New Proposed Rules for Employer “Persuaders” from the USDOL

The US Department of Labor has issued new proposed rules which would require lawyers and consultants for employers during Union representation elections to report all their activities in reports that the public could see and read.

Right now, anyone who works for employers during Union representation elections is supposed to register and file reports with the USDOL. But the rules for this have been watered down and weak, so very few report.  In particular, the lawyers who run employer Union-busting campaigns almost never report, by pretending that intimidating and coercing workers is protected by the attorney-client secrecy privilege.

Now, finally, the USDOL is trying to make sure that the law is actually followed by proposing these new regulations. They would force all the employer “ghosts” who are in the background running anti-Union campaigns to come out into the “sunshine” of full reporting. These proposed regulations are just to insure there is full “transparency” in Union representation elections.

For more information on the proposed rules, go to the USDOL’s website, www.dol.gov, and search for “persuaders”.