Why No Union Pay Czar? It Helps To be a Friend of Obama!

Obama lifts accountability and transparency rules for Unions as he cuts CEO pay of bailout firms!

Remember the shock this week when Obama’s pay czar announced up to a 90% cut in the salaries of executives at firms which took federal bailout help? The thinking is that those firms, which include Chrysler and General Motors took government help and will live by government rules.

Fair enough perhaps but what about the Auto Unions? They got a huge handout in both GM and Chrylser bailouts. The Auto workers union will end up owning Chrysler. Yet, in a move which got no publicity at all, not even on Fox News, the Obama Administration quietly moved to reduce transparency and accountability requirements for ALL labor unions:

The U.S. Department of Labor has formally rescinded a series of reporting changes designed to enhance union disclosure.

The aim of these rule changes is to weaken union oversight requirements – a trend this Administration started with its FY 2010 budget, which cut $4.4 million from the Office of Labor Management Standards, more than a 10 percent reduction in its overall budget. Judging by the profligate spending this Administration has applied to nearly every other department – giving the federal budget a nearly 10 percent boost in spending, cutting union oversight seems an odd place to “save money” – unless reducing transparency, and not saving money, were their aims.

Part of the transparency roll back for union bosses includes the following items that the Labor Department will no longer require of unions:

•Disclose the total value of benefits received by union officers and employees;
•Disclose the names of parties buying and selling union assets; or
•Itemize union receipts

Federal labor law is intended to ensure that rank-and-file union members have a full, equal, and democratic voice in union affairs. Armed with knowledge, union members will have better tools to elect leaders who work in their best interest — and to hold accountable union officials who serve their own interests.

What else do you expect in the age of the Obama Thugocracy!