Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)

From literally day one, the Obama administration has made clear its intent to back off from investigating corruption within organized labor. At least one member of the House of Representatives has expressed concern over this direction in policy. On June 23, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a press release highlighting his objection to the ongoing rollback of union financial reporting requirements by the Department of Labor (DOL). His intent was to publicize a letter he'd sent the previous day to Denise Boucher, policy and disclosure director of the department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS).

Those who read this publication soon enough come across the acronym, “OLMS” – as in the Office of Labor-Management Standards.  It’s the agency within the U.S. Department of Labor that processes union financial disclosure forms, and where necessary, investigates irregularities.  It’s a relatively low-cost way to keep union bosses, employees and associates honest.  But the Democrat-controlled 110^th Congress, not unexpectedly, is on the verge of clipping its wings.  Almost all union political spending – and lots of it – goes to Democratic candidates or party committees.  On Tuesday night, July 17, the House of Representatives voted 237-186 to reject an amendment sponsored by Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., to restore a cut in OLMS funding to the overall Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education fiscal 2008 appropriations bill (H.R. 3043).  The current OLMS budget is $47.8 million; the approved measure would reduce that sum to $45.7 million.  That might not seem much of a cut, but it should be put into context.

It may not have been an actual empire over which the Duff family presided in their native Chicago.  But it was hardly a Mom-and-Pop operation either.  Family patriarch John Duff, Jr., his wife Patricia, and their sons had grown wealthy over the decades, having cultivated ties both to City Hall and the underworld.  But the past few years have seen the Duffs fall upon hard times, after lengthy investigations by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) and Office of Inspector General, plus the FBI and the IRS.  The most important chapter may have been closed in U.S. District Court this May 18-20, with the sentencing of four persons for fraud, money laundering and racketeering.

With the addition of a unit in the Ofc. of Labor Mgmt. Standards (OLMS), labor dept. officials are now prepared to more closely scrutinize intl. unions' compliance with fed. financial accounting laws.  making up for steady cuts in OLMS staff during the Clinton admin.  According to its budget request for FY 2005, OLMS staff fell from 425 in FY 1985 to 242 in FY 2001.  One of the consequences of that decline is that 10 of the nation's largest unions have never been audited by OLMS.