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

 
PLUMBERS & PIPEFITTERS (UA)
Minn. Bus. Mgr. Implicates 2nd Elected Official in Misuse of Union Funds
Thomas J. Martin pled guilty on Nov. 25 to misusing union funds just four days after City Councilman Joseph Biernat was convicted of accepting $2,700 in free plumbing work from Martin's union, Local 15 of the United Assn. of Plumbers & Pipefitters. As he pled guilty, Martin revealed that he had also used $3,175 in union funds to pay for plumbing at a second elected official's home in 1998. He did not reveal the identity of the official in the U.S. Dist. Ct. for Minn., but an attny. for ex-county commissioner Mark Andrew confirmed that FBI agents had questioned the frmr. state head of the Dem. Farmer-Labor party about plumbing work done at his home in May 1998.

In his plea, Martin admitted stealing from the union's Industry Advance Fund to pay for Biernat's plumbing. In exchange for his guilty plea to the two counts of misusing union funds, fed. prosecutors have apparently agreed to drop charges that Martin stole about $37,000 from the union of which he once served as Bus. Mgr. U.S. Dist. Judge Ann Montgomery (U.S.D.C. MN, Clinton) ordered a pre-sentence investigation but set no sentencing date. [Minneapolis Star Tribune
11/26/02, 11/27]

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.
 
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