U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)

Political spending can be seen as consisting of the kind that goes recognized and the kind that doesn't. And when the money comes from unions, the gap between the two can be enormous in favor of the latter. On July 10, the Wall Street Journal published an article by reporters Tom McGinty and Brody Mullins, "Political Spending by Unions Far Exceeds Direct Donations," concluding that organized labor during 2005-11 spent $4.4 billion on federal election campaigns and lobbying. Only $1.1 billion of that represented sums reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Congress.

It has the raw material for a movie. The plot, so far, is incomplete. Over the last few months the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has been rocked by public allegations by a former benefits executive that top officials of SAG-sponsored benefit plans, including CEO Bruce Dow, looted between $5 million and $10 million. The whistleblower, Craig Simmons, who had been fired a half-year before, this September filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor requesting that DOL conduct criminal and civil probes. Simmons also alleges that Dow instructed him to deceive trustees and authorities about the losses. The Labor Department has yet to comment on whether it has begun an investigation. Lawyers for the SAG, which controls about $2.5 billion in plan assets, are denying all charges. Yet significantly, the union hired an investigator to conduct a review, which since has been completed.

If Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Solicitor M. Patricia Smith are pushing the limits of radical advocacy, Leon Rodriguez might just be the person to push them further. Rodriguez, for nearly a year the chief of staff at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, is President Obama's presumptive nominee for administrator of DOL's Wage and Hour Division. The president announced on December 2 his intent to name him to the long-vacant post. But like the previous (unsuccessful) nominee, Lorelei Boylan, Rodriguez, an experienced prosecutor, has an expressed belief that what counts is equality of result, not equality under the law - even if employers have to pay the toll. If Obama is genuine about his recently stated desire to promote business development, he should find another candidate.

The abrupt departure by Andrew Stern this spring as president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), after 14 years on the job, blindsided a lot of observers. After all, he was a shadow cabinet member of the Obama administration. Reported ongoing federal investigations into two unrelated, and possibly illegal, financial arrangements may shed light on his motives. The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times each ran stories last Tuesday stating the FBI and the Department of Labor have been interviewing persons potentially knowledgeable about the possibility that Stern: 1) received unauthorized funds from a book he'd authored several years ago; and 2) approved the disbursement of funds to pay for a Southern California SEIU local official's no-show job who eventually was convicted in an unrelated kickback scheme. Stern denies his involvement in these activities and indeed even the fact of an investigation.