US DOL Announces Plan to Increase Disclosure of Employer Spending on Union Campaigns

February 9, 2011

By: Colin M. Leonard

The United States Department of Labor announced recently that its Office of Labor-Management Standards will begin collecting data on employers and their representatives who are involved in representation cases before the National Labor Relations Board. The initiative, termed the Persuader Reporting Orientation Program or “PROP,” may be part of the Department of Labor’s efforts to stem the tide of union losses in organizing campaigns. We reported previously on the Agency’s plan to revise the longstanding interpretation of the “advice exception” to reporting obligations under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (“LMRDA”) 29 U.S.C. § 433.

Pursuant to PROP, the Office of Labor-Management Standards will review certain petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board. It will then send what the Agency calls an “orientation letter” to the employer and its representative, “informing them of their potential reporting obligations under the LMRDA.” Under the LMRDA, an employer is required to file an annual report with the federal government in which it discloses agreements (and associated payments), where a purpose of the agreement is to persuade employees with respect to their right to organize. A willful failure to file such reports can result in criminal liability.
 

An employer may be less likely to spend money on third party advisors in connection with an organizing campaign if it is required to disclose those expenditures. The Agency’s efforts to increase disclosure thus appear to be designed to provide a disincentive for employers to use third parties to assist in opposing an organizing campaign.

Coincidentally, the day after the Department of Labor announced the PROP initiative, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a press release indicating that the percentage of unionized private sector workers in the United States had dropped to 6.9% in 2010, the lowest level since records have been kept. New York, however, is the most heavily unionized state in the nation, with 24.2% of public and private sector employees represented by unions. North Carolina has the lowest percentage, 3.2%.