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.The concern about discrimination among individualcandidates is surely satisfied by a rule that allows anycandidate access to the membership before the conventionas well as by a rule that denies all candidates such access.Indeed, arguably opening the channels of communication toall candidates as soon as possible better serves the interestin leveling the playing field because it offsets the inherentadvantage that incumbents and their allies may possessthrough their control of the union press and the electoral listduring the four years in which they have been in office.49Employers are precluded from contributing financial support to candidates for union office.Literature, if distributed at a reducedrate for one candidate, must be distributed at a reduced rate forall.If one candidate is allowed to copy membership lists, allcandidates must have the same opportunity.These privilegesmust be extended equally.The 1991 Teamsters ElectionActually the most ambitious electoral reform of any labor unionhas been undertaken pursuant to a consent decree entered intoin 1989 between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters andthe U.S.Department of Justice.The decree followed anunsuccessful challenge to the 1986 election by the Teamsters fora Democratic Union (TDU), an unincorporated associationcomprised of Teamster members whose stated purpose was toreform and democratize the IBT.50 Suit was commenced againstthe teamsters by the Justice Department under the Racketeeringand Corruption Act (RICO).51 The consent decree provided forcourt-page pagePage 169appointed officers who would oversee certain Teamsteroperations, particularly the supervision and certification of theresults of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' 1991elections.An administrator decides all disciplinary or trusteeshipcases and has the right to veto any union expenditures,appointments, or contracts other than collective bargainingagreements.Prior to the consent decree, all convention delegates werechosen through regular local union elections, and the conventionselected the principal officers of the union: the generalpresident, the general secretary-treasurer and sixteen vicepresidents.Under the 1989 consent decree all of these officeswere elected by direct rank and file secret balloting in 1991.Themajor dissident candidate, Ron Cary of New York, was electedPresident of the union with his slate on the executive board.Thechanges initiated and the actual results of the election appear toherald a new era of more democratically responsive leadership inthe union which had been notorious for undemocraticprocedures and corruption in the past.Under the consent decreean independent review board is to be established with the powerto investigate and discipline corruption within the union.Onemember of the board is to be appointed by the attorney general,one by the union, and the third by the agreement of the first twoappointees. Unions and the Political ProcessPolitical activity is another area of tension between unions andindividual union members.One must recall Gompers' statementthat labor would reward its friends and punish its enemies.Though the unions are not attached to a political party, they arevery much involved in the political process.Unions haveestablished special political arms to support those who arefriendly to organized labor's position on a wide variety of issues.It is, however, a crime for any labor organization to "make acontribution or expenditure in connection with any election atwhich Presidential and Vice-Presidential electors or a Senator orRepresentative in.Congress ought to bepage pagePage 170voted for" or in connection with a related primary convention.Such activity is prohibited by section 304 of the Taft-Hartley Act.Under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,unions and corporations may use their monies in connection withthe election of federal candidates for the purpose of sendingpolitical messages to their own members or shareholders, forconducting nonpartisan registration and get-out-the-votecampaigns directed at such groups, and as seed money to solicitcontributions to a union or corporate political action committee.Any direct contribution by labor unions to the treasuries offederal political candidates is prohibited.52 None of the above-described prohibitions has any bearing on union contributions tostate campaigns.A nonunion member, compelled to pay dues under a unionsecurity provision in the collective bargaining agreement, mayobject to having his or her dues money used on behalf of certaincandidates or political programs, but a union may spend dues asit wishes for purposes germane to collective bargaining
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