Richard Trumka: Unions Required to Make Public Disclosures

Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, one of the largest unions in the country, was featured Friday morning in The Wall Street Journal's Op-Ed page discussing the idea that the "assault" on corporations to disclose their campaign financing is unfair and unfounded. Proponents of keeping political expenditures secret for businesses and corporations argue 'shareholder interest' in their reasoning to not disclose expenditures. However, Trumka highlights unions have long been required to disclose their political campaign contributions in order to maintain integrity and trust in our democratic process. If unions are required to do it, it only seems logical to believe that corporations can and should disclose their political expenditures to uphold some basic tenets of democracy.

"Unions have long been required to make public disclosures of their political and other spending. Corporations that spend to influence politics have no legitimate gripe against shareholder disclosure resolutions that would require them to publicly disclose that spending—and they have ample opportunity and resources to explain why that spending advances shareholder value and the public interest."

You can read the entire article here.