National Legal and Policy
Center -- Organized Labor Accountability Project
UNION
CORRUPTION UPDATE
June 9, 2003 -- Vol.
6, Issue 12
For Influential Leaders
& Important Decision Makers:
Information on America's
most corrupt & aggressive unions
STAGE EMPLOYEES (IATSE)
Battle Continues over Reform of Buffalo Stage Union
Trustee John Scardino says that his work is done reforming Local 10
of the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees in Buffalo, NY,
with a faction of part-time workers gaining more freedom to participate
in the union. But the frmr. president, who was suspended by IATSE
officials in NYC, is promising to "take other steps" by going to court.
Not long after the settlement of unfair labor practice charges at the
Natl. Labor Relations Bd. (NLRB) in his favor, the windows of dissident
Bruce Beyer's carpentry shop -- where he and his family live on the 2nd
floor -- were riddled by someone firing a pellet gun. He prefers to
consider it a prank, although none of his neighbor's windows were hit, and
fellow dissident Vince Poloncarz received similar treatment recently.
In 1999, Beyer and other stage workers complained to IATSE's NYC headquarters
that the Local 10 hierarchy was freezing part-time stagehands out of union
membership by, among other things, charging a $3,000 initiation fee.
Without the membership, the part-timers were effectively excluded from referrals
for jobs at Buffalo stages. By passing on their privileges to their
children, the local insiders ran the union like a family-controlled business,
according to critics.
In '99, NYC officials ordered the Buffalo hierarchy to adopt an unbiased
"call list." Finally, last August, Scardino was installed as trustee
to carry out the reforms. Last month, he helped end the NLRB case
with a deal in which the local union will pay $25,000 to 15 workers.
Opposing the settlement is frmr. Local 10 president Randall Krautsack, who
claims that the old referral system rewarded experience, and that the new
system refers workers to various workers regardless of their skill level,
"a dangerous practice." Krautsack indicated that he may take further
legal action now that the NLRB case is finished. "In a real court, I
think the outcome would be very different," he said. [Buffalo News, 5/25/03]
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Update, readers can look forward to news and information on
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