National Legal and Policy Center -- Organized Labor Accountability Project
 
UNION CORRUPTION UPDATE
 
December 9, 2002 -- Vol. 5, Issue 25

For Influential Leaders & Important Decision Makers:
Information on America's most corrupt & aggressive unions

 
TEACHERS
DC Teachers Over-Charged more than $700K
Nearly 5,000 Washington, D.C. teachers were charged nine times their regular dues this summer. That discovery in Oct. has led to the resignations of several local officials and an investigation by the the U.S. Attny in D.C. But as reports of other financial improprieties have arisen from an audit by the Amer. Fedn. of Teachers (AFT), questions have also arisen as to why the AFT did nothing for five years after the Wash. Teachers Union (WTU) failed to submit a local audit as required under AFT rules.

After WTU president Barbara Bullock resigned, interim president Esther Hankerson urged members, in an Oct. 28 letter, not to talk to news media about the union's financial problems but to direct inquiries to her. But Hankerson has not returned more than a dozen phone calls by local reporters, and a person who answered Hankerson's cell phone claimed the reporter had the wrong number.

The dues over-charge came after the union gained a new contract containing a retroactive pay raise. Local officials assessed each teacher a retroactive dues increase of $16. But when the dues were deducted from teachers' paychecks, $160 was taken. WTU officials admit that between 5,000 and 5,500 people were hit with the excessive deduction, adding up to a windfall for the union of $720,000 to $792,000. Teachers then complained to the AFT, which is supposed to receive an audit from its local affiliates every two years. The last WTU audit was in 1995. Spurred by the teachers' complaints, the AFT Exec. Bd. began an investigation that led to its asking for the resignations of Bullock, Treasurer James Baxter, and Bullock's chief asst. Gwen Hemphill. It is unclear if Baxter and Hemphill have resigned.

Meanwhile, only a third of the teachers have been reimbursed so far, and several teachers complain that the union has applied the over-charge to future dues payments, rather than repaying it outright. [Washington Post 11/23, 2002]

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).  Also available is a union-by-union and state-by-state index of all Union Corruption Update articles. If you have story ideas or suggestions for future editions of Union Corruption Update, please email NLPC at nlpc@nlpc.org.  Thank you.
 
Looking for a LM-2, LM-3, or LM-4 Annual Financial Report from the Department of Labor? Visit http://www.dol-union-reports.gov.

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