On Thursday, May 8 the Manhattan Federal Court convicted Frank “Frankie” Proscia for defrauding his union’s benefit funds underscores the importance of two new Labor Department proposals to increase union financial transparency.

Proscia, a shop steward of Local 157, Carpenters and Joiners of America, was found guilty of conspiring with another steward, Michael “Mickey” Annucci, to understate the number of carpenters employed to lower the contractor’s fund contributions. He was sentenced to five months in prison, a $5,000 fine, and two years of supervised release. Annucci will be sentenced on June 13.

Proscia’s actions reduced funds for workers benefits, and resulted in lower wages for unreported carpenters. Judge Barbara Jones of the U.S. District Court, terming the offense “extremely serious,” said that union officials “need to understand they will go to prison if they show no respect for the law.”

On Monday, in an attempt to make it easier for union members to identify corrupt behavior, the Labor Department proposed increasing union financial transparency by asking unions provide more information on a wide-range of activities so that members can better see how their leaders spend their dues. This is another step made by Elaine Chao, the longest-serving secretary of labor since the 12-year tenure of Frances Perkins.

The May initiative follows a March proposal requiring unions to file a disclosure form for the first time about the finances of union-managed trusts, such as credit unions, strike funds, pension and welfare plans, and building funds. These new rules advance the workers’ interests.

One proposed change is requiring unions to report benefits such as health and retirement plan contributions, which have increased in recent years. Previously, they only had to report union officials’ wages and salaries, which they still will have to do.

These expenses are listed on Internal Revenue Service tax forms, but not on financial disclosure forms filed with the Labor Department. IRS documents are laborious to find, whereas Labor Department disclosure forms are available at union-reports.dol.gov.

The president of the Service Employees International Union, Andy Stern, received $47,000 in benefits in 2006, chump change compared to the $150 million in union funds he has promised to spend to support Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. Perhaps Mr. Stern hopes for an administration that won’t look too closely at his management of his union’s funds.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who represents millions of workers, is against the new rule. On May 9 he declared, “the Administration is showing again that it would rather spend its time on a witch hunt aimed at unions than on advancing the interests of workers.” But the new rules do precisely that: protect workers’ interests.

Perhaps one reason that Mr. Sweeney objects is that new forms would require more disclosure of his income. In 2006, Mr. Sweeney, AFL-CIO Treasurer Richard Trumka, and Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson received a total of $180,000 in deferred compensation and benefits.

The same year, 27 Teamsters’ bosses, including President James Hoffa, received $560,000 in benefits and compensation reported on IRS forms but not on Labor Department forms. The heads of the American Federation of Teachers Association, Edward McElroy, Nathaniel LaCour, and Antonia Cortese, accumulated more than $100,000 in benefits not reported to the Labor Department, and therefore was unknown to the union’s members.

The Labor Department also wants to require disclosure of union expenses paid directly to vendors, which is currently not the case. Now, if a union official on a trip goes golfing, pays his greens fees and travel expenses out-of-pocket, and is later reimbursed by the union, the union must disclose the reimbursements. But if the union pays a hotel or a country club directly, such spending is not reported, and union members can’t track such uses of their dues.

The proposed new financial disclosure form also would require that purchasers and sellers of fixed assets be identified by the union so that assets are not sold below their market value or purchased at overly high prices from “friendly” individuals.

Last year the Laborers 1298, a Long Island union representing road and heavy construction workers, sold vehicles listed as having a value of $180,883 for $150,500, and the Laborers national council purchased $2.26 million in corporate bonds for $2.29 million, giving an extra $30,000 of union money to unknown sellers.

New rules on trusts would affect New York’s Amalgamated Bank, which is owned by UNITE HERE, a union which represents apparel, restaurant, and hotel workers. The bank, through its LongView Funds, manages $12 billion in workers’ retirement savings. Workers have a right to know what goes on with these funds.

In her seven-year tenure at the Labor Department, Ms. Chao has changed the department from an agency that protected union bosses from their members to one that protects the members from their union bosses by making it more financially transparent. These new rules are her last hurrah, and she is to be congratulated. Just ask the members of Local 157, Carpenters and Joiners of America.