Danny Douglas and Jay Campbell, have been sentenced to 18 months and 12 months plus one day, respectively, after being convicted of extortion. It seems the two former United Auto Workers bosses agreed to end an 87-day strike at a GM plant in Pontiac, MI back in 1997 – but only after General Motors agreed to hire Campbell’s son and the son of another UAW official for high-paying jobs they were evidently not qualified for.
Federal law enforcement officials have issued subpoenas and opened a criminal investigation to determine how union officials were able to work one day as a substitute teacher yet be eligible for $100,000 pension plan — for life.
From the Chicago Tribune:
Federal authorities have begun a criminal investigation into how nearly a dozen union officials became eligible for inflated city pensions, according to subpoenas obtained by the Tribune and WGN-TV through an open-records request.
The Chicago municipal employees and laborers pension funds each received subpoenas from a federal grand jury in October seeking “records pursuant to an official criminal investigation.” The request seeks documentation on 11 labor leaders who appeared in reports from a joint Tribune/WGN-TV investigation.
The reports focused on a 1991 law that allowed union leaders who once worked for the city to receive credit in public pension plans for their private union work. When they retire, the union officials’ pensions aren’t based on their old city paychecks but on their much higher union salaries.
That opened the door for them to land public pensions that far exceeded their pay as city employees — even as they continued to earn lucrative salaries from their unions.
At least eight union officials named in the subpoena who either receive city pensions or are eligible for them also earned credit in union pension funds for the same period of work, despite a state law that was supposed to prevent that. The joint investigation found that some of those labor leaders were participating in up to three pension funds at the same time, accruing retirement benefits that reached as high $500,000 a year. (more…)
Hot Air with a hot story about potential union corruption:
We should send out another big tip of the hat to Mark Flatten at the Goldwater Institute for yet another piece of investigative journalism where he discovers some of the rather shocking collisions which take place at the intersection of public employee unions and taxpayer dollars. (A pause here, while I realize that it’s probably no longer shocking at this point.) This incident takes place in Phoenix, Arizona at the offices of AFSCME Local 2960, where one of their trustees – charged with monitoring the prudent spending of union funds – apparently exercised the poor judgement to ask if she should be auditing where some of that money goes, specifically in the handling of a large insurance fund.
Natasha Nimer had a simple question: As a trustee in a local labor union representing City of Phoenix employees, did she have a duty to check the books of a taxpayer-funded insurance account it managed?
So she asked the executive board of AFSCME Local 2960. The response was an emphatic “no.”
She dropped the matter and thought it would end there.
She was wrong.
In the months that followed, union officials tried to strip Nimer of her duties as a trustee and steward. They tried twice to force her out of AFSCME, only to have the international headquarters order her reinstated. (more…)
From the US DOL we find that union corruption and criminal behavior continues. Here are some highlights from October:
The full list from DOL:
On October 19, 2011, in the United States District Court of Massachusetts, Joseph Pavone, former President of Laborers Local 560 (located in Waltham, Mass.), pled guilty to three counts of receiving unlawful labor payments in the amount of $6,466.80, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 186(b)(1) and (d)(2). The guilty plea follows an investigation by the OLMS Boston District Office and the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General.
On October 17, 2011, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Freda Hensley, former President of Steelworkers Local 8-14505 (located in West Logan, W.Va.), pled guilty to a one count indictment of 29 U.S.C. 501(c) for embezzling $38,539.68 in union funds. The plea follows an investigation by the OLMS Pittsburgh District Office.
On October 14, 2011, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Dennis Lee McGee, Jr., former President of Steelworkers Local 9-9506 (located in Bynum, Ala.), pled guilty to three counts of 29 U.S.C. 501(c) for embezzling union funds totaling $1,950. McGee was then sentenced to three years probation and was ordered to pay $7,600 in restitution and a $300 special assessment. The guilty plea and sentencing follow an investigation by the OLMS Nashville District Office.
On October 14, 2011, in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, Thomas Wagner, former Financial Secretary of Steelworkers Local 897 (located in Cheektowaga, N.Y.), was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and was ordered to make restitution of $5,526. On June 26, 2011, Wagner pled guilty to falsifying union records. The sentencing follows an investigation by the OLMS Buffalo District Office.
On October 13, 2011, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, a criminal information was filed charging Patricia Moore, former employee and Secretary-Treasurer of the National Union of Protective Services Associations (NUPSA), located in Washington, D.C., with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for obtaining $109,866.17 from NUPSA and the National Union of Law Enforcement Associations (NULEA) for her personal use, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 371. The charge follows an investigation by the OLMS Washington District Office, the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General, and the Employee Benefits Security Administration.
On October 13, 2011, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Max Messamore, former President of National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 2039 (located in Somerset, Ky.), was sentenced to two years probation, fined $500, and was ordered to make restitution in the amount of $2,293.77. He was also ordered to pay a special assessment of $25. On May 19, 2011, Messamore pled guilty to failing to maintain union records, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 439(a). The sentencing follows an investigation by the OLMS Cincinnati District Office.
On October 12, 2011, in the County of Westmoreland in the state of Pennsylvania, Lesa Major, former Secretary-Treasurer of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 14821 (located in Monessen, Pa.), was sentenced for Theft by Unlawful Taking which had been reduced to a misdemeanor at sentencing. Major paid restitution of $2,500 prior to sentencing and as stated in the plea agreement, probation was terminated when restitution was paid. The sentencing follows an investigation by the OLMS Pittsburgh District Office.
On October 11, 2011, in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, Nichelle Alstatt, former Secretary-Treasurer of the Professional Office Personnel Alliance (POPA), located in Las Vegas, Nev., was sentenced to five years probation, with a series of special conditions which included the successful completion of substance abuse and mental health treatment and the completion of 40 hours of community service. Alstatt was also ordered to pay $51,613.37 in restitution through a garnishment of her wages and a lump sum court assessment of $150. On June 8, 2011, Alstatt pled guilty to one count of embezzlement in the amount of $51,636.37, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 501(c); one count of making false entries in required records, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 439(c); and one count of making false entries in reports required to be filed under the LMRDA, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 439(b). The sentencing follows an investigation by the OLMS Los Angeles District Office. (more…)
Workers in the grocery stores in New York City and surrounding areas are forced to pay union dues and fees to keep their jobs. It appears this revenue is not enough for the union officials who enjoy the privilege.
From the Epoch Times:
Police arrested the president, former president, and treasurer of Local 348 United Food andCommercial Workers International Union (UFCW) on Thursday. Anthony Fazio Sr., John Fazio Jr., and Anthony Fazio Jr. were charged with racketeering, extortion, money laundering, and witness tampering.
The Fazios used their positions in the union to extort money from employers unionized by the UFCW. They stole more than $2.4 million from union members and employers over the course of 16 years, according to the indictment.
Each leader earned more than $150,000 in annual salary. The UFCW represents more than 6,000 members. It hold close to $7.4 million in assets [source: US DOL LM. The Local 348 office was closed during business hours and could not be reached for comment.
The Longshoremen’s union (ILA) continues to be on the Big Labor bad-boy list at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Inspector General’s union racketeering division. While a union officer, Frank Rago, who was president of Local 1604 and an ILA international representative, “made unlawful payments and falsified documents.” More from the Stoneham Patch:
A Stoneham man and former International Representative of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on charges that he made unlawful payments and falsified documents Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press statement.
At Monday’s sentencing, the court dismissed a second conviction of unlawful labor payments, the statement reads. Rago was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $216,384 in restitution and $10,000 forfeiture.
Upon being appointed as an ILA representative, Rago secured a no-show job with the employer of Local 1604 members so that he could continue making his prior linehandler’s salary without performing any work, the statement reads. Rago directed that his salary would be financed from deductions from the contractual wage earnings of the Local 1604 members.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Mark Neylon, District Director, Boston District Office for the United States Department of Labor – Office of Labor Management Standards; and Robert Panella, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General – Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations for the United States Department of Labor; made the announcement Monday.
From a 2008 DOL report that the Obama DOL has discontinued providing:
On September 15, 2008, in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Frank Rago, President of International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1604 (located in Boston, Mass.) was indicted with failure to maintain records and making false entries in union and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) records. The indictment follows an investigation by the OLMS Boston District Office.
Big Labor history of forced unionism abuses from Robert F. Kennedy’s The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee’s Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa And Corrupt Labor Unions:
By August of 1958, the McClellan Committee had uncovered a mass of crookedness and wrongdoing in the Teamsters. There were demands that Hoffa take steps to clean up his union. However, I was convinced by this time that he was completely incapable of doing the job-had he cared to. He was dependent on the racketeers and ex-convicts with whom he had surrounded the Barney Bakers. So when in August of 1958 Hoffa announced that he was appointing a special committee to investigate corruption in his union, I was suspicious.
And when I heard that George Bender was to be the chairman of the committee I was flabbergasted. Although at that point we had not made it public, we had learned not only from Jim Luken but from a friendly source within the Teamsters that the Hoffa-Bender relationship was an intimate one dating back to the 1954 Bender investigation.
(The Committee had found that approximately $109,000-at least $30,000 in cash-went through George Bender’s campaign committee bank accounts following that 1954 election. The money was never reported to state authorities-though there may be some question if it is necessary to report campaign funds received after an election is over and won.) (more…)
Big Labor history from Robert F. Kennedy’s The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee’s Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa And Corrupt Labor Unions:
As I was going out the door, Hoffa said: “Tell your wife I’m not as bad as everyone thinks I am.” I laughed. Jimmy Hoffa had a sense of humor. He must have laughed himself as he said it. In view of all I already knew, I felt that he was worse than anybody said he was.
In the next two and a half years, nothing happened to change my opinion. On my way home I thought of how often Hoffa had said he was tough; that he destroyed employers, hated policemen and broke those who stood in his way.
It had always been my feeling that if a person was truly tough; if he actually had strength and power; if he really had the ability to excel, he need not brag and boast of it to prove it. (more…)