CARPENTERS (UBC)
Southern California Staffer Embezzled $110,000
U.S. Dist. Judge Ronald S.W. Lew (C.D. Cal., Reagan) sentenced Wilfield
Bloomfield, United Bhd. of Carpenters Local 1553's ex-bookkeeper, Oct.
16 to 15 months in federal prison for embezzling more than $110,000 from
the local in Hawthorne, Cal. Lew put Bloomfield on 3 years probation and
ordered him to pay $110,887 in restitution to the local, which is also
known as the Elec. & Space Technicians Local 1553. He pled guilty in
June. Bloomfield reportedly stole the money over a 2-year period ending
in April 2000."Bloomfield allegedly stole pre-signed checks, made the checks
payable to himself, then cashed them at a nearby check-cashing outlet and
used the money for personal purposes. [City News Serv. 10/16/01]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (AFSCME)
Diop Pleads Guilty to $50,000 Larceny; Local Freed
Albert A. Diop, ex-int'l vice-president
of the Am. Fed'n of State, County & Mun. Employees and president of
AFSCME Local 1549, admitted Oct. 12 to stealing more than $50,000 from
the local. A day after he was supposed to go on trial for stealing more
than $1 million, Diop pled guilty to second-degree grand larceny, admitting
that he used a Local 1549 credit card to buy chess sets, cameras, clothing,
and other personal items, and to pay for hotels for himself. An internal
union audit accused Diop of having his local pay more than $600,000 to
Local 1549's parent, Dist. Council 37, for more
than 2 years as rent for a personal penthouse atop DC37 headquarters.
He was scheduled for trial in Oct. 2000, but he was declared mentally unfit at the time. Under the plea, N.Y. judge William Leibovitz in Manhattan will sentence Diop on Nov. 2 to between 3.33 and 11 years in state prison. Diop is already serving 1.5 to 4 years for rigging a union contract vote. He was convicted in July 2000 of a scheme to defraud for stuffing ballot boxes in 1996.
Separately, Local 1549 regained its independence Oct. 9 after more than 30 months under the control of the scandal-scarred DC37. DC37 said it was "fiscally sound," after having more than a million dollars allegedly swiped from its coffers by Diop and his minions. DC37 itself still remains under the control of AFSCME. DC37 said that with the return of fiscal stability to Local 1549's annual dues had been reduced from $588 to $480.
The 3-year investigation of DC37 by Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau (D) has led to criminal charges against more than 30 union bosses and vendors. More than 20 have been convicted or pled guilty to union corruption charges. The crimes included free pleasure cruises for union bosses and a kickback scheme for union bosses who purchased holiday turkeys for free distribution to DC37 members. [Newsday 10/13, 10/10/01; AP 10/12]
IRON WORKERS (BSORIW)
Georgia Boss Admits $29,700 Union Embezzlement
Steve Jones, ex-business manager and secretary-treasurer of Int'l Ass'n
of Iron Workers Local 387, pled guilty Oct. 11 in U.S. Dist. Court for
the N. Dist. of Ga. to embezzlement. He admitted to 2 counts: embezzling
$29,724.73 in union funds and $39,949.42 in apprenticeship funds. [Dep't
of Labor 10/11/01]
NURSES (PNA)
Treasurer Embezzled $19,100 from Ohio Local
Ex-treasurer of the Lima (Ohio) Mem'l Prof'l Nurses Ass'n, Sharon K.
Schmenk, pled guilty Oct. 5 in U.S. Dist. Court for the N. Dist. of Ohio
to a 1 count of embezzling $19,170 in union funds. [Dep't of Labor 10/5/01]
HOTEL & RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES (HERE)
DOL Wins New Election at Corrupt New Jersey Local
On Oct. 10, U.S. Dist. Judge Joseph E. Irenas (D.N.J., H.W. Bush) invalidated
the June 1999 officers election of the historically-corrupt Hotel Employees
& Restaurant Employees Int'l Union Local 54 in Atlantic City. Irenas
found that local bosses failed to get ballots to 15% of the members. Irenas
order the casino employees local to hold a new election under the supervision
of Sec'y of Labor Elaine L. Chao. Irenas, granting the Dep't of Labor's
motion for summary judgment, concluded that there were so many undisputed
violations of the federal labor law that the outcome of the results could
have been affected.
Incumbent president, Robert McDevitt, defeated challenger Bobby Donovan by 440 votes. The rest of the McDevitt slate won by margins of more than 500. However, 1,975 members in good standing never got the election notice mailed to them, and ultimately close to 1,600 members never received a mailed ballot.
The setback came just after Local 54 appeared to have cleaned up problems with its election process. The local was placed under a court-ordered monitor in 1991 after a federal judge found that that the local was dominated by the mob. In 1997, monitor James Flanagan, III, persuaded U.S. Dist. Judge Garrett E. Brown, Jr. (D.N.J., Reagan), to lift the supervision. Clairborne Newlin, of Philadelphia's Meranze & Katz, who represented some election losers and employees, said the 1999 election woes were "probably a question of ineptitude."
Irenas chided the local for being able to find members who were late in paying dues, saying the bosses would have its business agents and shop stewards take time to track members down and get an updated address for its dues office. "Notably, Local 54's remarkably passive approach to updating its member lists contrasts starkly with its significantly more proactive methods employed by the union to collect delinquent dues."
Irenas reminded Local 54 that federal labor law includes an absolute duty to mail election notices to the last known address of each member. He said the requirement to do so is a strict mandate without any wiggle room, citing case law that has called the notice requirement explicit and literal. Moreover, he found that the union failed to make a "reasonable effort" to keep its mailing list current, another provision of the statute. [N.J.L.J. 10/15/01]
SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU)
Election Corruption Alleged in NYC
A credible N.Y. dissident, Paul Pamias,
filed a complaint Oct. 12 with Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau
requesting an investigation in his local, Serv. Employees Int'l Union Local
32B-32J, for alleged violations of local election laws in connection with
N.Y.C.'s Sept. 25 Democratic primary.
Pamias alleged that on Sept. 11, the original primary day, many of the local's staff were forced to volunteer to campaign for mayoral candidate Mark Green. Staffers were allegedly forced to sign vouchers stating they were taking a vacation day so they can go campaign. Again, on Sept. 24, Staffers were allegedly told at a meeting that they would be campaigning all day Sept. 25. Allegedly, this time they were not ordered to fill out vacation vouchers. After the primary, however, outraged staffers reportedly confronted various bosses, and the bosses avoided a "possible mutiny" by allegedly giving the staff a day off with pay.
On Oct. 11, the staff was allegedly out campaigning again, against their will. That same day, an article appeared in El Diario, a Spanish newspaper, detailing the alleged election corruption. Then after questioning from Pamias, local bosses allegedly gave staffers who were already in the field vacation vouchers and told to fill them out. Staffers approached Pamias because he is recognized dissident leader with a track record of success -- he was part of the successful effort that brought down ex-32B-32J boss Gus Benova in 1999 via a series of federal anti-corruption suits. [Pamias Letter to Morgenthau 10/12/01]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Mary Jo White Blows It, Big Time
U.S. Atty. for the the S. Dist. of N.Y., Mary Jo White, lost the Ron
Carey case. On Oct. 12, a federal jury acquitted the corrupt Teamsters
boss of all seven counts of perjury and making false statements in connection
with a $885,000 money laundering scheme
that sent union treasury funds into Carey's 1996 reelection campaign.
Even though the union was able to expell and punish Carey, White and her office failed. Losing a such a high-profile case should be a total embarrassment for White, a Clinton-appointee. Blunders--like 1) bring the case almost 5 years after the events took place and 2) putting a hostile witness, convicted union embezzler William W. Hamilton, on the stand only to have him undermine your case against Carey--demonstrate White's incompetence.
Many have been calling on President Bush to replace White since Jan. 20. What further evidence does he need?
That said, there may finally be movement on this front. Reportedly, shortly after the Carey defeat, the Justice Dep't stripped White of the authority over terrorism prosecutions. She had two big defeats in this area this summer when she failed to win the death sentences for two of Osama bin Laden's henchmen. It is time for her to go! [Wall St. J. 10/17/01]
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (AFGE)
Ohio Boss Sentenced for Theft
Michaelene Vandin, ex-secretary-treasurer of Am. Fed'n of Gov't Employees
Local 2031, pled guilty Oct. 3, in Hamilton County (Ohio) Court to theft
by deception. She was sentenced to 180 days in jail which was suspended,
1 year probation, and 40 hours of community service. She previously paid
$1,574.50 in restitution to the local. She was indicted on Aug. 7. [Dep't
of Labor 10/3/01]
AUTO WORKERS (UAW)
Iowa Boss Admits Embezzlement
On Oct. 5, Terrance P. Baldridge pled guilty in U.S. Dist. Court for
the N. Dist. of Iowa to embezzling $1,150 from United Auto Workers Local
1349. Baldridge is the ex-secretary-treasurer of the local. [Dep't of Labor
10/5/01]
QUOTABLE QUOTE
"The old guard's way is to treat members like you grow mushrooms: Keep
‘em in the dark and feed ‘em horsecrap. That's not going to work anymore."
-Danny Campbell, President of Teamsters Local 2000 in Minn. [Star Trib. (Minneapolis) 10/10/01]
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ADDITIONAL BRIEFS NOT INCLUDED ON THE FAX EDITION OF THIS UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE:
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ELECTRICAL WORKERS (IBEW)
McAuliffe's Cronies Settle ERISA Suit for $4.9 Million
Trustees of the Nat'l Elec. Benefit Fund must pay more than $4.9 million
to reimburse the fund under a consent order settling Dep't of Labor charges
that they breached their fiduciary duties under ERISA by investing in a
Fla.. real estate limited partnership. The two trustees, Jack
Moore and John Grau, also agreed to pay a civil penalty of $555,000
under the consent order signed Oct. 16 by the U.S. Dist. Judge Deborah
K. Chasanow (D. Md., Clinton). The order resulted from a suit filed in
May 1999 by DOL's Pension & Welfare Benefits Admin., alleging that
the trustees imprudently loaned pension plan assets to a corporation for
certain real estate purchases linked to tainted Clinton family fundraiser
and Democratic Nat'l Committee Chairman Terence McAuliffe.
Moore and Grau denied the allegations, but entered into the agreement with DOL after Williams ruled in July that DOL could proceed with its suit. U.S. Dist. Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. (D. Md., Clinton), denied the trustees' motion for summary judgment, rejecting their contention that they did not breach their fiduciary duties because the real estate transactions had beneficial results.
According to Williams, the trustees arranged for the fund to become a limited partner in a partnership established to purchase real estate in Fla. The fund subsequently loaned $10 million to the general partner of the partnership, McAuliffe, enabling him, through another company, to acquire and develop additional property. The trustees then took McAuliffe up on his offer to sell the fund shares in the partnership at a 15% discount, increasing the fund's interest to more than 88%. The partnership subsequently repurchased the fund's shares for more than $30 million.
In announcing the victory, Labor Sec'y Elaine L. Chao said "[t]his aggressive settlement is part of our commitment to crack down on pension fund abuses by union and management officials. We will do everything in our power to protect union members' pensions from being preyed upon and misspent."
NEBF is operated jointly by the Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers, from which Moore retired as secretary in 1997, and the Nat. Electrical Contractors Ass'n. DOL was represented by Joan Roller, Myrna A. Butkovitz, and Richard T. Buchanan. James M. Kefauver and Ross D. Cooper of represented Moore and Grau. [BNA 10/18/01]
ASBESTOS WORKERS / LONGSHOREMEN / MAINTENANCE OF WAY
EMPLOYEES / MUSICIANS / TEXTILE EMPLOYEES
Unions Fail to File Disclosure Reports
According to politicalmoneyline.com, several int'l unions have failed
to file their basic financial disclosure reports (LM-2) with the Dep't
of Labor. These include five unions: the Int'l Ass'n of Asbestos Workers,
Int'l Longshoremen's & Warehousemen Union, Bhd. of Maintenance of Way
Employees, Am. Fed'n of Musicians, and Union of Needletrades, Industrial
& Textile Employees. [politicalmoneyline.com 10/19/01]
POSTAL WORKERS (APWU)
New Mexico Boss Admits Bogus Recordkeeping
On Oct. 3, in the U.S. Dist. Court for the Dist. of New Mexico, Ygnacio
Angel, ex-president of Am. Postal Workers Union Local 402, pled guilty
to an information charging him with false recordkeeping in violation federal
labor law. [Dep't of Labor 10/3/01]
MINE WORKERS (UMW)
Pennsylvania Staffer Charged with Theft
On Feb. 28, the Dist. Atty. of Armstrong County (Pa.) charged Gail
McGranahan, an ex-staffer of Mine Workers Local 1378, with 20 counts of
forgery and 20 counts of theft and is seeking $6,610 in restitution to
the union. [Dep't of Labor 2/28/01]
ALLIED-INDUSTRIAL WORKERS (PACE)
Wisconsin Boss Indicted for $17,400 Embezzlement
On Feb. 14, Shawn Drake, ex-secretary-treasurer of Local 736 of the
Paper, Allied-Indus. Chemical & Energy Workers Int'l Union, was indicted
in U.S. Dist. Court for the E. Dist. of Wis. one count of embezzling $17,419
in union funds. [Dep't of Labor 2/14/01]
MUSICIANS (AFM)
Florida Boss Guilty of Filing False Reports
Barry James, ex-president of Am. Fed'n of Musicians Local 389, pled
guilty Feb. 5 in the U.S. Dist. Court for the Middle Dist. of Fla. to a
one-count information for filing a false labor organization annual financial
report in violation of federal labor law. [Dep't of Labor 2/14/01]
TREASURY EMPLOYEES (NTEU)
Arizona Boss Indicted on Seven Corruption Counts
On January 17, 2001, in the U.S. Dist. Court for D.C., Gregory Floto,
president of Nat'l Treasury Employees Union Chapter 116 in Tucson, Ariz.,
was indicted on 7 counts of mail fraud/deprivation of honest services (3
counts), making false statements (3 counts), and obstruction of justice
(1 count). The charges were brought following a joint investigation by
the OLMS Los Angeles District Office and the U.S. Customs Service Office
of Internal Affairs. [Dep't of Labor 1/17/01]
FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS (UFCW)
North Carolina Boss Indicted for $13,200 Embezzlement
In U.S. Dis. Court for the W. Dist. of N.C., a one-count indictment
was returned Jan. 9 charging Roger Causy, secretary-treasurer of United
Food & Commercial Workers Int'l Union Local 427-C, with embezzling
$13,218 in union funds. [Dep't of Labor 1/9/01]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Hawaiian Local Must Pay Nearly $1 Million in Tort Damages to Employer
U.S. Dist. Judge Helen W. Gillmor (D. Haw., Clinton) ordered the Int'l
Bhd. of Teamsters Local 996 in Hawaii to pay nearly $1 million to a dry
cleaning firm and its owner for union bosses' "reckless disregard" as to
the truth of statements they made regarding the firm's financial state
during contract bargaining and in advance of a strike vote. Local 996's
bosses "acted with malice in making statement...[at a membership meeting]
while being aware of the probable falsity of the statements" about the
company's resources, said Gillmor. The firm's owner claimed he was
defamed by the union's false and malicious statements that the firm was
making money and that he had hidden the money in a separate entity while
demanding that employees accept a concessionary contract.
The case arose out of a collective bargaining dispute in 1998 between Young Laundry & Dry Cleaning and Local 996 that resulted in a 7 month strike, the permanent replacement of striking workers, and ultimately to the decertification of IBT in May 1999. In the course of the bargaining, the firm's owner, Michael Drace, repeatedly tried to provide IBT negotiators with information concerning the firm's deteriorated financial state. Drace offered the firm's financial records in explanation for a wage rollback he proposed in his contract offer.
Evidence and testimony showed that local president Mel Kahele took the financial records but never reviewed them. He also rejected Drace's offer to allow a union accountant to review the books. Kahele said he made a deliberate decision not to have an accountant review the financial records because employees were adamant that they receive a wage increases. At a Sept. 11 membership meeting, Kahele told employees the firm was seeking concessions even though it was profitable. He claimed Drace was "hiding money" in Steam Press Holdings, Inc., a holding company created in 1997 when Drace took over the laundry operation.
"A state law defamation claim may proceed in federal court to the extent that the aggrieved party can demonstrate that the defamatory statements are made with actual malice. Actual malice is shown with knowledge that the statements made are false or made with reckless disregard to their truth or falsity," wrote Gillmor."The documentary and testimonial evidence shows that the union acted with a high degree of awareness of the probable falsity of the truth of the statements that Drace was making money and that he was hiding money in Steam Press....The union acted with malice in making statements to [company] employees on Sept. 11 while being aware of the falsity of the statements."
At a subsequent strike authorization meeting, Kahele again told employees that the company was making money and hiding it. In making such statements, the judge said, the union "acted in reckless disregard for the truth."
Gillmor ruled, "The effect of these statements being put forth by the employees' lawful collective bargaining representative moments before the strike vote was clearly to motivate the employees to vote to strike. ... The subsequent strike that flowed from the vote was directly caused by the misinformation put forward by Kahele and the union."
Gillmor ordered the local to pay compensatory damages totaling $885,323 to Young Laundry & Dry Cleaning and an additional $100,000 to Drace for damage to his reputation and emotional distress. Gillmor also held the union liable for the cost of additional unemployment insurance taxes and interest payments which, according to the firm's attorney, could amount to an additional $600,000. Gillmor, however, denied Drace's request for punitive damages, saying that "compensatory damages adequately reflect the unlawful nature of the conduct and that punitive damages are not necessary to deter [the union] from similar conduct in the future.
Attorney Jeffrey Cutler, of Wohlner Kaplon Phillips, Young, & Barsh in Encino, Cal., represented Local 996 and said the local intends to appeal the ruling. Young Laundry & Dry Cleaning was represented by Honolulu attorneys Jared H. Jossem and Lynne T. Toyofuku of the firm of Dwyer Schraff Meyer Jossem & Bushnell. [BNA 10/11/01]
AIR LINE PILOTS (APA)
Passengers Seek Damages from Tattered Union
U.S. Dist. Judge Patti B. Saris (D. Mass., Clinton) ruled Sept. 28
that Am. Airlines passengers whose flights were canceled as the result
of a union "sickout" in Feb. 1999 can proceed with claims against the Allied
Pilots Ass'n. Saris denied APA's motion for summary judgment. The court,
however, granted summary judgment to the APA's president finding he was
immune from personal liability in connection with the sickout.
APA Pilots represented engaged in a sickout between Feb. 6 and Feb. 9, 1999, that resulted in cancellation of more than 1,600 flights. Am. Airlines obtained a temporary restraining order on Feb. 10. However, the day after the TRO was issued, the number of flight cancellations increased. U.S. Dist. Judge E. Joseph Kendall (N.D. Tex., H.W. Bush) on Feb. 12 found APA, its president, Richard Lavoy, and another union boss in contempt for violating the TRO. Kendall levied a $45.5 million fine against the union and its bosses for violating his order to call off the sickout. The fine has been upheld and APA has made arrangements to pay it in full plus interest.
Passengers, who had booked flights on American out of Boston's Logan Airport filed a complaint in Sept. 2000 against the Am. Airlines, APA, and the union bosses. They sought damages for the expenses they incurred after their flights were canceled.
Saris found that there was no federal labor law preemption in this case. "The common law remedy here of intentional interference with contract is not designed to sanction labor violations, but is a generally applicable tort to protect private expectations arising from a binding contract." Saris further found: "Once Judge Kendall issued the TRO, his order trumped any possible justification defense based on the rights conferred by the collective bargaining agreement." [BNA 10/19/01]
MUSICIANS (AFM)
Detroit Local Looses First Round of Discrimination Case
U.S. Dist. Judge Gerald E. Rosen (E.D. Mich., H.W. Bush) denied the
Am. Fed'n of Musicians Local 5's motion for summary judgment on the sex
discrimination claim by a female opera house worker, Diane Bredesen, ruling
that federal labor law does not preempt a claim that the Detroit-based
local violated Mich.'s anti-discrimination law by purposefully negotiating
a contract that caused her to be paid at half the rate paid to men in her
position under other union contracts. However, Rosen rejected Bredesen's
claim that the union breached its duty of fair representation, finding
that Bredesen failed to exhaust internal union remedies available for that
complaint.
Bredesen worked as a "house contractor" for the Detroit Opera House. When Bredesen began her job in 1996, she was the only woman to hold that position in any major Detroit-area venue and the first female house contractor to be represented by the local. She alleged that when she started her job, she asked local president Carl Austin to negotiate a "double scale" salary, but Austin told her that all house contractors represented by the local were paid a uniform rate equal to a "side-musician" rate. Bredesen agreed to this rate, and it was incorporated into the 1996-98 Detroit Opera House collective bargaining agreement. In Oct. 1999, Bredesen discovered that all of the other Detroit area venues, which were covered by the local, were paying their house contractors, all males, double the regular side-musician rate. In addition, the other venues paid house contractors -- who, like Bredesen, also worked as musicians -- these double-scale rates plus the regular side-musician rates for their services as musicians. Bredesen further alleged that Austin tried to bully her and dictate hiring decisions. When Bredesen made her own decisions, she claimed, Austin became infuriated and threatened to have her fired. She said he told her "it's time the boys sit down and teach you a lesson and teach you the way it has to be done."
After Bredesen learned of the pay discrepancy, she obtained copies of the union contracts with the other venues and presented the documentation to the Detroit Opera House. The employer quickly signed a side agreement with her changing her payment rate to double scale. The employer asked the union to sign the side letter, but the union balked, the court said. After the union was served with the complaint in this lawsuit, the court added, it signed the letter, editing out of it all references to the fact that the other venues paid their house contractors double scale. [BNA 10/11/01]
AUTO WORKERS (UAW) / UNION DUES
Indiana Local Wins Dues Case
U.S. Dist. Judge William C. Lee (N.D. Ind., Reagan) ruled against an
employee finding that a union's insistence that the employee provide "independent
corroboration" that his religious beliefs precluded his funding or participating
in the union did not violate Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Lee
granted summary judgment to United Auto Workers Local 2209 in Fort Wayne,
Ind., on the claim of employee John M. Bushouse that the local failed to
accommodate his religious belief by allowing him to donate his union dues
to a charity. Lee found that Bushouse did not adequately establish that
he held sincere religious beliefs that conflicted with UAW's requirement
that he pay dues.
Bushouse works a Gen. Motors plan where UAW and GM's the collective bargaining agreement contains a union security agreement forcing unionization on employees. From 1978-99, Bushouse was a member of the union who voiced no religious objections to paying dues. He said, however, that his membership troubled his conscience, and he became increasingly unable to reconcile his union membership with his evolving religious beliefs. In 1998, he read a newspaper article mentioning the Nat'l Right to Work Legal Defense Fdn. He contacted NRTW, which provided him with forms he could use to resign from UAW. Bushouse submitted the forms to Local 2209, and the local union began treating him as a nonmember "Beck objector," requiring him to pay the percentage of dues used by the union for collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance purposes. In 1999, NRTW informed Bushouse that the law allows individuals who hold sincere religious beliefs against union membership to pay the equivalent of dues to a charity rather than to a union. In Sept. 1999, Bushouse asked the local to grant him the charity option.
UAW requires individuals seeking the charity option to provide independent corroboration that he sincerely holds a religious conviction against joining or financially supporting a union. To distinguish sincere religious objectors from those with political or ideological objections to union membership, UAW asked Beck objectors to submit an application that identified the religious body or sect to which he or she belonged and requested that the member complete a "religious body or sect certificate" signed by a pastor or church elder attesting to that fact. The requirement followed Section 19 of the Nat'l Labor Relations Act.
Bushouse objected to turning in the certificate, claiming that that he should be entitled to religious objector status under Title VII without submitting the certificate. UAW told Bushouse that he could instead provide "credible independent corroboration" that established that he held religious objections to financially contributing to the union.
Bushouse then filed with a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n claiming religious discrimination. He argued that the union was unlawfully refusing to grant his request for the charity option because he did not meet the Section 19 requirement that he be a member of a religious body that historically objected to unions. The local responded by informing him in December 1999, by letter, that it did not require a particular certificate or a particular theological pronouncement. Bushouse submitted a letter signed by two individuals in which he stated that his beliefs precluded him from joining the union. The union rejected the letter, pointing out that the two individuals who signed on to the letter did not attest that they had any personal knowledge of Bushouse's religious beliefs.
In Aug. 2000, Bushouse sued, claiming violations of Title VII and that Section 19 of the NLRA was unconstitutional. Subsequently, Bushouse submitted to the union an affidavit signed by a pastor of a nondenominational church who certified that Bushouse held sincere religious beliefs precluding him from joining or financially supporting a union. The union accepted the certification and began providing the charity option in Apr. 2001.
Barry Macey of Macey, Macey, & Swanson in Indianapolis represented the union. Michael J. Cork of Burton & Cork in Indianapolis represented Bushouse. [BNA 10/15/01]
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLS (NATCA)
San Francisco Boss to Plead Guilty for Bank Robbery
Rick L. Davis, president of the Nat'l Air
Traffic Controllers Ass'n's San Fran. Local is expected to enter a guilty
plea for bank robbery on Oct. 26 before U.S. Dist. Judge D. Lowell Jensen
(N.D. Cal., Reagan). He was indicted Aug. 16 in a string of bank holdups
that authorities said he blamed on financial problems. Davis was named
in a nine-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Oakland
that said he netted $40,000 during a 10-month spree in Fremont, Union City,
and Concord. Police dubbed him the "Robust Robber" because of his stocky
build. [S.F. Chron. 10/17/01]
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