Building Trades Demand DOL Act to Stop Illegal Destruction of Documents; Urges Criminal Investigation PRNewswire
Edward C. Sullivan, President of the 3- million member Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, today demanded that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao rescind the instructions given to her staff within the Office of Apprenticeship Training and Employer Labor Services (OATELS) to destroy official records concerning quality assessments of open-shop apprenticeship programs.
'It appears that rather than setting higher standards and tougher monitoring of these failing programs, the Labor Department may have decided it's easier to destroy the records that evaluate them so future requests to see them will be thwarted. This is US DOL's Freedom FROM information policy. It is unethical and unlawful and must be stopped. Construction families, our industry, and American taxpayers may be cheated by this destruction of public records.'