State Labor Council fined for campaign finance violations

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Labor Council will pay the state $16,622 over the organization’s failure to file lobbyist employer reports of in-kind and cash contributions properly and on time.

The state attorney general’s office said Friday the group agreed to a civil penalty of $18,500, with half suspended for four years as long as there are no further violations of the law; $5,240 in attorney fees and court costs; and $2,132 in investigation costs to the Public Disclosure Commission.

The attorney general’s office received a complaint last year from the Freedom Foundation against WSLC alleging multiple violations of the state’s public disclosure laws.

The PDC determined the labor group had not violated state law on the majority of the allegations. However, the PDC reported that WSLC appeared to have violated the requirement to report in-kind and cash contributions it made to state political committees, including its affiliated committees, on its lobbyist employer reports.

The WSLC is the state federation of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), with about 400,000 Washington union members.