Landmark Reports NEA Flouting Federal Labor Reporting Law, Union Hides Millions In Political Expenditures

4/22/2002 - Landmark's news release announcing its complaint to the Labor Department over the reporting of political activities at the NEA.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Eric Christensen

April 22, 2002

703)689-2370

(703) 689-2373 (fax)

info@landmarklegal.org

http://www.landmarklegal.org

(Herndon, VA)...Landmark Legal Foundation today filed an unprecedented complaint with the U.S. Labor Department charging the National Education Association (NEA) with concealing the union's use of millions of dollars in tax-exempt teachers’ dues and fees for political activities since at least 1994.

The federal Labor and Management Reporting Act (LMRDA) requires labor unions to report their revenues and expenditures annually to the Department of Labor on a form LM-2. Unions must report their financial activities in sufficient detail to accurately reflect the union’s operations. A union and its leaders may be liable for substantial civil and criminal penalties for violating the LMRDA.

Landmark analyzed thousands of pages of internal union documents, as well as the NEA’s Labor Department and other federal filings since 1994, which show the expenditure of millions of dollars in tax-exempt revenue to recruit and support candidates for local, state and federal elective office. None of these expenditures are specifically reported, thereby making it impossible for NEA members to determine the full extent of the union’s political activities. Landmark’s complaint also details the union’s failure to document its direct participation in a nation-wide coordinated campaign with Democratic Party campaign organizations, the AFL-CIO and Emily’s List during the same period.

"The LMRDA was enacted to ensure that union members could make informed, responsible decisions about their union’s leadership and its activities," explained Landmark President Mark R. Levin. "The NEA’s leadership spends millions of tax-exempt dollars on political activities every year, in coordination with the Democratic National Committee, yet reports none of it on its Labor Department filings."

Landmark’s complaint today to the Labor Department follows earlier complaints filed in 2000 and 2001 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on the NEA’s unreported political expenditures and activities, which violate federal tax and election laws.

"The NEA obviously doesn’t want America’s teachers, parents and taxpayers to know how it is using tax-exempt membership dues and fees," explained Levin. "But federal labor reporting laws require the union to tell truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about its political activities and expenditures."

Founded in 1976, Landmark Legal Foundation was the first public interest law firm to champion education reform in America’s courts. In 1989, Landmark successfully represented low-income families who wanted to take advantage of school vouchers in Milwaukee, WI. The Foundation also successfully represented the school board in Wilkinsburg, PA, in that state’s first school privatization litigation. Landmark has offices in Herndon, VA, and Kansas City, MO.

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Landmark’s complaint is available online at Landmark’s website at http://www.landmarklegal.org.