Please attribute following comments to NLPC’s Chairman Ken Boehm:
The exploding scandal of AFSCME District Council 37 comes from a lack of accountability of corrupt union bosses to their members. And the DC 37 mess is not the only accountability problem for AFSCME and its president, Gerald W. McEntee.
Just over a year ago Mr. McEntee was linked to the money-laundering scam that brought down disgraced-Teamsters boss Ron Carey. On November 17, 1997, Mr. Carey was disqualified from running for reelection based the findings of of U.S. District Court-appointed monitor that over $538,000 was illegally funneled into Carey’s 1996 campaign.
Those same court documents implicated Mr. McEntee. The scheme began with Carey-campaign aides and confessed criminals, Martin Davis and Jere Nash, obtained a $50,000 pledge from AFSCME’s Organizing Director Paul Booth. Union election rules clearly prohibit high-ranking officials of unions other than the Teamsters from contributing or soliciting funds for a Teamsters candidates. The rationale is the court did not want bosses from other unions corrupting the outcome of Teamsters elections.
Mr. Booth actually came through with $27,100. The court documents state that $20,000 of it was raised, in cash, from Mr. McEntee. Reportedly, McEntee solicited the cash from Paul and Michael Kelly owners of Kelly Press, a vendor to AFSCME. The documents term the scheme a “clear contravention of the Election Rules.”
Similar deals implicated AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka and Service Employees International Union President Andrew L. Stern. Mr. Trumka invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid the court-appointed monitor’s questions. A year later, Messrs. McEntee and Booth, as well as Trumka and Stern, have not been charged and still have their cushy union posts.
It goes back to the lack of accountability. DC 37 and Mr. McEntee’s
connection to the Teamsters mess are not the exceptions; they are the rule.
The continued epidemic-like problem of union corruption, whether in New
York, Washington or elsewhere, needs to be addressed. The confluence
of enormous sums of money and little accountability is a recipe for corruption
among even the most ethical of bosses. Alternatives should be explored.
But first, law enforcement officials need to clean up the proven wrongdoers
in AFSCME and elsewhere.
NOTE: A related item of interest: McEntee has hired the Kroll-O’Gara
Company (NASDAQ: KROG), a private investigative and security
firm, to probe charges of vote fraud in DC 37. Kroll
is the firm of Michael G. Cherkasky, the current Teamsters
Election Officer. An interesting nexus, given McEntee ties to the
Teamsters money-laundering scandal.
NLPC’s Organized Labor Accountability Project is investigating and exposing corruption and abuses in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and other labor organizations. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action. NLPC was a plaintiff in the lawsuit which succeeded in opening the records of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Health Care Task Force. Please visit www.nlpc.org.
Mr. Boehm is available for interviews and further comment. If you would like this statement emailed to you or the relevant pages of the Nov. 17, 1997 decision by former-Teamsters Election Officer Kenneth Conboy disqualifying Ron Carey and detailing Gerald W. McEntee’s role in the Teamsters money-laundering scandal, please contact 703-847-3088 or drene@nlpc.org.
Organized Labor Accountability Project