FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 5, 1999
CONTACT: Dan Rene, 703-847-3088 or drene@nlpc.org
WASHINGTON -- The National Legal and Policy Center, a union corruption watchdog, called on AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee to extend the suspension of Local 1549 President Albert A. Diop to Diop’s post of International Vice President.
“If McEntee is serious that ‘fraud and abuse is absolutely unacceptable to AFSCME,’ he and AFSCME should take the next step against Diop,” said NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm.
On March 3, 1999, AFSCME suspended Diop from his post as Local 1549 President and from the District Council 37 board in New York, citing “apparently inappropriate financial activity.” But apparently, Diop has yet to be suspended from his International Vice President post that he has held since 1976.
“NLPC challenges McEntee and AFSCME to suspend Diop -- or take other appropriate action under Article X of AFSCME’s constitution -- as soon as possible so that Diop is removed as an International Vice President if the suspension is upheld at his hearing,” said Boehm.
“It would be highly hypocritical for McEntee to suspend Diop at the local level, but ignore Diop’s international post,” said Boehm. “Failing here would raise credibility questions about McEntee’s statement that he is ‘working aggressively to root out problems and...acting decisively to remove those engaged in wrongdoing.’”
As an International Vice President, Diop reportedly receives a $18,400 annual allowance above his payments from Local 1549 and District Council 37.
“Diop’s $18,400 allowance also needs to be addressed. First, common sense requires that it be cut off during Diop’s suspension. Second, it may also need to be probed for potential wrongdoing,” said Boehm.
Reminder: McEntee himself has ethics questions; he was linked to the money-laundering scandal that brought down ex-Teamsters President Ron Carey. On November 17, 1997, Carey was disqualified from running for reelection based the findings of a U.S. District Court-appointed monitor that over $538,000 was wrongfully funneled into Carey’s 1996 campaign. Those same court documents implicated McEntee in the scheme.
NLPC’s Organized Labor Accountability Project is investigating and exposing corruption and abuses in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and other labor organizations. NLPC publishes the Union Corruption Update every two weeks. 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