LABOR LAW REFORM
Unions Appeal OK Right to Work Ruling
Union lawyers have filed an appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Tenth Circuit to overturn Oklahoma's new Right to Work Law, a measure
making union membership voluntary while creating new jobs. "The decision
to file an appeal is another slap in the face to the voters of Oklahoma
who rejected the unions' cynical campaign of misinformation last fall,"
said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation,
whose legal-aid attorneys will be representing employees defending the
Right to Work law at the appellate court.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, Oklahoma has led the nation in the creation of jobs since the passage of Right to Work last September.
"The workers of Oklahoma are already seeing the benefits of living in a Right to Work state," said Gleason."When will union officials end their hostility toward employee freedom and the creation of new jobs for Oklahomans?"
On June 6, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frank Seay ruled on motions for summary judgment submitted by Governor Frank Keating's legal team and attorneys for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, who represented several Oklahoma workers in defending the law. The court held that, as in other states, the Right to Work law cannot be enforced with regard to employees covered by the Railway Labor Act (RLA) or employees of the federal government. But the law clearly and constitutionally protects employees who work for private companies under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Meanwhile, the court held that the minor provisions that banned exclusive union hiring halls and payroll deduction were pre-empted by federal law.
The Oklahoma AFL-CIO, six local unions, and a heavily unionized company filed the original suit last November in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma to overturn the will of Oklahoma's voters, who enacted State Question 695 on September 25, 2001. The Right to Work constitutional amendment bans the widespread union practice of forcing workers to join an unwanted union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. Oklahoma is the newest of America's 22 Right to Work states. [NRTWLDF 6/18.02]
IRON WORKERS (IAIW)
NLPC Urges DOL Check Up of Big Labor's "Arthur Andersen"
When the Thomas Havey firm brags about the $42 billion in union funds
it audits as its"Labor..specialty," the Fed. Govt. needs to see if that
includes the same cover-up
of embezzlement revealed in the case of the Intl. Assn. of Bridge, Structural,
Ornamental & Reinforcing Iron Workers (IAIW). That's the
message in a petition that NLPC filed with the US Dept. of Labor June 24.
NLPC filed the petition after Havey partner Alfred S. Garappolo admitted in federal court that he concealed from DOL investigators IAIW officials' demands that Havey falsify reports of disbursements to its officers on the IAIW's annual financial report (LM-2) filed with DOL.
On June 4, Garappolo pled guilty to two felony counts. First, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3, he confessed to helping Kerry J. Tresselt, a bookkeeper and daughter of ex-vice-president Raymond J. Robertson, to hide her embezzlement from the union training fund. And in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, Garappolo admitted to concealing from DOL agents statements made at a Sept. 1992 meeting by IAIW's ex-general counsel Victor Van Bourg to IAIW's ex-president and current president emeritus Jacob "Jake" West. Allegedly, Van Bourg told West that the Havey firm should be replaced if Havey accountants did not assist the underreporting and misidentification of the union's disbursements for its officers on the union's LM-2. After the meeting, according to Garappolo's plea, Havey accountants did just that, to the benefit of IAIW bosses Jake West, LeRoy Worley, and James Cole.
On its web site, the Havey firm claims to serve "more international and local labor organization clients than any other CPA firm in the country...bar none." Havey officials even claim: "Should your Union's LM-2 be selected for examination [by DOL], our...Professionals are available to represent your Organization with the objective of making the process as painless as possible." In the light of Garapppolo's confession, NLPC Chairman Kenneth Boehm wrote to the DOL's Office of Labor-Mgmt. Standards (OLMS), "[t]here is now a reasonable suspicion that what happened in this case may also have taken place within other labor union organizations employing the Havey firm." Therefore, Boehm concludes, OLMS should begin auditing all intl. unions using Havey, then move to audit any regional, state or local union clients.
In addition to the letter requesting an audit of Havey's union clients, Boehm sent a second letter to the DOL's Pension & Welfare Benefits Admin., requesting audits of employee benefit funds audited by Havey. The complete text of both letters may be read on NLPC's web site at http://www.nlpc.org/olap/doc/020624dt.htm [DOL 6/3/02]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Fed. Investigation of Mobbed-Up Bos. Local Chalks up First Conviction
The Fed. Govt. investigation of extortion and embezzlement by the hierarchy
of Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters Local 25 won its first conviction on July 1.
John J. "Mick" Murray, a Local 25 member and alleged associate of fugitive
organized crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, confessed that he plotted to
steal up to $1 million worth of computer equipment and guns with the help
of Teamster drivers working for United Parcel Service. He also confessed
to exerting influence over frmr Local 25 President George Cashman to help
him receive fraudulent health benefits from Local 25's insurance plan.
Murray alone took in some $35,000 in undeserved health care benefits.
Perhaps, most heinous of all, acc. to Asst. U.S. Attny. Fred Wyshak, Murray participated in a terrifying extortion scheme with Bulger lieutenant Kevin Weeks in 1994, when they hauled a bookie named Kevin Hayes into a South Boston basement for a lesson in the consequences of withholding Bulger's rent. "The men outfitted the room for an execution. Plastic covered the floor. Freezers stood nearby and a single stool was placed under a glaring light. Wearing knuckle-baring gloves and showing off a gun in his waistband, Weeks - who became a government witness in 1999 - berated bookie Kevin Hayes and ordered him to strip in case he was wearing a wire. Another man present insisted Weeks kill Hayes. Eventually Hayes promised to fork over a $ 50,000 "fine." He paid $10,000 in a first installment, but later pleaded that $1,000-a-week was too much. Hayes then paid Murray monthly, and continued until 1997.
Murray obtained the health benefits thanks to Cashman, who placed Murray and others on the payrolls of companies they didn't work for, but who had collective bargaining agreements with Local 25. This made then eligible for payments from the Teamster local's Health Services and Insurance Plan (HSIP).
Murray, who entered his plea before U.S. Dist. Judge Reginald C. Lindsay (Clinton), is the first of eight defendants, incl. Cashman, to be convicted. For his role in the 12 counts of racketeering, extortion, embezzlement and interstate transportation of stolen property, Murray could be sentenced on Oct. 29 to as much as 145 years in prison, but the U.S. Attny for the Dist. of Mass. has agreed to seek a sentence of eight years, one month.
The investigation of Local 25 continues, with the U.S. Dept. of Labor's Inspector General and Office of Labor Racketeering, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Admin., Mass. State Police and agents with the Everett Police Dept. assisting the U.S. Dist. Attny. Sullivan. Prosecuting the case against Murray, Cashman, and the six other dependents are U.S. Attnys Wyshak in Sullivan's Organized Crime Task Force, and Theodore Chuang in Sullivan's Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit. [U.S.A.O. Dist. Mass., Bos. Globe 7/2/02]
TEAMSTERS (IBT)
Hoffa Seizes NW Airline Affiliate, Fearing Break from IBT
Intl. IBT chief James P. Hoffa tried to block a threat to his union
by seizing control of the Minneapolis bargaining unit that represents 11,500
Northwest Airlines flight attendants. On July 1, Hoffa placed Teamsters
Local 2000 under trusteeship, ousting the local president and the executive
board, which Hoffa said failed to oppose an organizing effort to create
the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA). The Hoffa
trustee, Mollie Reiley, vowed to wage a vigorous campaign against PFAA
organizers.
When Hoffa was reelected president, a huge majority of Local 2000 members voted for his opponent. Recently, 100 percent of Local 2000 delegates opposed a dues increase favored by the Hoffa administration. In mid-June, a group of Northwest flight attendants launched a drive to form the PFAA. To trigger an election where attendants could switch from the IBT to the PFAA, organizers need about half of the flight attendants to sign election authorization cards.
Gary Helton, a Los Angeles-based flight attendant and PFAA organizer, said Hoffa's imposition of the trusteeship "is going to cement the notion that the Northwest flight attendants have absolutely no say in how their local is run." Reiley strongly disagreed, arguing that Hoffa is trying to preserve the strength of the flight attendants against "a major corporation that has a long and checkered history of labor relations. We cannot afford to be deprived of the union protections, for which so many have struggled for so long."
The ousted president, Danny Campbell said the dismissed board members were considering their options. "We may sue the international union," Campbell said Monday from his home in Detroit. "This is plainly a political trusteeship."
In a five-page trustee notice, Hoffa did not make any allegations of financial impropriety. Instead, Hoffa castigated the local leaders for failing to carry out eight directives, which he claimed were needed to "take effective action to combat this threat to the very existence of Local 2000."
The Teamsters, with 1.4 million members, have represented Northwest flight attendants for 26 years. If Local 2000 voted to leave the union, it would be the largest local decertification in recent memory, Paff said. There's also serious money at stake: Local 2000 members pay close to $400,000 a month in union dues, Campbell said. [Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn. 7/2/02]
IRON WORKERS (IAIW)
New Yorker Admits $57,700 Theft
Nancy Barber pled guilty June 24 to one count of embezzling an estimated
$57,769 from Int'l Assn. of Iron Workers Local 12 in Albany, N.Y. As the
local's primary bookkeeper between 1993-99, she regularly pocketed cash
received by the union for dues and other payments, stealing money in small
increments that went undetected for years. Allegedly, by a "check substitution
scheme," Barber used payments made with checks to cover the receipts issued
for cash she stole. Barber quit her job in 1999, shortly before union bosses
learned of the theft and notified federal officials.
Reportedly, Barber's plea was the result of a ongoing investigation involving the FBI and the Dept. of Labor. The local's former financial secy. and business agent, Michael Burns, who also is Albany County Democratic chairman, stepped down from the union post last year after the Local 12 leaders disclosed the federal investigation into the missing money. It appears that this investigation may be connected to the large IAIW probe that has led to nine indictment and seven guilty pleas on the intl. union level.
Barber was released without bail. U.S. Dist. Judge Lawrence Kahn (N.D.N.Y., Clinton) set sentencing for Oct. 16. She is expected to receive between five and sixteen months in prison, according to prosecutors. Local 12 represents workers in N.Y., Mass. and Vt. [Times Union (Albany) 6/25/02]
STEELWORKERS (USWA)
New Details on how Knoxville Boss Cleaned Out Local Union
Harry S. Mattice, Jr., U.S. Attny, E.D. Tenn., has revealed new details
on how a secy.-treasurer nearly bankrupted a Knoxville Steelworkers union
and its members.
On Feb. 11, ex-secretary-treasurer of United Steelworkers of Am. Local 35-8681 Donald G. Martin was sentenced to five months at a half-way house and five months home detention for embezzling $10,591 from the union. A jury took one hour to find Martin guilty on Oct. 10, 2001. According to Dist. Attny Mattice, Martin wrote checks from the union's acct. for supposed "lost time" on union business, and wrote checks to himself that he recorded as paid to other members.
According to Mattice: "the prosecution of union embezzlement cases, including this one where the embezzled funds totaled only $10,591, is vital to preserving the function and financial integrity of local unions in this country. Congress has not based the union embezzlement statute on dollar figures. Instead, Congress based the statute on principles of fiduciary responsibility, and Local 8681's membership trusted Donald G. Martin, a union financial officer, with its money. Donald Martin breached that trust and now faces the consequences of his actions."
U.S. Dist. Judge Leon Jordan (Reagan) presided over the case [U.S.A.O., E.D.Tenn.]
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ELECTRICAL WORKERS (IBEW)
16 New York Racetrack Tellers Plead Guilty to Tax Fraud
Sixteen N.Y. racetrack tellers pled guilty to stealing bettors' money
for their personal use, then laundering that money through false tax returns,
US Dist. Attny Alan Vinegrad announced on June 25. Three of the pleas
were new, while 13 defendants pled guilty last year, but were unsealed
along with the three new confessions. One of those who pled earlier
is Robert E. Lodati, president of the the betting clerks' union, Div. of
Mutual Employees, which is a unit of the Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers Local
3 in Queens.
In the scheme, the tellers pocketed bettors' wagers, compensated the racing assn when their cash drawers came up "short," then claimed those payments as "unreimbursed employee expenses," on their federal tax returns. By laundering the bettors' case this way, the tellers lowered their taxable income without lowering their actual income. They face a maximum sentence of three years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and payment of back taxes, interest and penalties. Donald Patterson is scheduled to be sentenced by US Dist Judge Arthur D. Spatt (E.D.N.Y., Bush #1) on October 4, Gary Klis and Charles Bonanno a week later.
Union president Lodati has not yet received
a sentencing date for the tax exasion. But he and three others are
due to be sentenced in mid-August for seperate NY charges of laundering
$300,000, by exchanging small bills for large ones, over six months
for state police investigators posing as drug dealers, in transactions
that were recorded on videotape and audiotape. The clerks allegedly pocketed
a cut of 5% to 10% every time they made the swaps. Law enforcement said
the sting operation began after they learned that tellers were laundering
money for a gang acting as a front for the Gambino crime family. [U.S.A.O.,
E.D.N.Y., Times Union (Albany, NY) 7/2/02]
LABOR LAW REFORM/NEA
Union-Abused Teachers Testify At Congressional Hearings
Two Ohio teachers at the center of a national religious discrimination
case involving the National Education Association (NEA) teacher union testified
before the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and
Workforce Committee regarding the need to end forced unionism.
"The teachers' testimony exposed the harassment that many employees face every day when laboring under compulsory unionism," said Mark Mix, Executive Vice President of the National Right to Work Committee. "The only way to help workers suffering under compulsory unionism is to make union membership 100 percent voluntary."
The Subcommittee hearings come on the heels of a nationally publicized determination by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that the NEA union is systematically discriminating against religious objectors by stonewalling objections. The teacher union forces objectors to undergo extensive interrogation on an annual basis before honoring their right to divert dues away from union officials on the basis of their religious beliefs.
Dennis Robey, an Ohio teacher, brought charges against the NEA and its local affiliates after they refused to honor his religious objection to supporting the union because it promotes pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality positions and constantly attempts to interfere with parental rights.
Kathleen Klamut, a practicing Christian, objects to having her money used to support the union's pro-abortion agenda. Last Fall, when she began working as a psychologist in the Ravenna City Schools, Klamut asked to have her dues re-directed to charity ? her right under the law. When the NEA's local affiliate refused to accommodate her, Klamut contacted the National Right to Work Foundation and filed charges with the EEOC against the teacher union. Since then Klamut has been informed that the union hierarchy is planning to take legal action against her.
"Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. Employees across the country, regardless of their faith, are being shaken down to pay for this radical agenda," stated Mix. "If Congress wants to solve this problem, they must pass legislation that ends compulsory unionism."
Congress has a bill before it, the National Right to Work Act (H.R. 1109), that would eliminate the federal authorization for forced union dues affecting 7.8 million workers across the country. The National Right to Work Act enjoys support from nearly 80 percent of the American public and a majority of the members of the full House Education and Workforce Committee chaired by Congressman John Boehner. At the moment, Chairman Boehner has yet to schedule a hearing or a vote on the bill. [NRTWC, 6/26/02]
PLUMBERS (UA)
Minneapolis Boss' Brother Admits $9,100 Theft
Joseph W. Martin, who with his union-boss brother and Minneapolis
City Council Member Joe Biernat (DFL) was charged with corruption,
pled guilty June 21 to federal charges of aiding and abetting the theft
of $9,177 from union coffers. He is the first in the scandal to plead guilty.
Martin confessed to using union funds from the United
Assn. of Plumbers & Pipe Fitters Local 15 for plumbing work in
his own home. His attorney, Gerald Yost, reported that Martin claims his
brother, Thomas J. Martin, Local 15 business manager, assured him the transaction
was all right.
U.S. Dist. Judge Ann D. Montgomery (D. Minn., Clinton) has not set a date for Joseph Martin's sentencing. That's probably because he agreed to testify against his brother and Biernat at their trials, which were scheduled for July 1 but are expected to be held at a later date. Biernat is accused of receiving $2,700 in free plumbing work at the same time he and council colleagues were considering the appointment of Thomas Martin to the city board that licenses plumbers. Thomas Martin is accused of embezzling some $43,300 from the local. [Star-Trib. (Minneapolis) 6/22/02]
STEELWORKERS (USWA)
La. Local Accuses Boss of Credit Card Misuse
United Steelworkers of Am. Local 8363 in Chlamette, La., found May
22 that its ex-president, Earl Dauterive III, misused the local's credit
card on some 61 occasions. Dauterive now serves as a public official: chairman
of the St. Bernard Parish Planning Comm'n. Local 8363 also alleges 18 instances
of "double-dipping" on money in which Dauterive was improperly paid salary
by both his employer, Murphy Oil, and the union for union activities. The
Dept. of Labor has obtained records from the local and is reportedly investigating
the case, Thibodeaux said. No criminal charges have been filed yet.
Dauterive, who resigned his union presidency prior to a union trial committee finding, has repaid $1,913 of the money the union claims he owed, according to Joe Thibodeaux, local vice president and chairman of the union trial committee. He said the union is accepting the money only as a partial payment. Allegedly, Dauterive owed about $4,700 in restitution.
Dauterive chose not to challenge the trial committee on the allegations reportedly on the advice of his attorney but has the right to appeal. Thibodeaux and president Keith Robin refused to elaborate on how Dauterive misused credit cards. Francis Melancon, USWA Dist. 9 subdistrict director, covering La. and Miss., said his group will seek full restitution of money it considers owed by Dauterive.
St. Bernard Parish president Charles Ponstein doesn't intend to ask Dauterive to resign his parish position pending further developments. "I've never seen anything official" on the Dauterive matter, Ponstein said, saying he doubted Dauterive would be removed from the parish board because of an investigation involving something not connected to parish government unless criminal charges resulted. [Times-Picayune (New Orleans) 6/22/02]
GOVT. WORKERS (AFSCME)
Is Dist. Council 37 Back to Old Ways?
As NYC prepares for negotiations with its unions, the bosses of the
largest one are honing their bargaining skills -- in Las Vegas.
District Council 37 is paying the freight for nearly 400 of its members to the sun-drenched gaming mecca for the convention of its parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The trip comes six months after the Intl. ended its three-year trusteeship of DC 37. The NYC local was rocked by a scandal in which more than 20 officials were convicted of embezzlement and other crimes. The presidents of two of the council's 56 locals were convicted of stealing more than $1 million. Several council officials were also convicted of stuffing ballot boxes in 1996 to ensure approval of an unpopular contract.
Oliver Gray, Assoc. Dir. of DC 37, insisted that contrary to reports by other union members, the Local was not paying hundreds of dollars per room, but had negotiated a rate of $119 a night per room. Gray also claimed that the week long Las Vegas meeting is essential to union business, in part because the union locals had to discuss how to manage in tough economic times.
The Intl. union concedes that the convention will not be all business though. It has advised union members that they can get a variety of discounts though the union, including tours of Red Rock Canyon and the Hoover Dam, shopping trips, and a visit to the Liberace Museum. [Newsday 6/28/02]
GOVT. WORKERS (San Diego Municipal Employees Assn.)
SD Union Illegally Withheld Benefits from Non-Member Employees
Responding to charges filed by an employee of the City of San Diego,
the California Public Employment Relations Board (CPERB) has decided to
prosecute the San Diego Municipal Employees' Association (MEA) union for
overtly discriminating against non-union members.
Enjoying free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Tanya DuLaney filed charges after the MEA union decided to withhold dental coverage from all non-union members. MEA's actions are in violation of several California statutes that are intended to protect an employee's right to abstain from membership and that require union officials to fairly represent an employee.
The scheme was designed to pressure employees into signing up as formal union members, thereby causing them to give up certain rights, including the ability to refrain from funding union political activities. "The union's practice of cutting deals with the city that intentionally hang some workers out to dry is deplorable," said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "As long as union bosses are given a monopoly on representing employees in the workplace, they will continue to operate with little accountability."
As part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the union and the city, union officials tried to withhold benefits, such as dental coverage, from all non-member employees.
With the support of Governor Gray Davis over the past four years, government
union officials have seized control over much of California's economy and
workers. For example, Davis signed a law that requires all California State
University (CSU) professors to pay union dues unless they are members of
a state-approved religion. Under this law, state and union officials can
exercise the power to pass judgment on the acceptability of the religious
beliefs of CSU employees. [NRTWLDF 6/24/02]
SERVICE EMPLOYEES (SEIU)
Is SEIU Local in NYC Creeping Back to Corrupt Ways?
Nearly three years after the ouster of free-spending patriarch Gus
Bevona, Local 32B-32J of the Service Employees Intl. Union, which represents
doormen and other building workers in NYC, is once again in turmoil.
On Apr. 26, local SEIU delegate Ismat Kukic was indicted, along with 40+ members of NY crime families, for attempting to bribe union officials to replace union workers with non-union workers in a Brooklyn housing complex. What union dissidents want to know is: How did 32B-32J President Mike Fishman allow Kukic, whose normal union jurisdiction was in Manhattan, into 32B-32J's Brooklyn jurisdiction? "Good question," Fishman told Newsday, insisting that he is "fully cooperating with the federal authorities."
First appointed to run 32B-32J after Bevona was kicked out, Fishman was elected in 2000, even as Carlos Guzman, whose civil lawsuit exposed Bevona's corruption and brought about his ouster, accused Intl. President Andrew Stern and others of twisting the election in Fishman’s favor. Now, dissident Dominick Bentivegna has sued Fishman, charging that he improperly fired him from his union supervisor’s job after Bentivegna declared his candidacy for the local presidency. The dissidents also accuse Fishman of clamping down on dissent by cutting off speakers at union meetings. Fishman admits imposing a half-hour limit for comments at a recent meeting "because we had to give the room up and the union members had to get back to work." [Newsday (NYC) 6/23/02]
Union Corruption Update is made possible by the generous contributions from readers like you. NLPC, PO Box 6821, Falls Church, VA 22040. Thank you. Union Corruption Update is part of NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project which is investigating and exposing corruption 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.
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. All back issues of the Union
Corruption Update can be viewed at NLPC's website (http://www.nlpc.org).
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Thank you.
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