LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS (BLE)
North Dakota Boss Gets No Jail Time for $37,000 Theft
U.S. Dist. Judge Patrick A. Conmy (D.N.D., Reagan) ordered union boss
Bryan D. Kroh to three years of probation on
Sept. 6, the first six months of which he is to be confined to his home.
Kroh embezzled $37,368.52 from the Bhd. of Locomotive Eng'rs. He has allegedly
repaid most of the stolen union funds but still owes the union $5,982.52.
Kroh pled guilty to embezzlement in June. Reportedly, the crime occurred
while he was serving as secretary-treasurer, an officer and employee of
BLE. He admitted writing unauthorized checks to himself and his wife, Dinah,
and numerous checks to vendors and a bank from Jan. 1996 to Mar. 1999.
Despite Bryan's 1991 felony conviction on one count of federal tax evasion, prosecutors only recommended a nine month prison term on the current embezzlement charge. He received three years probation for the tax crime. The maximum penalty for union embezzlement is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However, Conmy only restricted Kroh to his Pick City, N.D., home except for several exceptions including any business travel required by his employer. Conmy said it would be simply spite to send Kroh to prison, and a waste of a valuable prison bed, for this nonviolent crime. "This is an economic crime," he said. Conmy said his position was that it would be better for Kroh to be employed and paying back the money.
Also, as part of Kroh's plea on the embezzlement charge, a second charge of giving false statements was dropped. The U.S. Atty.'s Office also filed charges against Dinah for union embezzlement and aiding and abetting. However, Conmy dismissed an indictment against Dinah. Both Krohs asserted that Dinah knew nothing about the union embezzlement. [Bismarck Trib. 9/7/01]
BAKERY & TOBACCO WORKERS (BC&T)
Virginia Boss Gets Over a Year for $38,000 Embezzlement
U.S. Dist. Judge Rebecca B. Smith (E.D. Va., H.W. Bush) sentenced union
boss Donnie L. Block on Sept. 6 to a year and
a day in federal prison for embezzling more than $38,000 from the Bakery,
Confectionery & Tobacco Workers Int'l Union Local 66 in Portsmouth,
Va. Smith also was ordered Block to make full restitution. He was indicted
for a $38,703 embezzlement in Sept. 2000 and pled guilty in May. Smith
said she added the additional day to Block's sentence to ensure that he
spends the time in a federal prison. Sentences less than twelve months
are generally served in local jails. Block, who has been free on bond,
is scheduled to report to prison within 60 days.
Block was elected Local 66 president in 1995. Reportedly, federal investigators found that Block embezzled membership dues between Oct. 1997 and Oct. 1998. Investigators said Block has a gambling problem. Block wrote and cashed more than 100 checks drawn on the local's bank account, including four allegedly totaling almost $1,500 that were cashed at a Las Vegas casino. By the end of Oct. 1998, the local's bank account had been overdrawn. He also wrote two checks to his wife, worth $700. Reportedly, the couple recently separated due to his gambling.[Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk) 9/7/01]
LONGSHOREMEN (ILA)
Indiana Manager Embezzled $1.5 Million
Michael Daher, Sr., ex-investment manager to Int'l Longshoremen's Ass'n
Local 1969 in Ind., pled guilty May 18 to embezzlement from an employee
benefit plant and wire fraud. Daher and an unnamed accomplice embezzled
approximately $1.5 million from Local 1969's benefit plan from 1993-96.
The scheme include convincing the plan's trustees to invest more than $4
million in the construction of a Nev. housing project. The trustees were
reportedly unaware that Daher and the accomplice had entered into a side
agreement with the developer who agreed to pay them "points" for every
investment dollar brought to the project. The case was a joint investigation
by Dep't of Labor's Office of the Inspector Gen. and Pension & Welfare
Benefits Admin. [DOL, OIG, Interim Report, July 2001]
LABORERS (LIUNA)
Ex-Buffalo Boss Charged with Insurance Scam
On Sept. 13, the FBI arrested and accused Frank "Butchie Bifocals"
Bifulco, described as a organized crime figure, of torching an associate's
car in an insurance scam. Bifulco, who has long been accused by the FBI
of being an organized crime member, was ousted in 1998 from his job as
administrator of a Laborers' Int'l Union of N. Am. Local 210 pension fund
in Buffalo. LIUNA removed Bifulco because of allegations of mob ties; however,
illustrating a significant shortcoming of internal-union cleanup efforts,
Bifulco was never charged nor locked up. Had the Dep't of Justice and a
federal judge been more involved in the LIUNA clean-up, Bifulco may have
not been free to perpetrate this alleged crime.
The U.S. Atty.'s Office alleged Sept. 14 that Bifulco helped his associate set fire to a rented car on the night of Aug. 22 in a shopping mall parking lot. In court papers, Special Agent Thomas M. Thurston said Bifulco attempted to persuade the man who rented the car to give police false information about the crime. [Buffalo News 9/15/01]
TEAMSTERS (IBT) / SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU)
Hamilton Testifies in Carey Trial
On Sept. 6, in the perjury trial of expelled president of the Int'l
Bhd. of Teamsters, Ron Carey, the defense apparently
got a big boost. Convicted felon William W. Hamilton,
IBT's ex-political director, testified that he had never told Carey that
a series of political contributions were linked to a money-laundering scheme
to generate funds for Carey's 1996 campaign. Currently serving a three-year
prison sentence after his Nov. 1999 conviction on charges that he embezzled
IBT funds in the scandal and then lied about, Hamilton was called by the
prosecution. But his testimony appeared to support the defense's contention
that Carey was unaware that the donations were linked to his campaign.
He reportedly stated he was testifying without a grant of immunity or any
other deal from the prosecution.
Hamilton, who did not take the stand in his own trial, testified that he had only discussed the contributions with Carey twice and had not mentioned their links to the campaign. In one conversation at an Ind. IBT dinner honoring Carey just before the election, Carey asked why IBT's political arm was spending so much money out of the general treasury, Hamilton testified. Hamilton said he replied that the political spending was "appropriate" and that it was necessary because IBT's political action fund had been exhausted. Carey's only reply was to acknowledge it briefly, Hamilton suggested. Similarly, in the only other conversation on the matter, Hamilton said Carey had made a noncommittal reply to a telephone call following up on a request for funds. Thus, it fell to the prosecution, specifically Asst. U.S. Atty. Andrew Dember, to seek to undercut the credibility of its own witness.
Hamilton also said Carey campaign manager Jere Nash, who has pled guilty in the scandal, had told him earlier that Carey would be informed of the scheme, but that nothing Carey said to him suggested that was true. According to a courtroom observer, Hamilton testified that Nash pitched the scheme to Hamilton. Hamilton also allegedly stated under oath that he discussed Nash's idea with ex-IBT general counsel Judith A. Scott. Hamilton allegedly testified that Scott approved of the scheme. Scott is now general counsel for the Serv. Employees Int'l Union and a member of the James & Hoffman law firm.
Before Hamilton, another prosecution witness, Carey's secretary Monie Simpkins testified against her old boss yesterday--but still insisted he knew about the scheme. She told the jury that Carey had signed off on the contributions to outside groups that then helped funnel money back into his campaign.
As the fund-raising fiasco unraveled, she realized she was in serious trouble and began cooperating with investigators. Simpkins, now a Va. school teacher, choked up with tears as she told the jury she worked as Carey's secretary until Oct. 1997, when she went on disability for "depression caused by stress."
Carey's trial in Manhattan, which began Aug. 28, was nearing its halfway point before the World Trade Ctr. attack. [BNA 9/7/01; N.Y. Post; Daily News 9/6/01]
CARPENTERS (UBC)
Pennsylvania Local's Videotaping is ULP
The Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. ruled 2-1 Sept. 13 that the United Bhd.
of Carpenters's Metro. Reg'l Council of Philadelphia committed unfair labor
practices by videotaping and photographing employees of a nonunion contractor
as they crossed a picket line to renovate an apartment complex in 1999.
Reversing an admin. law judge's ruling, NLRB chairman Peter J. Hurtgen
and member John C. Truesdale found that UBC lacked any legitimate reason
for the daily picture-taking, which in two incidents was done in a provocative
and confrontational manner. The majority also took into account that the
union simultaneously used loudspeakers, at excessively high noise levels,
to protest nonunion contractor Smucker Co.'s presence at the site. The
broadcasting later was enjoined by a federal judge.
Dissenting, member Dennis P. Walsh agreed with the ALJ that the videotaping and photographing did not involve any element of restraint or coercion. He also found that the broadcasts were not linked to the picture-taking activity.
Separately, a different majority of Truesdale and Walsh agreed with the ALJ that UBC did not commit a violation by picketing a neutral gate, not used by Smucker employees, for five seconds on the day the gate system was established. Dissenting, Hurtgen asserted that "the brevity of the proscribed conduct does not render it lawful" and that, as one of a series of violations by the union, it should not be dismissed "simply because it is brief in duration." [BNA 9/17/01]
QUOTABLE QUOTE
"Prosecute the hell out of labor union corruption."
- Grover Norquist, President of Am. for
Tax Reform responding to a question about what the Bush Admin.'s labor
policy should be. [Am. Prospect 4/9/01]
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ADDITIONAL BRIEFS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FAX EDITION OF THIS UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE:
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TEAMSTERS (IBT)
California Local's Videotaping of Employees is ULP
The Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. ruled 2-1 Aug. 27 that Int'l Bhd. of
Teamsters Local 890 committed an unfair labor practice when it videotaped
the comings and goings of replacement workers during an economic strike
at a Cal. vegetable product processor and distributor. In an opinion affirming
the recommendations of an NLRB administrative law judge, Chairman Peter
J. Hurtgen and Member John C. Truesdale found that Local 890 violated the
Nat'l Labor Relations Act by videotaping the license plates and occupants
of vehicles driven into Basic Vegetable Products' King City, Cal., facility,
because the videotaping, along with abusive comments made by the picketers,
reasonably could tend to instill fear in the minds of the replacement workers.
Member Dennis P. Walsh dissented, arguing that the union's purpose for
videotaping was lawful and that the videotaping did not have a tendency
to restrain the replacement workers from exercising their rights under
NLRA.
NLRB ordered the local to stop videotaping replacement employees and their vehicles and vehicle license plate numbers, and to stop otherwise restraining or coercing employees from exercising their NLRA rights. Olivia Garcia Boullt represented the NLRB general counsel. Duane B. Beeson, with Beeson, Tayer & Bodine in San Francisco represented the union. Marcia A. Ross of Joy, Peterson, Watkins & Smith represented BVP.[BNA 9/10/01]
New York Local Violated Federal Labor Law
The Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. ruled, 2-1, Sept. 13 that an arbitration
decision requiring a N.Y. dairy products wholesaler, J&J Farms Creamery
Co., in Maspeth, N.Y., to subcontract trucking work only to employers that
have a contract with Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local 277 is unenforceable.
NLRB chairman Peter J. Hurtgen and member John C. Truesdale decided Local
277's attempt to enforce the arbitration ruling violated Section 8(e) of
the Nat'l Labor Relations Act, which prohibits any agreement precluding
an employer from doing business with another person. NLRB characterized
the bargaining contract provision interpreted by the arbitrator as an illegal
"union signatory" clause that is secondary in character, in violation of
NLRA Member Wilma B. Liebman dissented. [BNA 9/14/01]
UNION DUES
Oregon Grassroots Working on 2002 Ballot Initiative
At least one initiative petition that would restrict the use of payroll
deduction of union dues may be on the Nov. 2002 general election ballot
in Oregon. Since early Aug., supporters of Initiative Petition 18
have been gathering signatures, said Bill Sizemore, executive director
of Oregon Taxpayers United. The initiative would apply to both public and
private sector employees. It would prohibit payroll deductions by unions
if any portion of the money is used for a political purpose without the
employee's annual written authorization.
Another measure, Initiative Petition 19, received a modified ballot title from the Oregon Supreme Court Aug. 24 . The measure applies only to public sector unions. It would prohibit the use of the payroll deduction process in collecting money by a union to be used for political purposes.
Under both measures, "political purposes" is defined to include making contributions to political candidates, parties, and committees. It does not including ordinary lobbying activities.
OTU will make a decision in a few weeks on whether or not to begin gathering signatures for the Initiative Petition 19. He said he was not happy with the wording changes the court made to the ballot title. The group plans to conduct some polling before deciding whether or not to proceed with the court-modified ballot title, he said. Petitioners have until July 1, 2002, to gather 89,048 signatures for each of the proposed constitutional amendments. If the signatures are approved by the secretary of state's office, the initiatives will be placed on the Nov. 2002 general election ballot.
The petitions come less than year after voters defeated two similar ballot initiatives, Measure 92 and Measure 98, in the Nov. 2000 election. Labor groups raised $ 5 million in their effort to defeat the measures. Supporters of the initiatives spent $5,000, Sizemore said. Two years earlier, in 1998, yet another similar initiative, Measure 59, was defeated by Oregon voters. In that battle, unions spent $4 million. [BNA 9/13/01]
UNION DUES / TEACHERS (AFT)
Ninth Circuit Sides with Union in Alaska Dues Case
Two professors, Robert Carlson and John Morack, at the University of
Alaska, who were non-members of the United Academics that is affiliated
with the Am. Fed'n of Teachers, lost their challenge to AFT's method of
collecting agency fees before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
on Sept. 6. Affirming a lower court, the Ninth Circuit held that AFT's
procedures met the procedural safeguards and standards set out by the U.S.
Supreme Court in a 1986 decision Chicago Teachers Local No. 12 v. Hudson.
A revised notice and procedure was put in place after the professors challenged
the constitutionality of AFT's dues and agency fee collection procedures
under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
Carlson and Morack sued AFT in May 1998, after they were sent a letter warning them that the union was seeking retroactive agency fees and that they would be terminated from their jobs if they failed to complete a dues checkoff authorization form. The professors, represented by the Nat'l Right to Work Legal Def. Fdn., alleged that AFT's demands violated their constitutional rights by failing to provide the notice and procedural safeguards required by Hudson.
The district court initially found the notice to be illegal under Hudson and concluded that the professors were entitled to nominal damages. While the case was still pending before the district court, however, AFT revised the notices and provided additional information on the allocation of dues and the procedures for challenges. The court found the final notice met the Hudson requirements, rejected additional challenges by the professors, and dismissed their claims for punitive damages and injunctive relief. Affirming the lower court, the Ninth Circuit rejected the professors' argument that the procedures violated the Hudson requirements by continuing to discriminate against agency fee payors. The procedures set out by the union "provide for a reasonably prompt decision by an impartial decisionmaker," as required by Hudson, the appeals court said.
Circuit Judge Procter R. Hug, Jr. (Carter) wrote the decision and was joined by Circuit Judge Thomas G. Nelson (H.W. Bush) and District Judge Dean D. Pregerson (C.D. Cal., Clinton) sitting by designation. W. James Young of the NRTWLDF in Springfield, Va., represented the professors, and William Jermain of Jermain, Dunnagan & Owens in Anchorage represented the University of Alaska. [BNA 9/21/01]
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