Letter to President Bush on Union Finances

George W. Bush

President

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

I would like to commend you for the efforts by your Department of Labor to open up the heretofore-secretive process of union finances. By putting the financial disclosure forms, known as LM-2, on line and making them accessible and searchable, you have removed a significant barrier to public scrutiny of union spending and activities.

The LM-2 form serves an important role in our democracy. Just as any business or non-profit must disclose their finances for the protection of shareholders and members, so must unions. However, getting this information proved difficult indeed. To get a copy of the ‘public’ financial disclosure forms potential union members or other interested parties would have go to the Department of Labor and request it. This excursion could take up to several hours with limits placed on the number of forms you were allowed to receive. If a workplace is being organized don’t the potential union members have a right to all available information on the union that is seeking to unionize them? And if media is allowed to dissect every miniscule detail of business transactions why shouldn’t unions be subject to similar scrutiny?

By putting the LM 2 forms on the web and making them accessible to the everyday citizenry, Secretary Chao has taken a bold step forward. I commend the Administration and hope that other agencies may be looking for similar ways to open up the bureaucratic processes to help average citizens understand the quagmire of government.

Sincerely,

Paul Beckner

President