While the vast majority of union officers and employees do their work diligently and without incident, unfortunately criminal violations do sometimes occur and, when they do, the union is the victim. The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) conducts criminal investigations of alleged violations of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) and related laws. These investigations by OLMS District Offices involve issues such as embezzlements of union funds and the willful failure to file complete and accurate financial and other reports with OLMS or to maintain records. These investigations may result in legal enforcement actions.
OLMS monitors activities involving union funds to help safeguard such funds from criminal conduct. There are over 20,000 unions that file LM reports with OLMS and, among those unions, upwards of 200,000 elected officers and employees. While the vast majority of those officers and employees do their work diligently and without incident, unfortunately criminal violations of the LMRDA and other laws governing union finances do occur and, when they do, the union and its members are the victim, not the criminal. As the chart below shows during the past five years OLMS has opened on average around 200 criminal investigations each year based on a variety of sources, including OLMS initiatives such as audits of union finances and analyses of submitted financial reports, as well as other sources such as reports by union officers, members and employees, other government agencies, and publicly reported news stories. Those investigations have led to between 48 and 69 criminal convictions over the last five years and over the longer span of the last 50 years have ranged from a low of 36 to a high of 195 convictions. While many of those convicted were union officers or employees, others were not. For example, out of the 57 criminal convictions reported for 2023, 4 were convictions of employers, vendors or others whose criminal conduct affected union funds.
| Investigations & Convictions by Fiscal Year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Grand Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Investigations | 243 | 234 | 248 | 223 | 241 | 223 | 202 | 176 | 155 | 177 | 2122 |
| Convictions | 68 | 87 | 79 | 72 | 60 | 69 | 48 | 54 | 57 | 56 | 650 |
Criminal Enforcement Actions
- Criminal Actions - 2024
- Criminal Actions - 2023
- Criminal Actions - 2022
- Criminal Actions - 2021
- Criminal Actions - 2020
- Criminal Actions - 2019
- Criminal Actions - 2018
- Criminal Actions - 2017
- Criminal Actions - 2016
- Criminal Actions - 2015
- Criminal Actions - 2014
- Criminal Actions - 2013
- Criminal Actions - 2012
- Criminal Actions - 2011
- Criminal Actions - 2010
- Criminal Actions - 2009
- Criminal Actions - 2001 - 2008
OLMS Historical Enforcement Data
Last Updated: 10-21-24