(The following article appeared on the Washington Post website on January 23.)
WASHINGTON — The Labor Department must wait until July — six months later than it planned — to impose new rules that require unions to provide more extensive reporting on their finances, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler agreed with the AFL-CIO that its member unions and others deserved more than two months’ notice to comply with the new rules, but she found that Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao had not been arbitrary or capricious in adopting the new standards.
Chao had defended the rules as a way to prevent corrupt union leaders from siphoning off millions of dollars in dues for extravagant personal purposes, as was recently uncovered in teachers unions in Washington and Miami.
Union leaders said the Bush administration is trying to foist burdensome regulations on organizations that are often its political opponents.