Unions, U.S. Fight Over Union Audits

[Rose Siding]

HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. labor union locals are being audited by teams of federal government inspectors in what officials say is part of a labor law enforcement campaign and union leaders charge is payback for opposing President Bush's reelection.

"We kind of looked at it as something of a shot across the bow of labor," said Bob Frase, executive assistant to the secretary-treasurer of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE).
...
The AFL-CIO said the audits are meant to burden all labor unions.
...
At a PACE local representing workers at two Houston-area refineries, the Labor Department auditors arrived in early January and stayed for two weeks, said David Taylor, secretary-treasurer of PACE local No. 4-227.

"They came in every day and stayed all day," Taylor said. "They said it was our first audit since 1983. My secretary's been here 25 years and she said she had never seen this before."

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=TCM40MVQ4QFI0CRBAEKSFEY?type=businessNews&storyID=7843164

[ZR2]

1. What the hell are they bitching about ?

Try being a small business owner and having to deal with state tax audits EVERY year that take about a week to complete.

[w4rma]

2. Maybe you both have something to bitch about. hmm? Join forces. (nt)

[shraby]

3. Wasn't that part of Nixon's troubles

using the IRS for political purposed?

[starwolf]

4. Labor unions have been besmirched

by the actions of a few bad apples who refuse to honestly account for funds. Until they clean up, this is a reasonable thing to do to protect the workers/members.

[w4rma]

5. LOL, you don't honestly think that's the reason Repugs are auditing them

do you? C'mon, you're not that gullible. It's all about power.

[starwolf]

7. Its not just repugs

Union my brother is in was audited while Clinton was prez.

[w4rma]

9. Audits do happen

randomly, also.

And if it wasn't random, then you need to remember that Clinton is DLC.

[starwolf]

11. He said his was due to complaints

But I dont have any more detail than that.

[cap]

6. no, this is an attempt to put labor unions out of business

a lot of locals are run by volunteers... not professional auditors.

[Unforgiven]

8. I can vouch for this as well

it's going to be a long miserable four or more years of paybacks from the Bush Corporate Crime Family. And if we financially burden or break a few unions in the process, well so much the better.

[Ernesto]

10. Oh now I get it...............

Because of current budget deficits (created by chimpco) many programs (for the powerless) must be cut. However, while the government is broke, the IRS has magically decided to mandate limited resources to fuck with organized labor (chimpco enemy #1).
Makes perfect sense (if you are a repuke).