Hanley "retired" on Jul. 31 as a condition of another deal to avoid civil charges brought by HERE's court-appointed monitor Kurt W. Muellenberg. Hanley allegedly ran "ghost Local 77" in Rhinelander, Wis., near his and other union bosses' vacation homes as a way to have vacation costs covered by HERE. Hanley was reportedly shocked to learn his agreement to "retire" would not shield him from criminal prosecution. The boss threatened to back out of the civil deal, but allegedly DOJ's criminal immunity deal satisfied him. Critics say the criminal immunity deal raises many questions about the value of DOJ's reform efforts and what DOJ got in return for the deal.
QUESTIONS FOR HERE PRESIDENT JOHN J. WILHELM
Question 1: In September 1998, when U.S. District Court-appointed
Monitor Kurt W. Muellenberg issued his report detailing widespread financial
abuse of your union by ex-president Edward T. Hanley you told the New
York Times that you wanted put the issue of union corruption “behind
us.” What better way do that than to defund ex-president Hanley’s
$267,000 annual salary that he is set to receive for life. In light
of Hanley’s recent immunity deals to avoid civil and criminal prosecution
for abusing HERE over the last 25 years, don’t you think of the members
of HERE deserve that $267,000 per year back?
Question 2: After Mullenberg’s report -- which you criticized for “focusing on the negative” -- you pledged to implement every recommendation Mullenberg made for cleaning up and avoiding union corruption in HERE. What, if any, actions have you undertaken or accomplished? How much money have you allocated out of HERE’s budget for audits and monitoring of the international and locals on a on-going basis?
COMMENT/DEMAND
“Wilhelm claims the corruption has ended in HERE; yet corrupt
ex-president Edward Hanley is set to receive a $267,000 annual pay check
for the rest of his life. That’s an outrage. If Wilhelm
was serious about cleaning up corruption in HERE, he would defund Hanley’s
undeserved, tainted paycheck,” said NLPC Chairmen Ken Boehm
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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.
Organized Labor Accountability Project