FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS (UFCW)
Top Boss Goes to Prison for Union Embezzlement
"[H]e thought of himself first and the union members second. He and
other members of his family used the union as a personal asset," said U.S.
Labor Department's Joseph S. Wasik in discussing Joseph C. Talarico, the
now-former Int'l. Secretary-Treasurer (i.e. #2 post) of the United Food
& Commercial Workers Int'l. Union. Talarico was sentenced Jul. 28 in
U.S. District Court to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.1 million
restitution to UFCW Local 1 in Utica, NY, for embezzling over $925,000
from union members. He was banned from union office for 13 years.
But the scheme that ran 1984-97 went beyond Joseph Talarico, who was the Local 1 president before he took his int'l. union post in 1995, to include his brother, son, daughter and brother-in-law. The Talaricos illegally used union funds for a wide range of personal purposes, including landscaping and lavish renovations to their homes. Joseph Talarico also had the hair on his head paid for with money stolen from Local 1. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, union funds paid for the boss' $10,000 hair transplant and a union airplane flew him from Washington to Saratoga Springs, NY, where the hair job was done. The embezzled funds were on top of the family's already lavish annual compensation from the union. The Talaricos made more than $1 million in union salaries and legitimate expenses in 1996. "It sounds like greed to me," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew T. Baxter.
The other family members face similar situations. This ended the Talaricos' grip on Local 1 that dates back to 1953 when Joseph Talarico's father Samuel J. Talarico, Sr., founded it. [Buffalo News 07/30/98, BNA Daily Labor Report 07/29/98 & Utica Observer-Dispatch 02/10/98]
UFCW's Undemocratic Convention
While the Talarico scandal exploded, UFCW held its int'l. convention
in Chicago. UFCW dissidents, using the disgraced former Secretary-Treasurer
Talarico as a rallying point, were barred from the convention. At a Jul.
30 press conference, UFCW President Douglas H. Dority was asked about why
dissident leader Louis Anderson was barred; Dority responded, "He has no
right at this convention. When he writes stuff that undermines our organizing
campaign, he has no right to be at this convention."
According to dissidents, two-thirds of the nearly 2,000 delegates and alternates at the convention are either local union bosses or paid staff who will not oppose the bosses to whom they owe their jobs. Thus, incumbent officers were reelected Jul. 28, including Dority, Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Hansen and 49 vice presidents. All were unopposed and elected by acclamation. A potential challenge to Dority from Canton, OH Local 17A President Gary Feiock was smashed when he couldn't show support from 15 locals. The same situation happened 5 years ago when Feiock attempted a presidential run. "We're used to being underdogs. We just want [the election process] to be more democratic," said a Feiock supporter.
On Jul. 31, the convention passed a constitutional amendment raising the tax paid by locals to the int'l. by $24 per year per member. This increases a member's payment to UFCW to $108 a year. Approval came without debate and was among the convention's final actions. [BNA 07/29/98, 07/31/98 & 08/03/98]
UFCW Strike Puts Meatpacker Out of Business
Broken by a 2-week UFCW Local 271 strike, meatpacker BeefAmerica said
Jul. 28 that it is going out of business. It will close its only plant
putting 1,300 UFCW members and managers in Norfolk, NE, out of work. "The
strike [was] something the company did not expect or anticipate and [was]
very costly," said a company spokesman. The company lost "hundreds of thousands
of dollars" each week of the strike. [Des Moines Register 07/29/98]
FLINT GLASS WORKERS (AFGWU)
Union Boss Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement
Janet Brown, the now-former president of American Flint Glass Workers
Union Local 599 in Beaver Falls, PA, pled guilty Jul. 29 to embezzling
more than $3,000 from union coffers. U.S. Attorney's Office said the union
boss took members' money by writing checks to herself and falsifying union
records. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 07/30/98]
LABORERS (LIUNA)
Organized Crime Boss Convicted of Racketeering
A federal jury in Trenton, NJ, Jul. 27 found reputed organized crime
figure Vincent DiModica guilty of 2 counts of racketeering and 2 counts
of extortion including using fear of economic injury and labor unrest.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said DiModica oversaw the Gambino crime family's
interests in Laborers' International Union of North America Local 342 in
Newark. Presently incarcerated on a Jul. 1997 conviction for other racketeering
charges, he faces 20 years on each count.
GOVERMENT EMPLOYEES (AFSCME)
AFSCME Conspiracy in Massachusetts
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, minutes before his trial on
Jul. 27, Am. Fed. of State, County & Municipal Employees member Abraham
Aly, in-house architect of Newton, MA, pled guilty to 9 counts of bribery,
5 counts of mail fraud, 3 counts of embezzlement and 1 count of conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern stated, "Newton was bilked by Aly for construction...work
at 2 high schools, 2 elementary schools and at City Hall itself. This was
done so that the defendant could pocket cash kickbacks and put a new roof
on his own house. The losers were the taxpayers of the City of Newton and
the public trust." Aly admitted that during 1993-95 he used his position
to extract personal favors and cash from a vendor. The vendor overbilled
the city about $50,000 and kicked-back about $25,000, in cash, to Aly.
Payments were typically made at job sites and delivered in newspapers or
at the bottoms of coffee cups.
AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO Blasts Avondale with $3M
AFL-CIO and its Metal Trades Department said Jul. 31 that they will
spend $3 million of union members' money over the next 18 months on a campaign
against Avondale Industries' shipyard near New Orleans. Avondale has successfully
defended itself against union bosses in a 5-year legal battle over a 1993
election that was tainted by voter irregularities. Avondale's Ed Winter
said, "We are going to pursue our due process in the courts. The company
feels that is the only forum available to get a fair review of what actually
happened in 1993." AFL-CIO picked William Ragan to head the assault: "Justice
for Avondale." He led the Service Employees Int'l. Union's violent "Justice
for Janitors" effort. [Times-Picayune 08/01/98]
TEAMSTERS
Money-Laundering Scandal Briefs
PAINTERS (IBPAT)
Boss Doctors Union's Books
Louis DiFiore, the business manager of the International Brotherhood
of Painters & Allied Trades Local 466 in Warrensburg, NY, pleaded guilty
in federal court on Aug. 4 to misdemeanor counts of doctoring the union's
books. He admitted to making false entries in union accounting books and
failing to maintain proper records of trust accounts. DiFiore was responsible
for loss of $23,725, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which alleges
he embezzled $12,125 of it. He faces 2 years in prison and a $200,000 fine.
He has been business manager since 1951. [Albany Times-Union 08/05/98]
QUOTABLE QUOTE
"This union has been run by a small group for their own benefit...
It's time for the good members to rise up and revolt against the self-serving
little men in charge."
-U.S. District Judge David N. Edelstein on Teamsters, expelled president
Ron Carey & acting president Tom Sever in a Jul. 28 statement.
- - - - -
ADDITIONAL BRIEFS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FAX EDITION OF THIS UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE:
- - - - -
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (NAGE)
Top Cranston Officials' Trial Set
On Aug. 4, nine months after two union members of the National Association
of Government Employees Local 198 in Rhode Island were indicted on racketeering
and bribery charges and suspended from Cranston city jobs, City Treasurer
Kathleen DeLuca and her husband, Raymond, director of the city's computer
services had their criminal trial date set for Nov. 16. According to the
Attorney General, the DeLucas are accused of accepting $188,771 in kickbacks
in return for securing about $564,000 in city computer contracts for a
company. The DeLuca case was another black eye for Mayor Michael A. Traficante's
administration that has been rocked by the kickback-and-bribery convictions
of a Public Works Director and a Parks and Recreation Director. Traficante,
who is not seeking reelection this year after 14 years in office, pleaded
guilty himself in 1994 to nine campaign-finance misdemeanors. [Providence
Journal-Bulletin 08/04/98 & 08/05/98]
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Cited for Illegal Dues Collection
In a rare move against a union, the National Labor Relations Board
on Aug. 6 issued a formal complaint against Teamsters Local 174 in Seattle
for illegally collecting and spending workers' compulsory union dues for
politics. The National Right to Work Foundation had filed unfair labor
practice charges against Local 174 on behalf of 2 members. Both had exercised
their right to refrain from formal union membership. The case arose after
Teamsters bosses, without the required legal procedures, illegally demanded
payment of compulsory dues from the employees' paychecks to be funneled
into questionable and undisclosed union activities, including politics
and organizing. "These workers are entitled to an accounting of the union's
books before their paychecks are raided by the political operatives of
the Teamsters," said NTWF's Stefan Gleason.
Teamsters Leave Trash Rotting in the Sun
Thanks to one of America's most corrupt unions, the Teamsters, days-old
trash rotted in the sweltering Northern California heat for days as a "pungent"
result of a Local 315 strike that has left parts of Contra Costa, Alameda
and Solano counties without garbage service. The 180 drivers and mechanics
-- employed by Browning Ferris Industries and make $19.50 an hour, excluding
benefits -- went on strike Jul. 30 halting service to 127,000 customers.
BFI quickly put managers into trucks and flew in replacement workers from
across the country to work over a weekend picking up missed routes. BFI
insisted that service would be back to normal by Aug. 3. But as of Aug.
2, many of the replacement drivers were spinning in circles just trying
to find routes, and many homes and businesses still had garbage sitting
out uncollected. There were numerous police reports of union violence.
A driver suffered a black eye and facial bruises after being attacked Aug.
2. Tires were slashed on 5 garbage trucks driven by replacement workers.
Teamsters were reportedly surrounding and stopping "scab" drivers going
in and out of a BFI yard shaking strike signs at windshields. [SF Chronicle
08/03/98]
TEACHERS
Local President Resigns Over Mishandled $25K
Wappingers (NY) Teachers Union President Ronald L. Warman resigned
from office and agreed to repay $25,900 to the Wappingers Congress of Teachers
Welfare Trust Fund over allegations of mishandling union funds. Allegedly,
he wrongfully paid over $25,000 to himself over the period 1986-1996. Despite
the resignation and repayment, the union boss admitted no wrongdoing, and
on Jul. 28 according to the District Attorney's Office, a Dutchess County
Grand Jury found "insufficient evidence to warrant an indictment." [Poughkeepsie
Journal 06/24/98]
TEXTILE EMPLOYEES (UNITE)
Militants Overrun University of Wisconsin Bookstore
On Jul. 31, about 150 militant Union of Needletrades, Industrial &
Textile Employees members raided the University of Wisconsin Bookstore
claiming the clothing in the store was produced in "sweatshops." UNITE
protesters ripped open the doors and began marching into the store, chanting
and shaking cans filled with pieces of metal as employees and patrons watched
with "amazement and dismay." At each level of the store, a contingent peeled
off to march around that floor while the bosses continued to the administrative
offices. Richard Metcalf, boss of the Midwest Regional UNITE demanded to
see "someone in authority." When denied, UNITE sat down in the halls and
began singing a union anthem ''We Will Not Be Moved,'' while on the floors
below their followers continued to march and chant. As the Madison Police
Department moved into positions around the store, UNITE marched out and
briefly terrorized a second store up the street. The UNITE members were
not even from Madison; they were there for a 4-day union meeting. ''We
don't know what products they are talking about,'' said a store official.
The university is working with other universities on developing a code
of conduct for the Collegiate Licensing Co., which produces goods for 160
campuses. [Capital Times 08/01/98]
SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU)
SEIU Fails to Disclose Lobbying
San Francisco unions have never disclosed their lobbying of city officials
despite a 10-year-old law aimed at eliminating back-room deal-making. SF's
Ethics Commission is now attempting to force compliance by the unions,
particularly Service Employees International Union which is SF's largest
union and has led the lobbying effort this year on hotly-contested health
care legislation. The unions face thousands of dollars in penalties if
they are found to have knowingly not complied with the ordinance. Union
bosses contend they were unaware the measure applied to them. They also
argue it is wrong to lump them in with hired-gun lobbyists for corporate
interests. And they have said the unions will resist city efforts to force
them to make disclosures under the lobbying ordinance.
But that has not sat well with other lobbyists and elected officials. "Since I took office in 1993, the unions have been the strongest lobbying force and the most effective. I don't think they should be treated any different from private developers or other advocacy groups," said Board of Supervisors President Barbara Kaufman. Mark Mosher of a local business association said the financial stakes are often at least as high when SEIU comes calling on City Hall as when Chevron or some other private firm does. "They've got more money on the line than any other single interest group," Mosher said, noting that the bulk of the $3.9 billion city budget goes to employee pay. [SF Examiner 07/30/98]
Massachusetts Local Stoops "Pretty Low" in Negotiations
Local 254 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents
Massachusetts probation officers, has told its members to stop volunteering
for community-based probation plans because a contract dispute with the
state court system. The following excerpts of a Jul. 25 Boston Herald
editorial speaks for itself:
"As a negotiating tactic, this is pretty low. Local 254 of [SEIU], this week directed its members not to work after regular office hours. This could cripple the crucial 'Night Light' program in Boston, under which probation officers check up on their charges with visits to their homes and haunts at night, not to mention other important after-hours programs in many communities. Though the union claims 'a couple' of members haven't joined this boycott, 'they will get religion as well.' We hope it's more than a couple, and we hope for a growing apostasy. Probation officers in Brockton were reported to have decided to keep working these extra hours. Good for them.
'Night Light' has greatly reduced gang violence in Boston, and was one of the big reasons the city went 29 months to last December without any deaths by violence to anyone under 17, a record that astonished experts - not to mention other cities - across the nation... If probation officers are not around for awhile, old habits of ignoring those conditions likely will be revived. 'We could be going to funerals again,' one probation officer told Herald reporter Andrea Estes. If this boycott results in funerals, the community will know whom to blame."
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD (NLRB)
Attorney Challenges Feinstein's Appointment
The appointment of former NLRB General Counsel Fred Feinstein as an
associate general counsel, followed immediately by his appointment as acting
general counsel, has raised issues of evasion of law. In documents filed
Jul. 21 with the NLRB, attorney Robert W. Tollen charged that the rapid
appointment was an unlawful maneuver to keep Feinstein in office. Tollen
is defending Contractors' Labor Pool, a construction company, against unfair
labor practice charges brought by the Int'l. Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers in Denver. Feinstein issued a complaint, but the company contends
he had no authority because he was unlawfully appointed acting general
counsel.
During his 4-year term that expired on Mar. 2, Feinstein tripled the use of injunctions against employers and took positions generally seen as advancing the agenda of big labor. On Mar. 5, Feinstein asked the White House not to renominate him because he didn't want protracted fight. Two days earlier, Feinstein had been appointed associate general counsel and then immediately acting general counsel. When the office of general counsel is vacant, the NLRB president may appoint an officer of the board as acting general counsel. According to Tollen, there was no vacancy until Mar. 3, the day after Feinstein's term ended, but then Feinstein was no longer an officer of the board. "This little technicality" was overcome by appointing Feinstein as an associate general counsel. The challenge will be decided by NLRB, but its decision is subject to reconsideration by the U.S. Courts of Appeals and Supreme Court. [The Recorder 07/28/98]
NLRB Loses Attack on 1st Amendment
Excerpts from the Detroit News' Aug. 4 editorial: "The U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has just handed a stinging rebuke to the
National Labor Relations Board for ignoring the First Amendment rights
of the Midland Daily News . The federal appellate court...upheld
a Detroit federal district court's ruling quashing a subpoena to the mid-
Michigan daily newspaper in the service of a speculative union complaint.
The labor agency, which is supposed to be an impartial arbiter between
unions and employers, had placed its subpoena power at the service of a
union even when there was no definitive showing of a labor violation. In
effect, it had turned itself into an agent of the union -- and in so doing
attempted to trample the First Amendment rights of the newspaper.
Two years ago, the Midland Daily News ran some anonymous ads seeking applications from electricians, with resumes to be sent to a newspaper box number. Two applicants submitted resumes, both indicating their membership in an AFL-CIO-affiliated electricians union. After three days had expired, the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the advertiser. When the newspaper declined to disclose the identity of the advertiser, the NLRB sought to subpoena the information. The newspaper, on the advice of its lawyers, former Detroit U.S. Attorney Philip Van Dam and Robert D. Black, resisted, contending that the agency's action was...beyond its authority. The NLRB sought a court order to enforce the subpoena. A Detroit federal judge agreed with the newspaper. So did the U.S. Court of Appeals. In its ruling, a three-judge panel said the subpoena was 'an unnecessary intrusion upon the First Amendment rights to commercial speech of both the ... newspaper and its advertiser.' The court added that the subpoena was a 'blanket sweep' and referred to the union's charges as 'speculative.' Honoring the subpoena on the basis of the information available to the agency, if continued, could 'chill the lawful commercial speech of periodicals and employers nationwide.'
Actions such as this, as well as recent rulings in which appellate courts in both the Sixth Circuit and District of Columbia Circuit have chastised the NLRB for failing to adequately uphold the rights of individual workers seeking an accounting of the use of their union dues for political purposes, paint a picture of a federal agency that has been captured by the very entities -- unions -- that it purports to regulate. Congress ought to ask serious questions about whether the NLRB needs a thorough overhaul -- or even should exist."
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (AFSCME)
Memphis AFSCME at War With Itself Over Counter Corruption Charges
Memphis' American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
Local 1733 bosses are locked in a bitter dispute over Executive Director
Dorothy Crook. At Jul. 31 press conference, the Local Vice-President Johnny
Dansberry said, "Members of the executive board...had received numerous
complaints from members about [Crook's] competency and ability to function
as executive director... Questions were also raised about financial irregularities
appearing in the books of the Local 1733.'' The executive board voted in
May to fire Crook.
Crook filed a grievance against the board contending she has been denied due process. Jeff A. Crow, Jr., hired by AFSCME to litigate the Crook case, said a grievance hearing likely will be scheduled this month. A court case pending in Shelby County Chancery Court is on hold pending the outcome of the union's grievance procedure. Alfred Dowdy, a board member supporting Crook, filed the lawsuit last month against Local 1733 President Willie J. Alexander. Dowdy claims that Crook was fired without cause saying the real motive behind the firing was that Crook had informed the national AFSCME union about an improper life insurance plan that violated the union's constitution.
Dansberry and other executive board members at the press conference refused to discuss the details about why Crook was fired, citing legal restraints. "The executive board sincerely hoped that Ms. Crook would not take steps to force the public airing of the many embarrassing things she has done,'' said Dansberry. However, Reva Kriegel, Crook's attorney, said Dansberry's statements contain "blatant falsehoods and are riddled with innuendo, possibly exposing them to libel." [Commercial Appeal 08/01/98]
GOVERNMENT WORKERS (AFGE)
Convoluted Corruption War Rages in Texas
A convoluted corruption case revolving around American Federation of
Government Employees offical Joe Palazzolo may have entered its final stage
on Jul. 27 at a Federal Labor Relations Authority hearing in Forth Worth,
TX to determine if Palazzolo is eligible to continue holding his 2 union
jobs, which he holds simultaneously, representing General Services Administration
employees in an 11-state region. The probe has the attention of federal
investigators in Dallas, Denver and Washington, as well as top AFGE union
bosses. A decision is expected in Sept.
The case which has seen Palazzolo removed from and subsequently returned to office earlier this year began in Mar. 1997. A union mailbox has been seized; a union office has been locked-out; and several counter lawsuits have been filed -- 2 by Palazzolo. Palazzolo has been forced into an extended leave from his GSA job and has been threatened with disciplinary action from GSA for using AFGE stationery and a union title on his correspondence with the agency. He has even been hit with a $50 parking ticket in a federal garage for parking in a space reserved for union officials.
Palazzolo asserts in his lawsuits that GSA management is in cahoots with the old-guard union and behind efforts to oust him from the bargaining unit. Management looked the other way, he alleges, as labor leaders misused union funds and squandered agency-funded hours meant for union business. In return, he says, GSA officials got a weak union that rarely challenged them on workplace issues. "For years, the local union leadership here and the agency have had an intimate and incestuous relationship going beyond what would be considered proper in any kind of labor-management arena," Palazzolo argued. "This is the first credible challenge to this illicit partnership in 15 years."
After Palazzolo took office, the number of unfair labor practice charges and grievances filed against the GSA shot up. He filed 33 in 1997 and 81 so far in 1998. Under Palazzolo, the local also brought internal charges against several longtime union officials, including Harry Dawson and Derrell Chandler. Before Palazzolo, Dawson and Chandler were the focus of a 1989 federal criminal investigation into comments about roughing up a superior at GSA. Both were tried in federal court on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice and were acquitted. They then successfully sued the government for malicious prosecution. Palazzolo brought new allegations against the two for using union funds for legal bills without the membership's approval. Among the proof cited: 10 checks totaling about $8,500 signed by Dawson and Chandler and made out to themselves and people associated with their criminal and civil cases including an attorney, a court reporter, even a psychiatrist who testified for Chandler. Another attorney was paid $500 for defending Dawson in an unrelated and pending harassment suit.
Dawson and Chandler were convicted of embezzling funds and expelled at the local's Oct. 1997 internal trial. But national AFGE President Bobby L. Harnage threw the convictions out in Nov., saying the trial had been conducted unfairly. He barred the local from retrying the two and said that he would select an independent arbitrator to do so. They have not yet been retried. Dawson led the union in a variety of posts for 16 years and now holds a paid staff position as a national representative for AFGE in Washington, D.C. The local said union dues-payers, who contribute $230 annually, weren't the only ones cheated. They assert that taxpayers were defrauded because Dawson helped his son, Tim, run a sandblasting business on union time. Taxpayers paid for Dawson's time under a labor-management agreement that allows some elected union officials to work full-time on union business while still collecting their government paychecks.
Palazzolo's own corruption troubles began soon after he took office, when a union member questioned his eligibility. The member alleged that the position Palazzolo held at GSA was a supervisory/management post and, therefore, not in the bargaining unit. Palazzolo was assigned to "special projects," including emergency planning and agency parking, said his former supervisor, Dennis Armon, who retired in Dec. 1997. "At no time to my knowledge did he ever work in a supervisory capacity," said Armon. The GSA initially agreed. "Mr. Palazzolo is in the AFGE bargaining unit and a dues-paying member of the [AFGE]," Charles Fernandez, the GSA's director of human resources, wrote in a Feb. 25 memo. But at some point, the GSA changed its position. In a series of memos last spring, Fernandez warned Palazzolo against union activity, citing, among other things, his use of union letterhead for correspondence to the GSA. Palazzolo could be fired if he continued to participate in union affairs, Fernandez asserted. "Your actions have harmed the independence of the labor organization," wrote Fernandez.
Harnage removed Palazzolo from his regional position in March, a year after his election. But he was returned to office Jun. 1 after a rerun of the election supervised by the U.S. Labor Department. That, however, didn't end the matter. "We do not intend to recognize Mr. Palazzolo as a representative of AFGE," Edward Denney, director of the GSA's Labor Relations Division wrote the day after his reelection. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram 07/26/98]
All back issues of the Union Corruption Update can be viewed at NLPC's website (www.nlpc.org). Also available is a union by union index of all Union Corruption Update articles.
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Union Corruption Update is part of NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability
Project which is investigating and exposing corruption and extremism in
the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and many other union organizations. NLPC
is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability
in government through research, education and legal action.
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