March 29, 2011: Want to see your local’s financial report for 2010? Most U.S. unions—locals, joint councils, Internationals—must file a 2010 financial report with the U.S. Department of Labor by March 31. They are available on-line.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) can help you get the form, and analyze it. Give TDU a call at 313-842-2600 or email tdu [at] tdu.org.

These are U.S. Department of Labor LM-2 reports, and all unions which include any workers in private industry must file one.

To search the Department of Labor website yourself, click here and then follow these steps:

• Under “Union Name” select “IBT-Teamsters” from the drop down menu.
  

• Scroll down to “Fiscal Year” and select “2010”.
  

• Leave all the other boxes blank. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click, “Submit”.

This will bring up a list of all the LM-2s that have been filed with the DOL for 2010. Find the Local, Joint Council or Conference you’re looking for and click on their “2010 Report” to open the report. To find officer salaries in the report go to, “Schedule 11 – All Officers and Disbursements to Officers”.

The DOL posts LM-2s as they’re submitted, so not all of them are available yet. If you can’t find your local’s LM-2 for 2010 simply check back later. You can also click on 2009 under Fiscal Year.

All unions (including unions with only public workers) must also file an IRS 990 tax return, which is available, but not as informative as the LM-2 report. For advice on how to obtain those, contact TDU.