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9/22/00 AUD Press Release

US Appeals Court Judge issues order in landmark Section 105 Case.

A Federal District Court Judge in the District of Maryland issued an order on September 21, 2000 directing the International Association of Machinists to take specific steps to comply with Section 105 of the LMRDA. This section states in full: "Every labor organization shall inform its members concerning the provisions of this Act." This provision is enforceable by private suit, which in this case was brought by three IAM members. (See Civil No PJM 97-2001)

For the background of this case, click here.

For the complete text of the LMRDA summary required by the court order, click here (PDF).

The complete text of the court order follows. (Click here for a PDF version.)

"IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

KEITH THOMAS, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
THE GRAND LODGE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS, et al., Defendants.

Civil No. PJM 97-2001

FINAL ORDER

Upon consideration of the parties' written proposals and the hearing held August 28, 2000, on the notification to be made by Defendants to comply with § 105 of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (the "LMRDA"), 29 U.S.C. § 415, it is

ORDERED that the summary of the LMRDA annexed as Attachment 1 to Defendants' letter to the Court dated May 26, 2000 (the "LMRDA Summary"), is, with the following revisions, hereby deemed adequate information concerning the provisions of the LMRDA: (1) the third and last sentence of the first paragraph ("For more information contact the nearest OLMS field office listed on the reverse.") shall be deleted; and (2) the name and address of the U.S. Department of Labor at the bottom of the Attachment shall be replaced by the following: "The above is only a summary of the LMRDA. The full text of the Act, which comprises Sections 401-531 of Title 29 of the United States Code, may be found in many public libraries, by writing the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Rm. N-5616, Washington, DC 20210, or on the Internet at www.dol.gov." The IAM may, if it chooses, state on the LMRDA Summary that the Summary is being published pursuant to the Court's order, that the Summary is not the editorial product of the IAM, or words to similar effect. In each instance where the IAM publishes the LMRDA Summary pursuant to this Order, the format of the LMRDA Summary shall, except where expressly noted in this Order, be substantially identical to the abovementioned Attachment 1; and it is further

ORDERED that each new member of Defendant Grand Lodge of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (the "IAM" or "union") shall receive a copy of the LMRDA Summary as part of the "IAM Owners Manual" annexed in draft form as Exhibit A to Defendants' letter to the Court dated July 31, 2000. The LMRDA Summary shall be as similar as practicable in format to Defendants' Attachment 1 to their letter of May 26, 2000, allowing that the IAM Owners Manual may be printed in a format with pages smaller than 8.5 x 11 inches. The LMRDA Summary shall be listed in the Table of Contents to the IAM Owners Manual in a manner similar to the listings for its other sections or parts; and it is further

ORDERED that the IAM shall publish the LMRDA Summary in three issues of the IAM Journal, to wit, one issue each to be published (i) within six months of the date of this Order, (ii) in the calendar year 2004, and (iii) in the calendar year 2008, but such publication shall not be made in an issue that also includes the IAM's notice pursuant to Beck v. Communications Workers of America, 487 U.S. 735 (1988). Each such notice shall be listed in the Table of Contents to the IAM Journal in a manner similar to the listing for other articles or items published in the same issue; and it is further

ORDERED that the IAM shall post the LMRDA Summary continuously on the home page of its website on the Internet/World Wide Web under the title "Union Member Rights and Officer Responsibilities Under the LMRDA." Said posting shall be in a typeface and style no less prominent than any other optional link.

___________[signed]______________
PETER J. MESSITTE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

September 19, 2000"

For further information call Carl Biers or Herman Benson at 718-564-1114 .

3/99 AUD Press Release

US Appeals Court Says: Unions must inform members of their rights.

In an landmark decision issued January 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia held that labor unions have an ongoing responsibility to inform their members of their rights under the federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. The unanimous decision of the three-judge panel reversed a decision by a lower federal district court in Maryland.

The LMRDA, also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act, guaranties civil liberties, fair elections, due process and financial integrity in unions, and gives union members whose rights have been violated recourse in the courts and to the U. S. Labor Department. Section 105 reads, in full:

"Every labor organization shall inform its members concerning the provisions of this Act."

Although this notification requirement has been on the books for over forty years, the case in which the Fourth Circuit ruled Thursday is the first in which a court has actually ruled on the legal substance of Section 105.

The suit was brought by three members of Local 834 of the International Association of Machinists in Wichita, Kansas. They are represented, pro bono, by Attorney Andrew Rotstein (212 351-4052). The Association for Union Democracy, a pro-union, nonprofit group, filed an amicus brief in support of their appeal.

The IAM argued that its one-time publication of the text of the LMRDA in its newspaper in 1959 was all that the Act required. The appeals court ruled that "the IAM's insistence that section 105 is satisfied by a single decades-old notification makes little sense."

"This is a great victory for union democracy. This decision will go way beyond the IAM. For the first time, union members have a clear cut ruling that they are entitled to be informed by their unions of their full range of democratic rights under the law," said Carl Biers, executive director of the AUD. "As more members learn of their legally protected rights in the union, such as the equal right to be nominated and run for office, to distribute literature, and speak out at union meetings, I think you will see an increase in the internal democratic life of the labor movement that will ultimately make it stronger and more effective in representing working people," said Biers.

"This is a fantastic win for the rank and file throughout the labor movement. It will affect not just the IAM, but all unions," said Keith Thomas (316)-838-7655, one of the plaintiffs.

Mr. Rotstein, attorney for the union members, praised the strong language invoked by the court. "The Fourth Circuit is emphatic: union members are unlikely to exercise the rights the LMRDA gives them if they don't know those rights exist. Now, for the first time, Congress's mechanism for assuring that union members are informed of their rights, Section 105, has been brought to life."

In 1989, the AUD submitted a petition to the U.S. Department of Labor signed by 232 members of 35 unions throughout the country asking the department to issue a regulation informing unions of the requirements of Section 105 and advising them how they might comply. The department rejected the petition on the ground that it had no authority under the law to enforce section 105, which, it held, could be enforced only by private suit. It was that decision which made the suit by the three machinists necessary.

(Full text of the decision is available on the web at http://www.law.emory.edu/4circuit/jan2000/991621.p.html)

From the decision:

"The LMRDA's protections are meaningless, however, if members do not know of their existence. Simply put, if a member does not know of his rights, he cannot exercise them. This is where section 105 kicks in. Section 105 is the statute's informational lynchpin, requiring labor organizations to inform members what rights Congress has granted them. Moreover, section 105 mandates notification not only of the provisions of Title I, but of all the rights found in the LMRDA. Section 105, in addition to informing union members of their substantive rights under the LMRDA, also notifies them of provisions authorizing causes of action against unions for infringements of these substantive rights & Senator McClellan, a principal architect of the LMRDA, noted: "I believe that if you would give to the individual members of the unions the tools with which to do it, they would pretty well clean house themselves." 105 Cong. Rec. S6476 (daily ed. April 22, 1959).

"But in order for union members to be able to do that job, they must first be made aware of the Act's enforceability provisions. Ensuring that members know of these judicial remedies is important given that the Secretary of Labor's enforcement power is limited with respect to some of LMRDA's protections. In fact, the Secretary of Labor is explicitly precluded from investigating violations of the rights contained in Title I of the Act -the "Bill of Rights of Members of Labor Organizations." See id.§ 521. Union members are thus not only the beneficiaries of the LMRDA but in many instances its sole guardians.

"Second, virtually none of the rights listed by these documents are presented as requirements of federal law. This not only lessens the stature given to the substantive protections, but it also means that union members are not informed that many of the protections listed are enforceable in federal court."

http://laws.findlaw.com/4th/991621.html

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