report beginning at the DOL's online disclosure portal here:http://www.dol.gov/olms/index.htm
For this tutorial I chose the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and the US presidential election year of 2012.
Simply select the union from a drop down window and select year for reports you wish to view. Next you'll see a query report of all financial reports available for SEIU in 2012, including individual locals and national headquarters. Select the national headquarters and the report will display for your viewing.
What can you learn?
Screen shot four I provided the summary tables for expenditures, showing convenient comparisons of activities to represent union workers to activities devoted to lobbying and political action. You'll see that in 2012, the SEIU spent $69.4 million on activities representing their members; and $113.8 million on political activities and lobbying, for example. Or that the SEIU natl HQ reimbursed its administration (read executives and staff) a hefty $86.5 million.
Rank and file members could then see, in screenshot five, what they pay union executives to do, by broad categories. For example, at the top you'll note Mary Kay Henry, Intl President, earns $256,086 and spends 7% of her time representing members, 52% on political activities and lobbying, and 39% of her time on administrative duties. I'll leave it to you to count how many vice-presidents that union has, and other executive members.
Finally, screenshot six shows a handful of the contracts paid out: litigation settlements, expenses paid for the UAW, etc.
Rank and file members in Canada rarely if ever get such detail from their local, nor see how their dues move between the local and national executives, or between unions? All of this is routine in the US - under GOP and Democratic presidents. And labour unions haven't gone belly up, charities you'll find on the reports are doing fabulously well - it's just about transparency. Rank and file and the public both can judge whether unions buy too much lobbying or political favours - or if they are devoting enough time and resources to representing them.
Now that Big Labour in Canada did its favour to the Liberal government, it appears the Liberal government is going to return the favour by keeping the books dark.
So much for the vaunted Trudeau transparency.
I thought I'd prepare a little tutorial of screenshots to show you how to conduct an easy online search at the US Department of Labor so you can see what rank and file workers are missing out on in Canada, and what unions are eager to conceal from the public.
You can search any union financial report beginning at the DOL's online disclosure portal here:http://www.dol.gov/olms/index.htm
For this tutorial I chose the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and the US presidential election year of 2012.
Simply select the union from a drop down window and select year for reports you wish to view. Next you'll see a query report of all financial reports available for SEIU in 2012, including individual locals and national headquarters. Select the national headquarters and the report will display for your viewing.
What can you learn?
Screen shot four I provided the summary tables for expenditures, showing convenient comparisons of activities to represent union workers to activities devoted to lobbying and political action. You'll see that in 2012, the SEIU spent $69.4 million on activities representing their members; and $113.8 million on political activities and lobbying, for example. Or that the SEIU natl HQ reimbursed its administration (read executives and staff) a hefty $86.5 million.
Rank and file members could then see, in screenshot five, what they pay union executives to do, by broad categories. For example, at the top you'll note Mary Kay Henry, Intl President, earns $256,086 and spends 7% of her time representing members, 52% on political activities and lobbying, and 39% of her time on administrative duties. I'll leave it to you to count how many vice-presidents that union has, and other executive members.
Finally, screenshot six shows a handful of the contracts paid out: litigation settlements, expenses paid for the UAW, etc.
Rank and file members in Canada rarely if ever get such detail from their local, nor see how their dues move between the local and national executives, or between unions? All of this is routine in the US - under GOP and Democratic presidents. And labour unions haven't gone belly up, charities you'll find on the reports are doing fabulously well - it's just about transparency. Rank and file and the public both can judge whether unions buy too much lobbying or political favours - or if they are devoting enough time and resources to representing them.
Now that Big Labour in Canada did its favour to the Liberal government, it appears the Liberal government is going to return the favour by keeping the books dark.
So much for the vaunted Trudeau transparency.
