FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 14, 2000
CONTACT: Dan Rene, 703-847-3088 or drene@nlpc.org
WASHINGTON -- The National Legal and Policy Center, a union corruption watchdog group, has requested that the AFL-CIO's Executive Council, which meets February 15-17 in New Orleans, "advocate" the ouster of AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka who has been deeply implicated in the Teamsters' money-laundering scandal and has pled the Fifth Amendment on at least two known occasions.
In a nine-page letter sent February 11, 2000 to the 51 current Executive Council Members, NLPC made the case for Trumka's removal. In 1997, when Trumka was first alleged to have wrongfully routed $100,000 and $50,000 in two different schemes to ex-Teamsters President Ron Carey's 1996 campaign, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney narrowly interpreted the AFL-CIO's 1957 policy on removal of union officers who invoke the Fifth Amendment to conceal corruption. Sweeney's loopholes: 1) Trumka denied wrongdoing and 2) Sweeney's internal investigation did not find wrongdoing.
"However, in light of United States v. Hamilton, these two convenient loopholes are no longer tenable," wrote NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm. "The facts that led a federal jury to convict [ex-Teamsters political director] William Hamilton on November 19, 1999 of six criminal counts of conspiracy, embezzlement, fraud and perjury call into question to truthfulness of Trumka's denial of wrongdoing as well as the credibility of Sweeney's internal investigation."
NLPC's letter quotes extensively from Hamilton and is available at:
Union corruption "is arguably worse today than it was in the 1950s. At least back then the AFL-CIO itself was not tainted by corruption - today, however, it is," wrote Boehm. The letter also illustrated the pervasiveness of union corruption today by listing ten officials of international unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO who have had corruption scandals in the last two years.
The letter concluded: "The February 15-17 Executive Council meeting in New Orleans, your first since Hamilton was convicted, provides an excellent opportunity to exercise your authority. ... Trumka and Sweeney have failed to lead. You have the power to stop this unchecked union corruption. It's your turn to lead."
A list of the current 51 Executive Council Members is available at <http://www.aflcio.org/ about/profile_vps_a_f.htm>.
Through its Organized Labor Accountability Project, NLPC is investigating and exposing corruption in the Teamsters, LIUNA, HERE, AFL-CIO and other labor organizations. NLPC publishes Union Corruption Update, a fortnightly newsletter. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.
NLPC's February 11, 2000 Letter to AFL-CIO Executive Council Members
Organized Labor Accountability Project