National Legal and Policy Center
Organized Labor Accountability Project
www.nlpc.org
 The Failure of the LIUNA “Internal Reform Effort”
1. INTRODUCTION
1.2 Operating Agreement and Impending Consent Decree
On February 15, 1995 LIUNA and DOJ entered into the controversial Operating Agreement.  This Agreement was unprecedented because it allowed the corrupt union not only to escape the draft RICO complaint, but it also allowed LIUNA to avert a “government takeover.”  Unlike DOJ’s reform efforts with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1989, no court-approved Consent Decree was imposed on LIUNA.  Rather than DOJ and a U.S. District Court “cleaning up” the union, LIUNA would clean up itself. Thus, the LIUNA “internal reform effort” was created.

This “sweetheart deal” required LIUNA to establish the infrastructure of an “internal reform effort” for the purpose of “investigating and disciplining individuals within any entity of LIUNA for wrongful association with, or corruption by, members of organized crime, as well as instituting other reforms.”

The one sliver of power the Agreement gave to DOJ was LIUNA’s unconditional consent to a “government takeover” for any reason.  Specifically, if “the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division [James K. Robinson] determines, in [his] sole discretion, that...[it] is necessary and desirable,” he may impose a previously agreed upon Consent Decree.  Thus, for any reason, DOJ could impose the Consent Decree without further court or union approval.  The impending Consent Decree would effectively end the current “internal reform effort” by placing court-appointed officials in charge of investigations, elections and hearings.  Although the “internal reform effort” mimics many of the Consent Decree’s measures, the overriding difference is that the Consent Decree would be backed with the power and integrity of a U.S. District Court and federal law enforcement agencies; whereas, the “internal reform effort” relies on the good-faith efforts of its officers and LIUNA’s General Executive Board (GEB) led by Coia.
 

Return to the index of this report.

Organized Labor Accountability Project