RAILWAY SUPERVISORS (URS)
Pennsylvania Boss Pleads Guilty; Agrees to Repay $100,000
Richard P. Miller, of Beaver, Pa., pled guilty in U.S. Dist. Court May 31 to embezzling funds from United Railway Supervisors Local 202. After a Dep't of Labor probe, Miller admitted to double billing union expenses, pocketing excess reimbursements, and withdrawing money from the local's checking account for personal expenses. The ex-boss agreed to repay $100,000, which will be divided among those who were members of the local when it dissolved in 1999. He will also be barred from any union activities for up to 13 years. Additionally, he faces five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. U.S. Dist. Judge Alan N. Bloch is scheduled to sentence Miller Aug. 9. [Pitt. Post-Gazette 6/2/01]

PLUMBERS (UA)
Minnesota Embezzler Sentenced for $54,600 Theft
U.S. Dist. Judge Michael Davis sentenced Janet L. Hornsby May 31 to two years probation with 90 days home confinement for a $54,600 union embezzlement. The ex-office manager of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 6 in Rochester, Minn., pled guilty in Mar. 2001. She admitted that between Jan. 1990 and Apr. 1999 she embezzled approximately $54,649 from the local for her own use. She reportedly has repaid the amount. The case resulted from of an investigation by the Dep't of Labor's Office of the Inspector Gen. [USAO D. Minn., Media Release 5/31/01]

FIRE FIGHTERS (IAFF)
Virginia Boss Indicted for $34,000 Embezzlement
A Va. grand jury indicted Alan F. White, the ex-treasurer of the Portsmouth (Va.) Prof'l Fire Fighters, Int'l Ass'n of  Fire Fighters, Local 539, on nine counts of embezzlement. The indictment, handed down in Portsmouth Circuit Court, came two months after White resigned as treasurer when an audit found $34,000 in union funds missing. He was treasurer for six years. White reportedly agreed to repay the missing funds, fire and city officials said. [Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk) 6/9/01]

ELECTRICAL WORKERS (IBEW)
DOL Sues Trustees of Rhode Island Fund
The Dep't of Labor has filed suit in the U.S. Dist. Court in Rhode Island to recover nearly $30,000 in improper benefit payments from the trustees of the Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers Local Union 99 Health & Welfare Fund. The suit, filed May 31, charges Board of Trustees members Ernest W. Audet, Jr., G. Thomas Chabot, Raymond J. Lambert, James W. Crandall, Normand L. Jodoin, Thomas J. Lynch, and John I. McGee with violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. DOL alleges that, between Jan. 1994 and Dec. 1995, the named individuals failed to adequately review, monitor, and ensure the accuracy of employee eligibility information which they provided to Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co., the plan administrator.

Specifically, DOL alleges that the plan paid approximately $29,424.60 in medical benefits on behalf of seven employees who were ineligible to participate in the plan, and that the trustees, aware that benefits were paid to ineligible participants, failed to take appropriate action to recover the monies. ERISA requires that such plan assets be used and administered solely for the benefit of the plan's participants.

DOL's suit requests a court order requiring the trustees to pay the plan for losses incurred from their actions or inactions. It also requests that the court order the trustees from violating ERISA in the future. The suit follows an probe by the Boston Reg'l Office of the Pension & Welfare Benefits Admin., a subagency of DOL. [PWBA Media Release 6/5/01]

LABOR LAW REFORM / AUTO WORKERS / OFFICE EMPLOYEES
Unions Sue to Stop Bush's Beck Order
Complaining that President Bush's executive order enforcing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Communications Workers v. Beck imposes "substantial administrative burdens" on businesses, three unions and a federally funded union-established corporation have filed suit against the Bush Administration. The union suit seeks to prevent unionized employees of federal contractors from learning about their rights to be nonmembers and reclaim their forced union dues spent for politics. The United Auto Workers, along with the UAW-Labor Employment & Training Corp. and two affiliates of the Office & Prof'l Employees Int'l Union, filed the suit in May in the U.S. Dist. Court for D.C. against Sec. of Labor Elaine Chao, Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and several other Administration officials.

Bush's Executive Order 13201, signed on Feb. 17, requires federal contractors to post a standard workplace notice informing employees of their rights under Beck, a case won by Nat'l Right to Work Fdn. in 1988 establishing that employees cannot be compelled to formally join a union or pay dues spent for politics or any other activities unrelated to collective bargaining. The executive order affects a small segment of the workforce compelled to pay union dues as a condition of employment, as it only requires companies with federal contracts to inform workers of their Beck rights.

NRTW attorneys are preparing to intervene in defense of the executive order on behalf of employees. "Afraid that they would face a grassroots revolt, union bosses don't want working Americans to find out that they can stop funding Big Labor's massive political machine," said Stefan Gleason of the NRTW Legal Def. Fdn. "This multi-union lawsuit demonstrates the total hypocrisy of union officials' claims that they are genuinely concerned about employee rights." [NRTW Media Release 6/5/01]

TEAMSTERS (IBT)
IRB Clears Michigan Boss, Hoffa Ally
Lawrence Brennan, president of Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local 337 in Detroit and the Mich. Teamsters Jt. Council 43, as well as mentor to IBT president James P. Hoffa, was found not guilty by IBT's Indep. Rev. Bd. June 5 of charges that he masterminded a scheme to use $30,000 in members' dues for his reelection campaign.

The court-appointed IRB found that there was not enough evidence to convict Brennan, although it found some of the accusations about the embezzling credible. Brennan could have faced expulsion from the union. Before Hoffa was elected union president in Dec. 1998, he was Brennan's administrative assistant.

IRB said there was contradictory testimony by Local 337's secretary-treasurer, Colonel W. Myers, who, FBI agents testified, first told them Brennan had formed a scheme to double the Christmas bonuses of officials on the local's board. The federal investigators said Myers also told them that the bonus checks had been cashed and that the money had then gone to Brennan's campaign fund.

IRB said it then weighed that testimony against Myers' later recantation of his account. While the IRB determined that "skepticism was justified" with respect to the manner in which the salary increases and Christmas bonuses were used, it said "suspicions alone are not enough."

The IRB's decision states: "We have carefully considered the impact of the agents' testimony, and while it is a close question, have decided that it falls short of the convincing quality we would want before finding that it should be held as implicating Brennan" and five other defendants. The other defendants were Myers, Robert F. Holmes, Jr., Frank Walker, Richard Gremaud and Charles Isom.

According to Brennan's attorney, Robert Harrison, IRB investigated the case, then turned it over to federal prosecutors in 1999. The U.S. Atty.'s Office in Detroit found no evidence to indict, Harrison said, and handed the case back to the IRB.

The decision comes three months after the IBT's internal investigation cleared Brennan, finding that there was insufficient evidence. Previously, IRB called the IBT internal investigation inadequate and insisted on reviewing the matter. [N.Y. Times, Detroit News, Detroit Free Press 6/6/01, BNA 6/7/01]

ELECTIONS & POLITICS / AFL-CIO / TEAMSTERS
FEC to Withhold Previously Disclosed AFL-CIO, Union Records
As previously reported, the Fed. Election Comm'n removed a completed Matter Under Review file from the public record in May which reportedly included sworn statements from AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard L. Trumka, ex-Teamsters political director William W. Hamilton, and ex-Clinton-Gore advisor Tony Coelho. The 6,024 pages reportedly included an exhaustive survey of union political activity.

Now, FEC says it pulled the AFL-CIO case file for "administrative purposes" because of the possibility that some documents in it should not have been included on the public record. Reportedly, when the review of the matter is complete, the file is expected to go back on the public record, according to FEC. Thus, some of the 6,024 pages is expected to be withheld from the public. [BNA 6/11/01]

QUOTABLE QUOTE
"National labor leaders have sought to make New York State's labor movement a model despite its many problems. There have been corruption scandals in the unions representing carpenters, Teamsters and municipal employees."

- Steven Greenhouse, "Labor Movement Seeks to Make New York a Model of Growth," N.Y. Times, June 10, 2001.

NOTE: In addition to the three named unions, at least 20 other N.Y. unions have been tainted by scandal and wrongdoing within the last year: Bricklayers, Communication Workers, Elec. Workers, Elevator Constructors, Fed. Employees, Hotel & Restaurant Employees, Iron Workers, Laborers, Longshoremen, Operating Engineers, Police, Police Detectives, Production Workers, R.R. Police, Roofers, Serv. Employees, Sheet Metal Workers, Teachers, Textile Employees, and Ticket Agents.

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ADDITIONAL BRIEFS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FAX EDITION OF THIS UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE:

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TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Union Training School Linked to Corruption Probe
Federal investigators probing embattled Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local 25 boss George W. Cashman have subpoenaed Mass. Port Auth. records cornering a sweetheart deal that allows the Local 25 to operate a profitable truck driver training school rent-free on MPA's prime waterfront property in East Boston, sources told the Boston Herald. Investigators are reportedly eyeing whether Charlestown, Mass.-based Local 25 is being given special treatment because its president is Cashman, who is also a member of the MPA's board of directors. In addition, the driving school may be violating state law by training drivers for commercial driver's licenses who are not members of Local 25. Reportedly, MPA's employees receive training at the IBT school.  Further, drivers from other companies, including utilities, allegedly pay for instruction at the IBT school even though the school is not certified, as required by the Registry of Motor Vehicles if the school trains drivers outside Local 25.

The head of the IBT school is Sean O'Brien, a former member of the Local 25's movie crew, which is the focus of a federal racketeering probe. O'Brien's father is William O'Brien, a transportation coordinator for the movie crew. William O'Brien's name appears in an indictment in the 1994 armored car heist in New Hampshire that ended in the execution of two guards. The indictment stated William O'Brien's name was on the rental agreement of the getaway car, but O'Brien was never charged. In addition to Sean, William O'Brien has two other sons who are members of Local 25; one who works on the movie crew and another employed at MPA.

This reported subpoena is the second MPA has received from investigators regarding Cashman. In May, the Herald reported investigators subpoenaed Cashman's MPA credit card and expense records. The subpoenas are the latest twist in a federal grand jury's widening two-year-old racketeering probe of Cashman and other Local 25 members. Reportedly, investigators are looking deeper into Cashman's relationships with state officials, including $125,000 that has been tucked into each of the last three state budgets for Local 25 to train its members. Cashman was a confidant of ex-Gov. Paul Cellucci and threw Local 25's political support behind Cellucci. Cellucci, now Ambassador to Canada, reappointed Cashman to a seven-year term on the MPA board. [Boston Herald 6/13/01]
 

Union Corruption Update is made possible by the generous contributions from readers like you. NLPC, P.O. Box 6273, McLean, VA 22106-6273. Thank you.

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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