Senator Stevens Votes for More Corruption
24 OCTOBER 2007
202-785-0266
Senator Stevens Votes for More Corruption
One of Only Two Republicans to Strip Union Monitoring Funds
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) condemned the vote by Senator Stevens (R-Alaska) to cut funding for the union financial monitoring agency, the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), by over $2 million dollars.
At a time when unions are increasingly desperate to maintain their relevance, OLMS investigations have resulted in 780 convictions and more than $100 million in restitution for union members. But according to AWF’s policy director Brian Johnson, now, “Sen. Stevens has voted to give union bosses a free pass from the control and intimidation of Alaskan workers.”
Senator Sessions (R-Ala.) amendment to the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill would have restored the $2 million needed to bring OLMS funding back to FY 2007 levels, plus an additional $3 million taken from general administrative funding. The amendment failed 47-46 without a single Democrat vote in favor. Sen. Stevens was one of only two Republicans to support this budget cut; Sen. Alren Specter (R-Pa.) was the other.
As this amendment fails, unions have found a break. Johnson says, “On the heels of a legislative season filled with anti-worker freedom legislation, cutting the OLMS budget gives union corruption the seal of approval to resume crime and fiscal improprieties without consequence. If there is any doubt regarding the correlation between OLMS funding and union monitoring, think again. Consider that the agency’s budget increased 50 percent from 2001 to 2006 and at that same time convictions increased 26 percent – while union membership was on the decline.”
With direct, positive correlations between increased funding and a rise in convictions of corrupt union members, Johnson adds, “there is no justification for Senator Stevens’ total alignment with big labor and against Alaskan workers’ rights.”
