Ronald and Anita Witt enjoyed the good life, especially luxury cars and trips to Hawaii. They're now facing a potential trip to prison. On Friday, July 8, Mr. and Mrs. Witt, respectively, business manager and financial secretary of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 450, were arrested by U.S. Marshals and charged in Houston federal court that day with embezzling more than $150,000 from the union's general fund and job training benefit plan, and forging records to conceal the thefts. The couple also faces a civil suit filed by the Houston-based local on April 21 alleging "$750,000 in unlawful expenditures." Ronald Witt denies all criminal and civil allegations, claiming he has receipts that will exonerate him and his wife.
Labor unions in this country for nearly four decades have operated with a grant of near-immunity from the consequences of intimidating employers and non-joining workers or destroying their property. An ongoing federal racketeering and extortion case against upstate New York's International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17 is underscoring how readily union attorneys rationalize their clients' "right" to terrorize. The case has taken on an added significance in light of legislation recently introduced to close this loophole, a product of a misguided Supreme Court ruling. Even more noteworthy, one of the attorneys for the local is a former law partner of Mark Pearce, the latter recently becoming chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It's a small world.
Running a buffalo farm in Maryland might not seem to have much in common with running one of the Chicago area's largest unions. But William E. "Bill" Dugan did both. And it was the overlap of those worlds that explains his predicament. Dugan, the retired president and business manager of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, 
Dennis Giblin at least can be glad that theft of services doesn't run in the family. It's unlikely he would have gotten his job with International Union of Operating Engineers Local 68 otherwise. On Monday, August 9, Giblin, former president of the local and scion of a powerful New Jersey union and political family, 
On May 27, Cheryl Staley, former dues clerk of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 501, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada to embezzling funds from the union in the amount of $231,653.89 and falsifying records. The union is based in Los Angeles, but maintains an office in Las Vegas where Staley had worked. The guilty plea follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.
On March 22, Bill Dugan, former president of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, pleaded guilty to one count of receiving concrete feeds from an employer whose employees the 22,000-member Countryside, Ill.-based union represents. He had been charged with a misdemeanor on March 10. Back in 2007, though re-elected for an eighth term, Dugan was sued by dissenting union members for allegedly accepting monthly kickbacks of $100. The guilty plea follows a joint investigation by the Department of Labor and the FBI.
Crime hoaxes are a fact of American life - think only of the 
AFC Enterprises, Inc. had a lot of construction contracts with the City of New York over the years. Little did anyone know that company management was taking people to the cleaners - or that they'd gotten help from two union locals. In the end, crime didn't pay. On July 14, 
It's no secret that many union-sponsored pension plans lack the assets needed to cover liabilities. And a major reason for this lies with the gullibility, and on due occasion dishonesty, of their fiduciaries. Major case in point: the theft of tens of millions of dollars from six union pension plans entrusted to Chicago-based equity fund manager 
