LABOR LAW REFORM
Oklahomans Approve Right to Work Law
Oklahomans voted to become the twenty-second
Right to Work State on Sept. 25 with a surprisingly large margin of victory
54.2% to 45.8%. "We're alive," Okla. Gov. Frank Keating (R) exclaimed in
a victory speech. "For too long, we've been held back and held down. We
are now open for business." The official returns showed that State Question
695, the Right to Work proposal, garnered 447,072 votes for versus 378,465
against. SQ 695 places Right to Work language in the Okla. Constitution
as of Sept. 28.
Right to Work laws secure the right of employees to decide for themselves whether to join or financially support a union. According to the Okla. Dep't of Labor, violation of the new law is a misdemeanor, which can be prosecuted by a dist. atty. Individual employees may also seek relief through the courts. The new law will apply to employment contracts entered into after the effective date of the act.
In non-Right to Work States, many employees in a unionized work place have no choice but to financially support the union. Unless a State takes an affirmative action, its work force is not protected from forced unionism. Right to Work laws are possible thanks to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which carved out this exception to fed. labor law. Idaho was the last to adopt a Right to Work law in 1986. The other Right to Work states are: Ala., Ariz., Ark., Fla., Ga., Iowa, Kan., La., Miss., Neb., Nev., N.C., N.D., S.C., S.D., Tenn., Tex. Utah, Va., and Wyo.
One expert told the UCU that the success in Okla. may embolden lawmakers in Colorado and Montana to act on a Right to Work law. There is a report that "fears are mounting" in Missouri labor circles about a Right to Work law. In West Va., columnist Bob Kelly noted the bipartisan Right to Work campaign in Okla. and reported: "In their hearts, though they dare not utter it publicly, some big guns in the Democratic establishment believe a move like Oklahoma's to be the simplest and most effective way to halt West Virginia's long slide in jobs and population." [Daily Okla. 9/26, 9/29/01; Tulsa World 9/29/01; Columbia (Mo.) Daily Trib. 10/1/01; Charleston (W. Va.) Daily Mail 9/28/01]
CARPENTERS (UBC)
New York Mob Moves in on WTC Massacre Site
N.Y.C. has reportedly appointed four independent monitors to make sure
that anyone affiliated with organized crime is kept off clean-up site of
the World Trade Ctr. massacre. The Manhattan Dist. Atty.'s Office is conducting
a grand jury probe into mob-connected truckers who allegedly stole tons
of scrap metal and sold it instead of bringing it to a landfill where it
was to be examined as evidence. Reportedly, at least five of the trucking
companies being used to haul wreckage from the site are flagged on a city
list of vendors involved in alleged corruption or with mob ties. City officials
are reportedly now examining subcontractors. One firm, Scalamandri Trucking,
is charge by federal investigators as being controlled by Steven
L. Crea, the alleged boss of the Luchese crime family.
Further, many of the workers at the site have been provided by the United Bhd. of Carpenters Local 608, which allegedly has long-standing ties to the Genovese crime family. Investigators are reportedly probing allegations that some workers at the site have been forced to pay kickbacks to mob-connected union bosses in order to keep working there. [ABC News 10/4/01]
INDUSTRY WORKERS (UIW)
New York Funds Settle Whistleblower Suit for $18,500
The health and pension plans of Long Island's United Industry Workers
Local 424 agreed to pay nearly $18,524 to settle a suit that they wrongfully
fired an employee because she cooperated with a fed. probe. The Dep't of
Labor sued the Local 424 Health Benefits Plan and Local 424 Retirement
Plan in Aug. after the plans discharged an accounts-receivable manager,
who worked for both since Jan. 1998. DOL alleged that the discharge violated
whistle-blowing provisions of the fed pension law, ERISA. DOL's Pension
& Welfare Benefits Admin. interviewed the manager, who didn't want
her name used, to learn how the plans were run. When the plans' leadership
asked her about what she told DOL and she refused to say, the bosses fired
her. U.S. Dist. Court on Long Island issued a judgment Sept. 28, which
resulted in the capitulation of the local, which recently merged with the
Retail, Wholesale & Dep't Store Union Local 1102. The plans' attorney
Richard Greenspan emphasized that his clients didn't plead guilty. The
settlement includes compensation for lost wages and benefits. [Newsday
10/2/01]
LABORERS (LIUNA)
Kansas City Boss Gets 18 Months for $15,000 Embezzlement
U.S. Dist. Judge G. Thomas VanBebber (D. Kan., H.W. Bush) sentenced
admitted union embezzler Joseph C. Rider Sept.
25 to eighteen months in fed. prison, without parole, to be followed by
three years of supervised release. Rider, the ex-business manager and secretary-treasurer
of Laborers' Int'l Union of N. Am. Local 1290 in Kan., pled guilty in May
to one count of union embezzlement. VanBebber also ordered him to pay $15,044.46
in restitution.
U.S. Atty. James Flory said Rider used the local's credit card for personal expenses including airline tickets, restaurant bills, vehicle rentals, entertainment, and purchase of food or lodging. A Nov. 2000 indictment said the expenses included NASCAR tickets and Las Vegas shows. The crime occurred over four years beginning in Nov. 1995. Rider was the third generation in his family to head Local 1290. He was removed in 1999 after an internal probe. He was also president of the W. Mo. & Kan. Laborers' Dist. Council. [USAO D. Kan., Media Release, 9/26/01; K.C. Star 5/24/01]
Oregon Manager Indicted on 22 Counts
A federal grand jury in Portland, Or., indicted union fund manager
Jeffrey L. Grayson on Oct. 2 on twenty-two counts
of mail fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, witness tampering, and making
illegal payments to a union pension fund trustee. Grayson's clients,
many of them union pension funds, have lost $355 million in failed and
allegedly fraudulent investments in what the Sec. & Exch. Comm'n calls
the biggest fraud by an investment manager in U.S. history.
The indictment alleges that Grayson paid more than $200,000 to an ex-boss of the Laborers' Int'l Union of N. Am., John D. Abbott, who steered millions of dollars in pension and trust fund money to Grayson's firm, Capital Consultants. Abbott, ex-chairman of four of LIUNA funds, allegedly conspired with Grayson to conceal the payments. Grayson also allegedly tried to pressure an employee to lie to a grand jury about the payments to Abbott.
Also, in Sept. 2000, Dep't of Labor and SEC sued Grayson and his firm, alleging that Grayson was using a Ponzi-like scam to hide massive losses. He was ousted from the firm and the court appointed a receiver to liquidate it. Clients have filed civil suits to recover some funds as well.
Abbott was business manager of LIUNA's Or., S. Idaho & Wyo. Dist. Council and a trustee on two pension plans, a 401(k) plan, and a health and welfare plan. He pled guilty in Feb. to taking payoffs from Grayson and filing a false tax return. Grayson's son, Barclay, pled guilty to mail fraud in Mar. Both Abbott and Barclay, agreed to cooperate. The government is recommending a fifteen month sentence for Abbott and eighteen months for Barclay.
Asst. U.S. Atty. Lance Caldwell said a probe is continuing into "allegations of fraud in connection with Capital Consultants' investments" including $160 million in loans to the former Wilshire Credit Corp.Wilshire's top leaders, Andrew A. Wiederhorn and Lawrence A. Mendelsohn have been notified they are targets of the probe. Caldwell also said the indictment does not preclude additional charges against Grayson at a later time. [Oregonian 10/3/01]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Massachusetts Boss Wins $534,000 Libel Suit
James R. Fiori, ousted vice-president of Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local
170 of central Mass., won a $534,500 tort judgment Sept. 17 in a suit against
the local. A fed. jury ruled that Local 170 members improperly forced Fiori
from his union post because of his political support of the local's ex-boss
Ernest R. Tusino and IBT presidential candidate James P. Hoffa. The jury
ordered the local to pay Fiori in punitive and compensatory damages for
his removal and for distributing letters that unfairly libeled his reputation.
The local is appealing the decision.
The rift between Fiori and the local dates back to 1991 when Fiori was hurt in an accident and began receiving workers' compensation. A few days after the accident, the union went on strike, and he joined the picket line. During the strike, he received strike benefits and workers' compensation. He contends that payment of the strike benefits had been approved by union officials. In 1996, however, with Fiori now vice president, the local brought charges against him, alleging he violated IBT's constitution when he accepted both strike benefits and workers' compensation. IBT asked him to repay $26,345 in strike benefits, and removed him as vice president.
Fiori responded by filing a complaint with the Nat'l Labor Relations Bd., and the libel suit, alleging he was being discredited and attacked because of his political views. A NLRB administrative law judge ruled in 1998 that the charges had been manufactured to remove Fiori because of his political support for Hoffa and Tusino, who was removed from office by ex-IBT boss Ron Carey. [Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.) 9/20/01]
UNION DUES / LABOR LAW REFORM
DOL Requests Comments on Beck Rules
The Dep't of Labor's Office of Fed. Contract Compliance Programs will
have a key role in enforcing aspects of an executive order on notice requirements
imposed by the U.S. Supreme Court's 1988 decision in CWA v. Beck. The proposed
rule, published in the Oct. 1 Fed. Register, says that OFCCP was designated
the agency to enforce the requirements of President
Bush' executive order mandating that fed. contractors post notices
informing employees of their Beck rights. Beck held that workers who pay
agency fees in lieu of dues can't be forced to contribute to union expenses
unrelated to collective bargaining, contract administration, or the grievances
adjustment (e.g., no politics). The rule expands OFCCP's role compared
with the enforcement scheme contemplated under a similar order issued by
President H.W. Bush in 1992, which was rescinded by President Clinton in
1993. [BNA 10/1/01]
The public's comments on the proposed rule must be received on or before Nov. 30. The notice appeared in Fed. Register Vol. 66, Page 50010. Send comments to Don Todd, Deputy Asst. Sec'y for Labor-Mgmt. Programs, U.S. Dep't of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Room N-5605, Washington, DC 20210.
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TEAMSTERS (IBT)
IBT Racketeering Suit Against Carey Dismissed
The Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters $3 million RICO suit against its ex-boss
Ron Carey for allegedly defrauding IBT to finance
his 1996 re-election campaign was dismissed Oct. 1 by the U.S. Dist. Judge
Laura T. Swain (S.D.N.Y., Clinton). IBT charged that Carey conspired with
other individuals and groups to unlawfully swap union contributions to
various liberal advocacy groups for reciprocal unlawful payments by those
groups to Carey's 1996 campaign. Swain found that IBT failed to present
facts sufficient to prove the "existence of a pattern of racketeering activity"
and dismissed the suit.
Other named defendants included ex-IBT political director and convicted union embezzler William W. Hamilton, plus Carey campaign consultants Martin Davis, Jere Nash, and Michael Ansara, who all have pled guilty for their roles in the scandal. Also named were Ansara's wife, Barbara Arnold; fund-raiser Charles Blitz; the nonprofit advocacy group Citizen Action; and two of Citizen Actions officers, Ira Arlook and Rochelle Davis. The suit also named the law firm of Cohen, Weiss and Simon and its former associate Nathaniel Charny. Noticeably absent were the AFL-CIO's Richard L. Trumka and bosses from other union linked to scandal.
IBT sought recovery of some $885,000 from the defendants that it said was lost from the IBT treasury as the result of the illegal money-laundering scheme as well as some $2.2 million the union spent in the resulting rerun election.
Swain found that the evidence shows the predicate mail fraud activities all occurred between mid-Oct. and late Nov. 1996. Likewise, the wire fraud activities of the co-defendants occurred in a two-month period between Oct .and Dec. 1996. Further, "There is nothing in the complaint to suggest that this illegal fundraising would have occurred absent the campaign," and there is nothing in "the complaint [to] support an inference that the crimes alleged would have continued after the election," Swain said.Thus, according to Swain, IBT failed to show the "continued criminal activity" element of RICO.
IBT attorney, J. Bruce Maffeo of the New York firm of Seiff, Kretz & Maffeo, said Swain dismissed the suit on narrow grounds but left room for the IBT to amend its complaint. "That's what we will do," he said "We're committed to pursuing this litigating until we have full recovery of all the money that was embezzled or was expended by the union" in the rerun election. Carey was represented in the litigation by attorney Judith B. Chomsky of Elkins Park, Pa. [BNA 10/4/01]
POLICE UNIONS
Admitted Union Thief Running for Denver City Council
The ex-treasurer of the Denver Sheriff's Union who pled guilty in Apr.
2000 to stealing funds from the union's coffers is running for the Denver
City Council. Leonard F. Ortiz pled guilty to
a misdemeanor theft charge and was ordered to return the money he took.
Although Ortiz was ordered to repay more than $4,700 he had skimmed from
union bank deposits and union checks he wrote to himself while treasurer,
he admitted to stealing no more than $500. During the union's investigation,
Ortiz reportedly attempted to obstruct auditors from reviewing the union's
records.
Ortiz said Oct. 1 that he entered the plea after eighteen months of investigation to spare his family further anguish and to save his job. Despite the guilty plea, he denies he stole the money. Accusations of skimming also involved a commission he took on the sale of pins and badges he ordered for union members and money he spent for a table at a trade show, Ortiz said."They did an audit and they felt some of the expenditures were incorrect," Ortiz said. "I got slammed with those."
Ortiz received no jail time for the misdemeanor offense. He was merely suspended from his job at the Denver jail for thirty days. Ortiz appealed the suspension, but lost and subsequently resigned. Ortiz was one of three union bosses accused of taking union money in connection to the probe.
Ortiz is running for the District 2 City Council seat held by Dean Gokey, who is seeking re-election. Ortiz said he hopes Wheat Ridge voters will overlook his misdemeanor record. Election Day is Nov. 6. "I am just hoping the people of Wheat Ridge will see that I didn't do any of this with malice. I didn't do anything wrong. I pled guilty to something I didn't do. I didn't steal that money." [Rocky Mtn. News (Denver) 10/2/01; Denver Post 7/21/00]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Corrupt Boston Director Back; Carmen Boss Retires in Response
James E. Lydon, president of the Boston Carmen's Union since 1996,
announced that he would not seek reelection this Dec. and blasted the Board
of the Mass. Bay Trans. Auth. Retirement Fund Sept. 25 for its decision
not to fire its corrupt executive director, John
J. Gallahue. Lydon, who as Carmen president holds a seat on the Board,
said his decision is a result of his sheer frustration with the Board and
its approval of Gallahue as executive director until his retirement
in six months. Gallahue orchestrated $7 million in loans to a racketeer
named Francis K. Fraine, who provided apparent kickbacks to Gallahue between
1998 and 2000. The Board paid about $600,000 for a probe of Gallahue's
actions by attorney Nicholas Theodorou, whose report, which the Board has
refused to release, said Gallahue breached his fiduciary responsibility.
Lydon said of the Board, "They haven't been able to police themselves.
This guy is back at his job. . . . I'm sick of being the only one fighting."
Boston Herald columnist Rachelle Cohen called Lydon "a hero or a martyr" and said the Board "refuses to confront the corruption in its midst."
Gallahue, returned to the job from a forced leave (with pay) even as state and federal investigators are still conducting a probe of his alleged kickback activities. Gallahue agreed to retire in six months in exchange for the Board's concession not to act against him. "He (Gallahue) got a nine-month vacation, a trip to New Orleans, and a pay raise (to $191,000)," Lydon said. Meanwhile Gallahue has cost the Board, and that means Lydon's own members and retirees, $1.2 million in legal fees, including $600,000 for Theodorou's report. "Seeing that members of the pension fund paid for that report," Lydon said, "I made a motion that they each be given a copy of it. I couldn't even get a second for it."
Lydon, an ex-bus driver, also cited other activities that offended him such as the Board's expensive weekend retreats at Ocean Edge in Brewster, Mass.. "I had a three-bedroom condo for myself," he said. The board "retreats" cost $49,000 for a weekend. "That's a year's salary for a bus driver," he noted.
Cohen concluded, "The same union members who donned their orange shirts and picked up their anti-privatization picket signs...just don't seem to care that Gallahue has put their pension money at risk. ‘What I hear from members is: look at what he's (Gallahue) done for us. So what if he steals a little?'...It's too bad those guys in the orange shirts can't wake up and smell the stench coming from their own pension board and vow to do something about it. They have the muscle. It's high time they applied it." [Boston Herald 9/26/01]
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS (BLE) / TRANSPORTATION UNION (UTU)
Ohio Dissents Halt Union Merge
U.S. Dist. Judge Ann Aldrich (N.D. Ohio, Carter) recently halted the
long-running merger campaign between the Bhd. of Locomotive Eng'rs and
United Transp. Union. Aldrich impounded the merger ballots after
finding violations of the Labor Mgmt. Reporting
& Disclosure Act, popularly known as the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959,
in the way the a referendum on the merger was conducted. Aldrich agreed
with three BLE members who contended that BLE's failure to provide adequate
information before the balloting and separate counts of Canadian and U.S.
members' ballots
violated LMRDA.
Reportedly, newly elected BLE president Don Hahs reported to the union's Cleveland headquarters on Oct. 3, beginning his term with the question of the merger high on his agenda. Hahs was elected Sept. 28 during BLE's convention in Miami Beach.
Attorney Arthur Fox, who represented the three BLE members who challenged the voting process, said that if the union agrees to abide by Aldrich's ruling, the parties will agree to destroy the ballots cast by BLE and UTU members between mid-Aug. and mid-Sept. If BLE decides to contest the preliminary injunction and findings of LMRDA violations, the court would schedule hearings on the issues, Fox said. A third option would be to throw out the ballots and hold another merger referendum that follows the court's findings, he said. Fox is with the Washington, D.C., law firm Lobel, Novins & Lamont.
Officials of BLE and UTU announced in late July that they were ready to put the merger question to a vote of members, with a goal of implementing the unification plans by Jan. 1, 2002. Merger talks had resumed in June after they abruptly ended two years earlier when BLE pulled out of negotiations. Long rivals in representation elections among freight railroad employees, the unions recently have been at odds over whether those operating locomotives should be in a single class or craft or in two distinct collective bargaining groups as has typically been the case.
Finding in favor of the three dissident BLE members, Aldrich granted a preliminary injunction impounding the merger referendum ballots based on "a substantial likelihood" that the plaintiffs would prevail in their claims of LMRDA violations. The dissidents would "suffer irreparable harm if the final vote count were announced," Aldrich said. She instructed the Am. Arbitration Ass'n to impound the ballots and to refrain from counting them until the dispute is resolved.
Aldrich found "substantial likelihood" of finding violations of LMRDA related to the way the referendum was conducted. First, the court said that BLE members were denied information on the proposed merger, especially from opponents of the plan, to the extent that they were "deprived of information necessary to cast a meaningful vote." Shortly before the ballots and copies of the unification agreement were scheduled to be mailed to BLE and UTU members, the dissidents asked BLE for additional time to prepare documents arguing against the merger. According Aldrich, BLE officials denied the request to delay the mailing and sent ballots and more than 100 pages of material, including letters from presidents of both unions urging approval. "The plaintiffs have shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that the BLE's refusal to delay sending the ballots altered the mix of information available to many BLE members at the time they voted, depriving them of information necessary to cast a meaningful vote," Aldrich said.
Aldrich also agreed with the dissidents that there was "sufficient evidence that the Canadian BLE leadership was consistently skeptical of the merger, that this fact was generally well known, and that the Canadian leadership ultimately passed a resolution to recommend that the membership vote no." Aldrich said she "was troubled by the fact that the choice to count the Canadian BLE votes separately appears to have been based specifically on the expectation that the Canadian members would overwhelmingly vote against a merger. In this case, then, there is substantial evidence that there is a well-defined group of voters who could be disadvantaged by this arrangement: American BLE members opposing the merger." [BNA 10/5/01]
SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU) / UNION DUES
LAX Employees Win Beck Settlement
Two L.A. Int'l Airport janitors won a monetary settlement Oct. 2 against
the Service Employees Int'l Union Local 1877 in a federal case pending
against the union as a result of its systematic refusal to honor the workers'
right to object to union membership and forced dues. With the
help of Nat'l Right to Work Legal Defense Fdn. attorneys, the airport employees,
Lidia Acevedo and Amarilis Barrientos-Sosa, forced Local 1877 officials
to settle a pair of federal unfair labor practice charges filed with the
Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. against Local 1877 in Mar. The NLRB complaint
alleged that union bosses were guilty of coercing nonmember workers
into paying full membership dues.
According to the settlement agreement, the union bosses must refund membership dues unlawfully deducted from the employees' paychecks after they resigned their union memberships. Union bosses must also post notices, in English and Spanish, informing all LAX janitors of their right to object to union membership and the payment of full dues. Under Supreme Court's Communications Workers of Am. v. Beck decision, employees may halt and reclaim all union dues spent on politics and other activities unrelated to the union's proven collective bargaining costs.
NRTW attorneys hope to soon force a settlement in another set of cases on behalf of L.A. janitors harassed by SEIU Local 1877 officials. During its so-called "Justice for Janitors" strike last year, the union hierarchy fined sixteen janitors up to $500 each for exercising their right to continue working during the strike. [NRTW Media Release 10/3/01]
LABOR LAW REFORM
Ohio Anti-PLA Law Upheld
An Ohio court of Appeals has upheld an Ohio law limiting costly and
discriminatory union-only contracts, called project labor agreements (PLAs),
on state-funded construction projects. The Eighth District
of the Ohio Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio's Open Contracting Act does
not violate the Nat'l Labor Relations Act. The court's decision overturned
a lower court's ruling striking down the law passed by the legislature
in 1999.
"PLAs amount to extortion - union officials demand taxpayer handouts and government-granted special privileges in exchange for not ordering strikes or causing other disruptions," said Stefan Gleason of the Nat'l Right to Work Fdn."This is a victory for Ohio taxpayers, workers, and job providers."
Under union-only PLAs, union-friendly politicians award contracts on government-funded construction projects only to contractors who agree to force compulsory unionism on their employees. PLAs usually require contractors to grant union officials monopoly bargaining privileges over all workers; force their employees to pay union dues; use exclusive union hiring halls; and pay above-market prices resulting from wasteful work rules and featherbedding.
Ohio's state legislature passed HB 101 in 1999 after four union-only construction projects generated massive cost overruns. Union bosses almost immediately challenged the new law in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, which issued an injunction stopping enforcement of the law. The appeals court ruling now clears the way for enforcement of the law. [NRTW Media Release 10/2/01]
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