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]
In addition to the unions and organizations covered in this Union Corruption Update, readers can look forward to news and information on the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union, United Farmer Workers, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and other corrupt and abusive unions in future editions.
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.
If you have ideas or suggestions for future editions of Union Corruption Update, please email NLPC at nlpc@nlpc.org. Thank you.
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.
Complete Edition Union Corruption Update (August 10, 1998 -- Vol.1 Issue 5)
Union Corruption Update Article Index