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Is your union in compliance with Section 105 of the LMRDA?
Unions covered by the Labor
Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) are required to notify
members of their rights under the law. Section 105 of the LMRDA states:
"Every labor organization shall inform its members concerning the
provisions of this Act." AUD
has been working with union members to make this provision a reality.
This page reports on some of our progress.
Petition to the Labor Department: Enforce section 105 for federal employees.
AUD has initiated a petition for federal employees asking the Department of Labor to enforce Section 105 of the LMRDA, requiring unions to notify members of their rights under the LMRDA... SUCCESS! -- The Department of Labor issued a new rule requiring Federal Employee unions to notify members of their rights. See the text of the rule. Congratulations to all who circulated and signed this petition!
The text of the petition:
"Whereas public policy as embodied in the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act requires unions to provide basic democratic rights to their members; and in that connection, LMRDA section 105 requires unions to inform their members of the provisions of the act, and
"Whereas a federal appeals court has ruled that unions have a continuing responsibility to comply with section 105, and
"Whereas the Civil Service Reform Act affords the same general rights to members of unions of federal government employee unions, and
"Whereas the U.S. Labor Department is endowed with the authority and the responsibility for enforcing the relevant section of the Civil Service Reform Act, and
"Whereas the Labor Department has already promulgated regulations which, by analogy, incorporate virtually all provisions of the LMRDA for application to unions of federal employees, with the unexplained exception of section 105,
"Therefore the undersigned petition the Labor Department to promptly take steps to issue a regulation which, like section 105, requires unions of federal employees to inform their members of the provisions of the act and which specifies measures by which the Labor Department will enforce that section."
IBT member complaints followed by 105 posting.
(4/13/05) Some time ago, the Teamster who sent this letter to James Hoffa had asked him to comply with LMRDA Section 105. He was told to await the union's new website. Came the new site, but nothing there. And so, after consulting AUD, he wrote again:
Dear Mr.Hoffa:
My name is Eric A. King and I'm a 19-year member of Local 767 in Forest Hill, Tx... Section 105 of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act requires that labor unions inform their members of the provisions of that Bill... Several other labor unions including the United Auto Workers and International Association of Machinists put their LMRDA notices in a link located on their respective home pages. (The Teamsters did have an outdated DOL link to LMRDA rights on the old Legal Dept. Page, but that page was never accessible through a direct link like most other departments were.) It's pointless to have a "notice" on your site if you can't link to it within the site. The new Teamsters site doesn't even list Teamster departments, and I can't find an LMRDA notice anywhere. Mr. Hoffa, I know you care about me and my fellow 1.4 million Teamsters. Show that you care by following the law, and put the LMRDA notice on your website as federal law requires you."
The IBT website now includes a notice (as of 4/13/05). Posting the notice does not guarantee that the union officers will obey the law (see the many articles on the struggle for democracy in the IBT on this website), but it should help members who visit the Teamster site learn about their legal rights as union members.
Section 105 Compliance Scorecard:
(last updated 7/9/03)
When the LMRDA was first adopted in 1959, a few unions --- very few --- took a limited one-time step to comply. Forty years pass. An old generation of unionists is replaced by a new one. Unions ignore the law. With one minor exception, there is no compliance until September 2000 when two machinists are successful in their federal lawsuit to compel their union to comply.
On this scoreboard, to be updated from time to time, AUD will record the story of Section 105 compliance --- or evasion. To get your own national or international union on the list, you must begin by formally requesting it to comply. For further information, contact AUD. We are currently assisting members of a number of unions with Section 105 cases.
Compliance:
- MMP. Masters, Mates, and Pilots: An exceptional case. Several years ago, when Arthur Holdeman was MMP vice president for the Gulf, he reprinted the Act and distributed copies to all licensed deck officers in his constituency at his own expense. Some years later, even before the court's decision in the IAM case, the MMP national office published a summary of the Act in its newsletter.
- IAMAW. International Association of Machinists: After losing a lawsuit in federal court, the union agreed to permanently post a summary of the Act on its website, to distribute a copy to new members, and to publish it in the IAM Journal in the years 2000, 2004, and 2008.
Partial
Compliance:
- UAW. United Auto Workers: In December 2002, seemingly on its own in initiative, it posted the full text of the Act on its website with a prominent paragraph on its home page directing readers to it. No publication or other distribution of the summary, however.
- UA. United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters: Faced with a lawsuit filed by two members, the UA agreed to publish a summary of the Act in its Journal in 2001, 2004, and 2008 and to distribute the summary to new members. When the district court ruled that these actions constituted sufficient compliance, attorney Arthur Fox appealed and asked the Federal Circuit Court to go beyond the Machinist standard and require the UA to append the summary at the rear of its constitution booklet as well as to post it on its website.
- IBEW. A member
writes, "After only one letter to International President Edwin
D. Hill we have [a link to] the text of the LMRDA on the IBEW website."
But, it's not obvious. You have to go to "links" then find
the 14th bullet point down "Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure
Act" -- no description of what it is about or why it might concern
members.. The link leads you to Cornell University Library's online
edition of the Act. No publication or other distribution of the easier-to-use
summary, however.
- HERE. Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees: In a February, 2002 letter to Arthur Fox, HERE President John Wilhelm promised to publish the full text of the Act in its magazine once every year in order to avoid a threatened lawsuit. Members: has this promise been kept?
- SIU. Seafarers'
International Union: In response to a threatened lawsuit, SIU twice
published a summary of the Act as part of the President's "Know
Your Rights" column in the union newspaper. SIU's website also
includes the summary of the LMRDA. Members say new members are not provided
the summary and that it has not reappeared in the newspaper.
Limited and Evasive Compliance:
- Ironworkers Union: After being threatened with a lawsuit, it published the summary in the June, 2001 issue of the Iron Worker magazine. Nothing More.
- UTU. United Transportation Union: After being threatened with a lawsuit, it promised to abide by the Machinist decision and promptly posted the summary on its website and published it once in its magazine. However, it subsequently removed the website notice, thereby casting doubt on its readiness to remain in continuing compliance.
- UBCJ. United Brotherhood of Carpenters: In an apparent effort to forestall a threatened lawsuit, it printed a summary of the Act in an issue of its Journal on dark blue paper which cannot be photocopied. Nothing more.
- NALC. National
Association of Letter Carriers: In response to a member's demand and
a threatened lawsuit, it published a summary of the Act in the February,
2002 Postal Record. Nothing more.
Non-Compliance:
- IATSE. International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees: At its 2001 convention, a group of delegates introduced a motion to require the union to post a summary of the Act on its website. Motion defeated.
- NTEU. National Treasury Employees Union: In rejecting a member's demand in 2001, NTEU President Colleen Kelley asserted that because her union represented government employees, it was exempt from any duty to inform its members about their statutory, democratic protections.
- US DOL. United
States Department of Labor: it does not have authority to compel unions
to comply with Section 105, one reason unions have been able to ignore
their duty to inform members about their rights under the LMRDA for
the past 40-plus years. (A bill is pending in Congress to give the DOL
enforcement authority.) However, the DOL does have responsibility under
the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 for protecting the rights of federal
unionists, rights that parallel those in the LMRDA. And, for the past
25 years, the DOL has failed to compel federal unions (including NTEU)
to inform their members about their democratic rights. In the Spring
of 2002, AUD petitioned the DOL to promulgate a new rule that would
mimic Section 105 and require unions representing federal workers to
inform their members about their rights (see below). DOL has not responded
to the petition.
Click here to check your union's homepage.
Click here for link to the IAM home page (www.iamaw.org)
Click here for link to UDR article on the Thomas v. IAM case.
Other articles on
LMRDA Section 105:
Federal
employees can help enforce members' right to know
Notification
of CSRA rights for Federal employees: text of regulation
Update:
Still Subverting Union Democracy in 2005
Victory:
Federal unions must let their members know
Section
105 Update: Obeying union democracy law, belatedly
Pipefitters win
points in battle for democracy
Some unions hate to say, "you
have legal rights."
Court to IAM: Inform
members of their rights
Is your union in compliance with Section 105
of the LMRDA?
Text of LMRDA Section 105
Disclaimer: the information presented on this website is general and intended for educational purposes. It is not a substitute for practical legal advice on any specific situation.
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