BILL REQ. #:  S-3444.2 

Read first time 01/20/14.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     AN ACT Relating to protecting public sector workers' rights through public disclosure of public sector unions' finances; adding a new section to chapter 41.58 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 47.64 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28B.52 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 41.56 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 41.59 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 41.76 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 41.80 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 49.39 RCW; creating a new section; prescribing penalties; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that the labor management reporting and disclosure act, passed by the United States congress in 1959, serves as an important protection of the rights of private sector union members by requiring labor organizations to publicly report information related to union finances, membership, leadership, and governance. The legislature finds that Washington public employees who are members of a labor organization lack the same rights to disclosure from their union as their private sector counterparts.
     The legislature intends for increased transparency and financial disclosure to provide public sector workers with more complete, timely, and comprehensible information about their union's financial practices, investments, solvency, and expenditures to empower them to protect their personal financial interests and exercise their democratic rights of self-governance.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 41.58 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) Each employee organization must file with the commission a report signed by its president and secretary or corresponding principal officers, and the report must contain the following information:
     (a) The name of the employee organization, its mailing address, and any other address at which it maintains its principal office or at which it keeps records;
     (b) The name and title of each of its officers; and
     (c) Detailed statements regarding the provisions made and procedures followed with respect to each of the following:
     (i) Qualifications for, or restrictions on, membership;
     (ii) Levying of assessments;
     (iii) Participating in insurance or other benefit plans;
     (iv) Authorization for disbursement of funds of the employee organization;
     (v) Audit of financial transactions of the employee organization;
     (vi) The calling of regular and special meetings;
     (vii) The selection of officers and agents;
     (viii) Discipline or removal of officers or agents;
     (ix) Fines, suspensions, and expulsions of members, including the grounds for such actions and any provision made for notice, hearing, judgment, and appeal;
     (x) Authorization for bargaining demands; and
     (xi) Ratification of contract terms.
     (2) Any change in the information required by subsection (1) of this section must be reported to the commission at the time the employee organization files with the commission the annual financial report required in subsection (3) of this section.
     (3) Each employee organization with gross annual receipts totaling more than one hundred thousand dollars must annually, not more than sixty days after the end of its fiscal year, file with the commission a report containing the following information, detailed by functional spending categories, that accurately discloses its financial condition and operations for the preceding fiscal year:
     (a) Assets and liabilities at the beginning and end of the fiscal year;
     (b) Salary, the cost of fringe benefits, allowances, and other direct or indirect disbursements to each officer and the support staff of the employee organization, as well as all contributions to state or national affiliates and any official or employee thereof;
     (c) All income received or the value of services furnished to an employee organization by either a parent affiliated labor organization or by any other labor organization on behalf of the employee organization;
     (d) A report of the total amount spent by the employee organization, and an itemization of expenditures of more than one thousand five hundred dollars for:
     (i) Contract negotiation and administration;
     (ii) Organizing activities;
     (iii) Strike activities;
     (iv) Litigation, specifying the cases and matters involved;
     (v) Public relations activities;
     (vi) Political activities, including contributions to candidates, ballot measures, member communications, and get out the vote efforts;
     (vii) Activities attempting to influence the passage or defeat of federal, state, or local legislation or the content or enforcement of federal, state, or local regulations or policies;
     (viii) Voter education and issue advocacy activities;
     (ix) Training activities for each officer of the employee organization or employee organization support staff; and
     (x) Conference, convention, and travel activities engaged in by the employee organization;
     (e) The percentage of the employee organization's total expenditures that were spent for each of the activities described in (d) of this subsection;
     (f) A list of political candidates, political organizations, charitable organizations, nonprofit organizations, and community organizations to which the employee organization contributed financial or in-kind assistance and the dollar amount of such assistance;
     (g) The name and address of any political action committees with which the employee organization is affiliated or to whom it provides contributions, and the total amount of contributions to those committees;
     (h) The initiation fee or fees required from a new or transferred member and fees for work permits required by the reporting employee organization;
     (i) The regular dues or fees or other periodic payments required for membership of the reporting employee organization;
     (j) The fee amount paid by objecting nonmembers represented by the reporting employee organization;
     (k) The number of members in good standing represented by the reporting employee organization; and
     (l) The number of nonmembers represented by the reporting employee organization.
     (4) All descriptions of expenditures reported under subsection (3) of this section must include whether the expenditure is related to collective bargaining, contract administration, or grievance processes.
     (5) The employee organization must make copies of reports or other documents filed under subsections (1) and (3) of this section available to every employee in the bargaining unit, and must annually notify every employee in the bargaining unit that the reports are available on the web site maintained by the commission.
     (6) The commission shall preserve the statements or reports filed under subsections (1) and (3) of this section for a minimum of ten years. The contents of the reports and documents filed with the commission under subsections (1) and (3) of this section are public information and must be made available to the public in the following manner: By ninety days after the effective date of this section, the commission shall operate a web site or contract for the operation of a web site that allows public access to reports, copies of reports, or copies of data and information submitted in reports, filed with the commission under subsections (1) and (3) of this section.
     (7) The commission may determine whether a violation of this section has occurred. The commission may issue and enforce an order subject to the following:
     (a) If the commission finds that an employee organization has violated this section by failing or refusing to prepare the reports as required in subsections (1) and (3) of this section or by preparing an incomplete or inaccurate report, the commission shall issue an order compelling compliance and assess a fifty dollar fine for each day each report is overdue.
     (b) The commission may make determinations and issue and enforce orders at its own discretion or as a response to a petition filed by the employer, any employee in the bargaining unit, or any member of the general public. The commission may refer matters of compliance to the state attorney general or other enforcement agency.
     (8) Any person who willfully violates this section must be fined an amount not exceeding ten thousand dollars.
     (9) Any person who knowingly makes a false statement or representation of a material fact or who knowingly fails to disclose a material fact, in any document, report, or other information required under this section must be fined an amount not exceeding ten thousand dollars.
     (10) Any person who willfully makes a false entry in or willfully conceals, withholds, or destroys any books, records, reports, or statements required to be kept by this section must be fined not more than ten thousand dollars.
     (11) Each individual required to sign reports under subsections (1) and (3) of this section is personally responsible for the filing of those reports and for any false statement that the individual knows is false contained in the reports.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 47.64 RCW to read as follows:
     Section 2 of this act applies to ferry employee organizations under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   A new section is added to chapter 28B.52 RCW to read as follows:
     Section 2 of this act applies to employee organizations under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   A new section is added to chapter 41.56 RCW to read as follows:
     The requirements applicable to employee organizations under section 2 of this act apply to bargaining representatives under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   A new section is added to chapter 41.59 RCW to read as follows:
     Section 2 of this act applies to employee organizations under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   A new section is added to chapter 41.76 RCW to read as follows:
     Section 2 of this act applies to employee organizations under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   A new section is added to chapter 41.80 RCW to read as follows:
     Section 2 of this act applies to employee organizations under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 9   A new section is added to chapter 49.39 RCW to read as follows:
     Section 2 of this act applies to bargaining representatives under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 10   This act takes effect July 1, 2014.