ELECTION & POLITICS
Gore, Unions Hit With FEC Complaint Over Ad
The Nat'l Legal & Pol'y Ctr., a union corruption watchdog group,
filed a complaint with the Fed. Election
Comm'n Oct. 30 against Gore/Lieberman, Inc., AFL-CIO and Am. Fed'n of State,
County & Mun. Employees for an apparent violation of federal election
law. The complaint concerns a full page advertisement that appeared in
the Washington Post on Oct. 11, which attacked Tex. Gov. George W. Bush's
tax cut plan and listed 300 economists.
The ad stated: "Paid for by the working men and women of [AFSCME] and the AFL-CIO." It also said: "We, the undersigned, oppose the large-scale tax cuts that are the centerpiece of presidential candidate George W. Bush's economic proposals." It states: "Targeting the surplus to these families as proposed by Vice President Gore makes more sense." It said: "To waste that opportunity with this tax scheme would be economically and socially irresponsible."
The ad could be considered express advocacy or a coordinated "issue ad." Either interpretation of the ad results in a violation of the Fed. Election Campaign Act.
"In the ad George W. Bush was described as a presidential candidate as opposed to governor or without any title. That shows that the ad focuses on the election rather than on issues," said NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm. "The advertisement clearly is for the purpose of influencing a federal election, which means it is an in-kind contribution to Gore-Lieberman. But, because they are accepting public financing under the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act, they cannot accept contributions, including in-kind contributions, like this ad."
"The AFL-CIO says it supports campaign finance reform, but it can't even obey existing law. It may have recruited 300 economists to be critical of the Bush Tax Plan, but maybe they should have checked with their own members, many of whom support the Bush plan."
For a copy of NLPC's complaint and the ad, visit <www.nlpc.org> and look under "What's New."
Fitch: Bosses' Protection Money Invested in Gore
Below are excerpts of an op-ed written by Village Voice writer Robert
Fitch that appear in Newsday on Nov. 2
"...So what do the rank and file get for their estimated $54 million
in contributions to the Democrats? Not much, but, given the way so many
of their leaders have been investigated by the Clinton administration's
Justice Department, it seems to be protection money.
...Probably a bigger worry for [AFSCME boss] Gerald McEntee than whether public jobs will be contracted out is avoiding indictment. A federal official, former Judge Kenneth Conboy, accused McEntee of illegally contributing $50,000 to the campaign of Teamster President Ron Carey. McEntee admitted that he got $20,000 of the money by shaking down a union vendor. U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said she was investigating McEntee. But so far she hasn't brought down the hammer.
The president of the AFL-CIO's second largest union, SEIU's Andy Stern, has similar problems with the Justice Department growing out of his role in the Teamster money-laundering scandal. One union leader can't legally contribute to the campaign of another, but Stern has been accused of promising to raise $50,000 for Carey. He never delivered. But SEIU's attorney promised to make up for Stern's default and actually came up with $ 16,000. Stern has given $3.5 million to the Democrats.
Then there's AFL-CIO's secretary-treasurer, Rich Trumka. Although he's under federal investigation by a Manhattan grand jury for alleged participation in two Teamster money-laundering schemes involving $200,000, Gore let him address the Democratic Party convention.
The United Auto Workers long resisted Al Gore. Maybe it was a coincidence, but this summer, shortly after word leaked out of a federal investigation into $200,000 in alleged bribes given to UAW officials for ending the 1997 General Motors strike, union president Stephen Yokich announced he, too, was for the vice president. Maybe this is what they mean by ‘divided government': One branch threatens to indict you. The other collects cash to keep you from being indicted.
Nader supports everything union bosses say they care about...but hasn't gotten a single major AFL-CIO endorsement. Labor issues don't seem to be the point. Not when you can use union members' money to buy get-out-of-jail-free cards."
ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTORS (IUEC)
New York Local Probed For "No-Show" Jobs
The FBI is preparing to hit boss of N.Y.'s Int'l Union of Elevator
Constructors Local 1 with racketeering charges for allegedly shaking down
construction firms and giving no-show jobs to mobsters' kin, according
to the N.Y. Post. A federal grand jury reportedly hearing evidence against
and an indictment is expected by year's end.
The small but powerful local allegedly shook down construction firms by threatening work stoppages unless firms paid for an inflated number of operators. Extra positions allegedly became phantom jobs for union cronies and the kin of Gambino and Genovese crime-family members. A number of mob relatives, according to the Post, are on the union roster, including Joseph Gotti, a nephew of jailed-for-life Gambino boss John Gotti. Union members told the Post Joseph Gotti has worked as an elevator operator at numerous sites.
Also reportedly on Local 1's union's roster are James Bilotti, a nephew of Thomas Bilotti, gunned down in the 1985 murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano, and two relatives of longtime Gambino member Louis Valerio, who was an associate of mob turncoat Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano. Dissident members told the Post that kickbacks and no-show jobs have been a union staple for years.
As part of the ongoing probe, the FBI reportedly rounded up union members in 1999 and grilled them about their receiving and cashing checks that had been mailed to their homes for alleged no-show jobs. The FBI also hit the local and several construction firms last year with more than 200 subpoenas for employment records and welfare-fund contributions.
"There isn't any no-show jobs," said union president John Green Sr., who has run Local 1 since 1985. Asked about mob relatives in the union's ranks, Green said, "If they're here, they're working." [N.Y. Post 10/29/00]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Pennsylvania Unionists Sentenced for Assault
Three members of the Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters
Local 115 were scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 25 in connection with
the 1998 beating of Clinton protesters during a fundraising trip by Bill
Clinton to Philadelphia. Mark Hopkins, Charles Davis and Norma Bottomer
pled guilty in Sept. to various charges, including assault and conspiracy,
in connection with the beating of protester Don Adams and his sister, Teri.
Now five Teamsters have pled guilty in the case. In 1999, Marc Nardonne
and Kevin McNulty pled guilty to charges of riot, conspiracy and assault.
Both Adamses were beaten to the ground by Teamsters after a fight broke out during Clinton's Oct. 1998 at the height of the House impeachment inquiry in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Adams later filed a criminal complaint accusing Local 115 president John P. Morris of starting the fight and of instructing union members to attack him. The beatings, broadcast on local television stations, left Adams with a gash under his eye and multiple bruises. A federal civil rights lawsuit brought by Adams against Morris is pending. [Wash. Times 10/25/00]
MAINTENANCE OF WAY (BMWE)
Kentucky Boss Guilty of False Statements
Lawrence A. Triche was convicted in U.S. Dist. Court in Paducah, Ky.,
Oct. 12 for making false statements to a Dep't of Labor investigator. Triche,
who was vice chairman of the Bhd. of Maintenance of Way Employees, was
charged with lying to the federal agent, who was conducting an audit on
Feb. 23, 1999, at the union's office. Triche was convicted of lying about
why he wrote a check for $ 3,162 in union funds to himself. He was acquitted
on charges of embezzlement of labor-union funds and an additional false-statement
count. Triche is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 16. [Courier-J. 10/14/00]
LONGSHOREMEN (ILWU)
California Boss Charged with $210,000 Theft
A federal grand jury indicted Teresa Esther Sanchez, ex-financial secretary
of Int'l Longshoremen & Warehousemen Union Local 20A in Wilmington,
Cal., July 11 on three counts of embezzling union funds and two counts
of submitting false union reports to the Dep't of Labor. Sanchez was arrested
on May 15, 2000 on charges that she embezzled over $210,000 in union funds
and falsified union records during a seven-year period ending in Oct. 1999.
She was charged with writing and negotiating unauthorized checks to herself
and to cash. Sanchez appeared in U.S. Dist. Court on May 16 and was
released on $50,000 unsecured bond. Sanchez was elected in 1988 and served
in that position until she resigned in Dec. 1999. [USAO C.D. Cal., Media
Release 7/13/00]
BAKERY WORKERS (BC&T)
Virginia Boss Charged with $38,000 Theft
A federal grand jury indicted Donnie Lee Block, ex-president of Bakery
Confectionery & Tobacco Workers Int'l Union Local 66 in Portsmouth,
Va., Sept. 20 on embezzling union funds. The indictment alleged that
Block "did embezzle, steal and unlawfully can willfully abstract and convert
to his own use and the use of another approximately $38,702,55" of the
local's money between Oct. 1997 and Oct. 1998. Reportedly, Block
wrote checks to himself and withdrew funds for his own use. Local
66 represents a mere 10 workers. [Virginian-Pilot 9/21/00]
FIRE FIGHTERS (IAFF)
California Consultant Pleads Guilty
Darrell Reese, a political consultant
for Int'l Ass'n of Fire Fighters Local 188 in Richmond, Cal., pled
guilty Oct. 26 to tax evasion. Reese, who the FBI probed for alleged corruption
involving city contracts, admitted that he didn't report $40,000 in income
from consulting on his 1996-97 tax returns.
The conviction is the second major blow this year to Reese. In Aug., Local 188 agreed to pay a $17,000 fine for violating nine counts of the Cal. Fair Political Practices Act. The fine came after Reese admitted misrepresenting 1997 political donations as coming from retired firefighters and proceeds of a circus fund-raiser in an effort to get around state contribution limits. Also, Reese was among dozens of city politicians questioned by the FBI as part of an investigation into alleged bribery of city officials in exchange for contracts.
Richmond City Councilman Tom Butt, one of Reese's staunchest critics, said Reese got what he deserved. "It confirms what I've been telling people for 10 years, that this guy is a crook," Butt said. "I would hope that this would taint him enough so that those associated with him in the past will not do so again.I hope this will help clean up Richmond politics and pull it out of the gutter that it's been in for so long." [S.F. Chron. 10/28/00]
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ADDITIONAL BRIEFS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FAX EDITION OF THIS UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE:
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TEAMSTER (IBT)
Boston Informant Sentenced then Freed
A former mob associate who entered the Witness Protection Program seven
years ago after turning on his Mafia friends quietly slipped into U.S.
Dist. Court in Boston Oct. 27 for a sentencing hearing that was closed
to the public. Just as Thomas Hillary, arrived in court, U.S. Dist. Judge
Robert E. Keeton ordered his courtroom locked, leaving reporters out in
the hallway as he pronounced sentencing during a half-hour hearing.
Keeton refused a reporter's request for any information about the hearing,
including the length of Hillary's sentence.
Sources familiar with the case said Hillary was sentenced to 11 months in prison, then allowed to walk free since he already spent 1.5 years in custody after his arrest in 1992 on racketeering and bribery charges as part of an FBI sting targeting corruption in the movie industry. Hillary, who now has a new identity, was escorted out of the courthouse on a private elevator, a free man.
Hillary pleaded guilty to the charges in 1993 and admitted that he was involved in a plot by local mobsters to bribe members of Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local 25 to allow a Hollywood company to produce movies in New England with non-union workers. The movie company was actually run by the FBI.
After entering the Witness Protection Program, Hillary testified at the 1994 trial of two union officials and agreed to cooperate against reputed New England Mafia boss Francis Salemme. Salemme pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and was sentenced earlier this year to 11 years in prison. [Boston Globe 10/28/00]
ELECTRICAL WORKERS (IBEW)
Court Upholds Injunction Against Chicago Boss
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused to invalidate a permanent
injunction Oct. 18 barring an Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers Local 134 boss
from soliciting or receiving contributions to the local union's social
club from employers. However, Chief Judge Richard A. Posner's decision
rejected arguments raised by union members who claimed that along with
the permanent injunction they were entitled to a finding or declaratory
judgment that Local 134's business manager, Mike Fitzgerald, and the local's
Unified Social Club had violated the Nat'l Labor Relations Act by soliciting
and receiving employer contributions.
Posner agreed with the union members that they should be able to amend their complaint to include a claim under Section 502 of the Labor-Management Reporting & Disclosure Act of 1959, popularly known as the Landrum-Griffin Act, which forbids union officers from obtaining "a personal interest adverse to the union." On this point, the court reversed the district court.
The plaintiffs, a group of Local 134 members "on the outs" with Fitzgerald, filed suit against Fitzgerald and the Unified Social Club under Section 302 of the 1947 amendments to the National Labor Relations Act. They argued that Fitzgerald "solicited and received tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to the Club from employers with which the local bargains." The members claimed the employer contributions enhanced Fitzgerald's popularity and solidified his hold over the local union because the funds enabled the club to provide union members with attractive social activities.
After the members won a preliminary injunction barring the solicitation and receipt of contributions, Fitzgerald and the social club offered to make the preliminary injunction permanent, provided it was not construed as an admission of liability. The union members rejected the offer, but the district court entered the permanent injunction at the defendants' request and granted their motion to dismiss the suit as moot. The union members appealed, claiming they were entitled to a finding or declaratory judgment to accompany the permanent injunction that would state that Fitzgerald and the social club had violated the law. [BNA 10/24/00]
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In addition to the unions and organizations covered in this Union Corruption Update, readers can look forward to news and information on other corrupt and abusive unions in future editions.
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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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