Opinion ID: 760360
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Compliance with the LMRDA Reporting Requirement

Text: 45 Finally, FSA objected that the Union is not a bona fide labor organization under the NLRA for purposes of representing employees because it unlawfully failed and refused to file any of the financial and other reports required of all private sector unions. J.A. at 44. FSA asserted that the union's refusal to file was a violation of employees' Section 7 rights to know about union finances and other matters in order to make an informed election choice.... Id. The LMRDA requires labor unions to file certain financial disclosure reports. See 29 U.S.C. §§ 431(a), 431(b), 432 & 435; see generally Brennan v. Local Union 10, 527 F.2d 588 (9th Cir.1975). Section 2(5) of the NLRA, which makes no reference to these reporting requirements, merely defines a labor organization as including any organization of any kind ... in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work. 29 U.S.C. § 152(5). In the course of pre-election proceedings in the instant case, the Regional Director concluded that compliance with the LMRDA was not relevant to the union's status as a labor organization under the NLRA. See J.A. at 21-22. The hearing officer, and the Board in turn, adopted this conclusion. Desert Palace, Inc. v. Local 711 Union of Gaming, 194 N.L.R.B. 818, 818 n. 5, 1972 WL 4193 (1972) (The NLRB is not entrusted with the administration of the [LMRDA]. An organization's possible failure to comply with that statute should be litigated in the appropriate forum under that act, and not by the indirect and potential duplicative means of our consideration....); see also S.H. Kress & Co. v. Poor People's Union of America, 212 N.L.R.B. 132, 1974 WL 5240 (1974). In a case in which a company argued that a labor union should not be entitled to an order directing an election because of, inter alia, numerous internal problems and possible mob influence, the Board concluded: 46 The allegations made by [the company] ... concern improper or corrupt practices in the administration of internal union affairs. In ... the [LMRDA], Congress expressly dealt with such matters. It is particularly significant that the remedies provided in the LMRDA were given to individual employees directly, and to the public through the intervention of [other departments]. The theory underlying this type of remedial legislation is not to illegalize the organization itself, but to afford protection to all parties concerned by creating specific Federal rights and remedies whereby the activities of the organization and its officers and agents are regulated and subjected to judicial review in vindication of those rights. Had Congress desired to strike directly at the organization itself, Congress would have said so. 47 Alto Plastics Mfg. Corp., 136 N.L.R.B. 850, 853, 1962 WL 16493 (1962). In oral argument, FSA attempted to distinguish Alto Plastics from this case because the company in Alto Plastics had sought directly to invoke the Board's jurisdiction to hear a complaint brought under the LMRDA, whereas here, FSA is not asking the Board to adjudicate the LMRDA issue. However, this analysis ignores the basic point of Alto Glass, which is applicable here: the LMRDA is simply not relevant or material to the issue of [the Union's] status as a labor organization, at least in the circumstances of this case. Id. at 851. 11