Bret is out of the office today to interview a couple of union whistleblowers, so I’m filling in with the Union Fact of the Day.

Unions have never been known for their money management skills. And a quick check of the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) website reveals hundreds of cases where union leaders have embezzled their members’ dues dollars.

But breaking the law isn’t the only way union bosses squander their members’ money. We analyzed thousands of pension plans and determined that unions’ funds are often woefully underfunded — that is, they do not have enough money to cover the members in the plan if the plan ended today. Case in point: We determined that United Food and Commercial Workers plans are underfunded by more than $2 billion dollars.