When contractors shortchange union benefit funds, it often involves help from at least someone up the union hierarchy. Gerardo and Vincent Fusella, Jr., owner-operators of a New Jersey-based trucking company, appear a classic case of paying a union boss to look the other way. On December 22, the two brothers were charged in Brooklyn, N.Y. federal court with various crimes, including embezzlement, mail fraud and tax evasion, after being indicted by a grand jury the previous day. The 31-count indictment accuses the pair, among other things, of withholding wages and benefits to members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 282 and of embezzling from the union's benefit funds. The total take is estimated at more than $1 million. Neither defendant yet has filed a plea.
On April 24, Salvador Carney, a former employee at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was indicted in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on 16 counts of embezzlement from the union totaling $7,258.92. The charges follow a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
On March 21, John Gianonne, former vice president International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 706, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to three months of home confinement and one year of probation for embezzling $11,900 in funds from the Chicago union. Gianonne, who already has made restitution, also must pay a $100 special assessment. He pled guilty last December after being charged in November. The actions follow a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
Kevin Clor's intentions may have been good, but members of the union he represented might not be impressed. Clor, formerly general counsel for New York State Thruway Employees Local 72, 
On November 1, John Gianonne, former vice president of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 706 in Chicago, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois with an information count for embezzlement of $11,900 in union funds. The charge follows an investigation of the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
There are few things quite like a mass arrest to serve as a reminder of the Mafia's continuing presence in American life. 
New York City residents finally are digging out of a devastating post-Christmas blizzard, aided by unexpectedly warmer weather. But a growing number are sounding as if they want to use their shovels against union snowplow workers and their supervisors. Various news outlets have reported that leaders of the Service Employees-affiliated Sanitation Officers Association ordered their Teamsters-affiliated work crews to slack off as a protest against recent City Department of Sanitation budget cuts and demotions. The apparent work slowdown not only paralyzed traffic, but also led to two deaths and any number of commuters trapped overnight in subway cars. On the hot seat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has demanded, and is getting, a full investigation. Union leaders deny culpability, insisting fiscal austerity had reduced manpower. But evidence appears to undercut such claims.
