One of the few reforms that I can think of that actually makes things better is the recent reform of the reporting requirements for labor unions. Secretary of Labor Chao has succeeded in amending the forms on which unions have to declare how they spent their funds. Whereas union political spending used to be mostly a matter of guesswork, now there are some hard numbers.
This editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal discusses the National Education Association’s disclosure; to no one’s surprise, a lot of money goes to support NEA politicking. What is somewhat surprising, however, is the fact that it also doles out money to a host of leftist policy groups whose missions have nothing to do with education.
Big Labor tried frantically to block Secretary Chao’s initiative, claiming that compliance would be too costly. The real reason should be obvious: union members might not be happy about having to pay dues to help support all sorts of leftist groups. In fact, they can’t legally be forced to pay for things that are not germane to collective bargaining — that’s what the Supreme Court held in the Beck case. With the truth about union spending now exposed to sunlight, I’d expect to see an increase in the number of workers who want to avail themselves of their “Beck” rights.