To be euphemistic about it, Local 45 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Ironworkers (IAIW) has seen better days. For that matter, so has Laborers International Union of North America Local 592. On November 22, federal law enforcement agents arrested James Kearney Sr., until recently business manager for the Jersey City, N.J. union, for soliciting and receiving cash bribes to allow contractors to hire nonunion workers. Kearney's son, James Kearney Jr., a former Local 45 secretary-treasurer, pleaded guilty the previous week in federal court in an unrelated case to embezzling more than $560,000 from the union. During that timeline, the international union reportedly placed the local under trustee supervision. In a separate case, the feds on November 22 arrested Patrick Viola, ex-business manager for LIUNA Local 592 in Edgewater, N.J.
On October 3, Christy Riggs, former office secretary for International Association of Iron Workers Local 70, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky to five years probation and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $13,937.80 plus a $25 special assessment. She had pleaded guilty back in June to falsifying union records in connection with her theft of about $18,000 from the Louisville union after being charged in May. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On May 13, Heather Hill, former office secretary for International Association of Iron Workers Local 321, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas to three years probation for embezzling from employee benefit plans. She also was ordered to make restitution in the amount of $59,142.12 and pay a $100 special assessment. Hill pled guilty in January. The sentencing follows a joint probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards and Employee Benefits Security Administration.
A shady past can come back to haunt someone, especially when that person is looking for a job. That's especially true in the public sector, which in most circumstances bars convicted felons from obtaining high-level employment. 
